Latino Equality

1
Latino Equality

• Just as we have looked at the African-American
  and Native American fight for equality so to did
  the Latino population in the US
• They were fighting for greater representation in
  government better treatment and a respect for
  their culture and heritage.
• Many Latinos upon moving into the US worked on
  fruit and vegetable farms doing backbreaking work.

2
OFWOC

• Two individuals stepped forward to fight for
  rights for these workers César Chávez and
  Dolores Huerta.
• Together they established the National Farm
  Workers Association
• Four years later the NFWA merged with a Filipino
  group and were renamed the United Farm Workers
  Organizing Committee (UFWOC)

3
UFWOC

• Chávez and others insisted that the farms accept
  the union as the bargaining agent for the farm
  workers.
• Upon the refusal to accept the union (1965),
  Chávez led the people in a boycott the grapes
  grown at the farms.
• There were many supermarkets and shoppers who
  heeded the boycott. (Mrs. Craig-Salmon remembers
  the boycott.)

4
UFWOC

• Chávez Believed in Dr. Kings nonviolence
  concept.
• During the boycott, Chávez also went on a hunger
  strike for 3 weeks where he lost 35 pounds.
• In 1970, Huerta negotiated a contract between the
  grape growers and the UFWOC
• Union workers gained higher wages and other
  benefits long denied them

5
UFWOC

• The UFWOC victory inspired others to get involved
  around the country
• Puerto Ricans in New York demanded that schools
  offer Spanish speaking children classes taught in
  Spanish and that the curriculum should include
  culture
• 1968 Bilingual Education Act provided funds for
  schools to offer bilingual and cultural heritage
  programs for non-English speakers

6
Chicano and Brown Power

• Chicanos (Mexicanos) is a term to describe
  Mexican-Americans which expressed pride in their
  ethnic heritage
• 1968 David Sanchez forms a group called the
  Brown Berets, a community action group
• The Brown Berets organized walkouts at East LA
  high schools demanding smaller class sizes more
  Chicano teachers and administrators and programs
  designed to reduce the Latino dropout rate
• At colleges and universities more militant
  Mexican-American students won the establishment
  of Chicano studies programs

7
political power

• Many Latinos also organized politically by
  forming some groups to work in the two party
  system
• Mexican American Political Association (MAPA)
• Helped LA politician Edward Roybel to the House
• In the 1960s 8 Hispanic Americans served in the
  House, and one served in the Senate (Joseph
  Montoya of New Mexico)

8
political power

• The League of United Latin American Citizens
  (LULAC)
• Formed in 1929 to fight segregation and
  discrimination
• In the 1940s and 50s fought to desegregate
  schools in the southwest
• 1954 helped Mexican-Americans gain right to
  serve on juries
• 1960s some LULAC programs were funded under
  LBJs Great Society

9
political power

• La Raza Unida (Mexican-Americans United)
• 1970 created to make an independent Latino
  political movement
• Some groups became more militant
• 1963 Alianza Federal de Mercedes (Federal
  Alliance of Land Grants) was formed to help
  reclaim US land taken from Mexican landholders in
  the 19th century
• Formed by one-time evangelical preacher Reies
  Tijerina

10
Chicano! PBS Documentary

• The Struggle in the Fields
• Take notes on the social, economic, and political
  hardships experienced by Latinos.