Special Section Chicano Movement

Timeline: Movimiento from 1960-1985

 [Timeline] [Video Oral Histories]  [Photos]  [Documents]  [Newspaper Coverage] [Slide Show]

   by Oscar Rosales Castaņeda

Year Local    National
1962     United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, led by Cesar Chavez is initiated as an independent organization in Delano, California.
       
1963     The Political Association of Spanish-speaking Organizations (PASO) unites to take over the city council for 2 years in Crystal City, Texas.
       
       
      Oct. 8, 1963: La Alianza Federal de los Mercedes is incorporated by Reies Lopez Tijerina in New Mexico.
       
1964     President Lyndon B. Johnson declares the 'War on Poverty' and proposes the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, which lays the ground for projects through the Office of Economic Opportunity.
       
1965 The Yakima Valley Council for Community Action(YVCCA) is organized to coordinate the War on Poverty efforts in the Valley.   Late Nov.-Dec. 1965: The United Farm Workers Organizing Committee initiates a national table grape boycott.
       
       
1966 Two students from Yakima Valley College, Tomas Villanueva and Guadalupe Gamboa travel to California to  meet Cesar Chavez. The meeting serves to spawn organizational efforts to unionize farm workers in Central Washington.   Rodolfo Acuņa starts teaching the first Mexican American history class in Los Angeles, California.
       
      Mar. 17-Apr. 11, 1966: Cesar Chavez and the National Farm Workers Association march from Delano to the California state Capitol in Sacramento.
       
      Apr. 29, 1966: Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzalez is fired from the Neighborhood Youth Corps Directorship. Soon after, he founds the Crusade for Justice in Denver, Colorado.
       
      May, 1966: High school students in East Los Angeles form the Young Citizens for Community Action(YCCA).
       
      Oct. 15, 1966: Tijerina and 350 members of La Alianza occupy Kit Carson National Forest Camp Echo Amphitheatre on behalf of the "Pueblo de San Joaquin de Chama," in New Mexico.
       
       
1967 The Cursillo Movement within the Catholic Church emerges in the Yakima Valley. The purpose is to engage in social action and encourage participation in church life.   The Mexican American Youth Organization(MAYO) is formed on college campuses in Texas after the first chapter is born at St. Mary's College in San Antonio.
       
  1967: Tomas Villanueva co-founds the United Farm worker Co-operative in Toppenish Washington. The Co-op would serve as a place for organizing and as a cultural center. The UFW Co-op is credited as being the first Activist Chicano organization in the State of Washington.   Mar. 13, 1967: 250 students representing seven Los Angeles colleges and universities meet to form the United Mexican American Students(UMAS).
       
  1967: The Mexican American Federation is organized in Yakima, Washington, to advocate for community development and political empowerment in the Yakima Valley.   Jun. 5, 1967: Reies Lopez Tijerina conducts an armed raid in Tierra Amarilla on the Rio Arriba County Courthouse.
       
      Aug. 19, 1967: The Alianza Federal de Las Mercedes changes its name to the Alianza Federal de Pueblos Libres.
       
      Dec., 1967: David Sanchez takes control of the Young Citizens for Community Action and restructures it into the Young Chicanos for Community Action. The group, which was often harassed by the L.A. County Sheriffs, takes a more militant stance against discrimination and police brutality, evolving into the Brown Berets by early 1968. The Brown Berets would become one of the largest non-student organizations in the country, having chapters as far north as Seattle, Washington,  Eugene, Oregon,  Denver, Colorado,  Detroit, Michigan and Minneapolis, Minnesota.
       
       
1968 La Sociedad Mutualista is founded in Granger, Washington. The group focuses on self-help for its members and sponsorship of social and cultural events.    Feb. 15, 1968: Response to violent repression on Farm workers leads Cesar Chavez to begin a 25-day fast to keep the farm worker movement non-violent.
       
  1968: Yakima County Commissioners take control of the YVCCA, effectively neutralizing any potential for the creation of any real changes in the economic situation of Chicanos in the Yakima Valley through the use of this program.   Mar. 3, 1968: More than 1000 students peacefully walk out of Abraham Lincoln High School in L.A. with Lincoln High Teacher, Sal Castro, joining the group of students, in protest of school conditions. The student strike known as the L.A. Blowouts, would later have over 10,000 high school students walk out by the end of the week. To this day, the event still remains the largest student strike at the high school level in the history of the United States. 
       
  Mar., 1968: On request of the United Farm Workers, the American Civil Liberties Union(ACLU) of Washington goes to the Yakima Valley to help organize a legal assistance program. The report that emerges after the end of the project underlines the societal conditions present that maintained Chicanos in a state of subjugation.    Mar. 10-11, 1968: Cesar Chavez breaks his fast at a mass at a park in Delano. 
       
  May 20, 1968: The UW Black Student Union occupies the administration building, demanding the implementation of recruitment programming and the establishment of black studies courses.     May 27, 1968: A grand jury indicts the L.A.13 for conspiracy to disrupt the peace in organizing the East L.A. school walkouts.
       
  Summer, 1968: The BSU at the UW travels to the Yakima Valley and recruits the first major group of Chicanos to the University of Washington.   Nov. 4, 1968: The United Mexican American Students(UMAS) and the Black Student Union(BSU) unite, and Rosalio Munoz is voted in, becoming the first Chicano elected as the University of California at Los Angeles' Student Body President.
       
  Oct. 1, 1968: Chicano students at the University of Washington found a chapter of the United Mexican American Students(UMAS) which is modeled after the UMAS at the University of Southern California. The UW UMAS Chapter was the first in the Pacific Northwest as well as the first Chicano organization at the UW.    1968: The Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund(MALDEF) is organized in San Antonio, TX. It is modeled after the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. 
       
  1968-9: The Brown Berets, a more militant group is formed simultaneously with the student organizations, creating two chapters, one in Yakima and the other at the University of Washington in Seattle.   1968: Soledad Alatorre and Bert Corona set up the Center for Autonomous Social Action(CASA). The group is one of the first to spearhead a move toward organizing both legal and undocumented workers under the banner of 'sin fronteras' or 'without borders.' 
       
       
1969 Active Mexicano is established in Seattle. The organization works toward providing individuals social services including job placement and legal assistance.    Jan. 1969: Modeling their actions after students at San Francisco State, the Third World Liberation Front(TWILF) organizes a major strike at UC Berkeley that lasts until April
       
  1969: "La Escuelita" is founded in Granger through the efforts of students and UW faculty.   Mar. 1969: The strike at San Francisco State College ends. Organized by the Third World Liberation Front, the strike marked by confrontations between students and police, yield the creation of Black, Asian, and Raza Studies Departments housed under the umbrella of a proposed College of Ethnic Studies.
       
  1969: UW UMAS organizes a Chicano student conference in Toppenish. The ultimate goal is to go into the community and establish student organizations at the high school level.   Mar. 27-31 1969: The first National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference is sponsored by Crusade for Justice in Denver, CO.
       
  1969: The Granger School Board refuses to allow use of a gym for a presentation by Cesar Chavez.   Apr. 1969: A three day conference is organized at Santa Barbara by the Chicano Coordinating Council of Higher Education to create a plan for curricular changes and provide service to Chicano students. The conference also yields the formation of El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan(MEChA), which the various participating organizations change their name to.
       
  Jan. 29, 1969: About 100 people begin picketing the Husky Union Building(HUB) at the University of Washington. The goal is to convince the university to stop selling non-union grapes. The grape boycott committee that emerges is chaired by UMAS and supported by the Black Student Union(BSU), Students for a Democratic Society(SDS), individual members of the ASUW Board of Control, and the Young Socialist Alliance(YSA), to name a few.    May 13, 1969: The Brown Berets begin publication of a monthly paper called 'La Causa' which soon becomes a medium for recruitment. Following the lead of the Black Panthers, they also institute programming that deals with food, housing, unemployment, and education within the barrios. 
       
  Feb., 1969: Following the lead of UW UMAS, Chicano students organize themselves to form a chapter of the Mexican American Student Association(MASA) at Yakima Valley College.     
       
 <