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Year |
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National |
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1962 |
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United Farm Workers Organizing
Committee, led by Cesar Chavez is initiated as an
independent organization in Delano, California. |
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1963 |
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The Political Association of
Spanish-speaking Organizations (PASO) unites to take
over the city council for 2 years in Crystal City,
Texas. |
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Oct. 8, 1963: La Alianza Federal de
los Mercedes is incorporated by Reies Lopez Tijerina in
New Mexico. |
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1964 |
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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. |
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1965 |
The Yakima Valley Council for
Community Action(YVCCA) is organized to coordinate the
War on Poverty efforts in the Valley. |
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Late Nov.-Dec. 1965: The United Farm
Workers Organizing Committee initiates a national table
grape boycott. |
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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. |
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Rodolfo Acuņa starts teaching the
first Mexican American history class in Los Angeles,
California. |
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Mar. 17-Apr. 11, 1966: Cesar Chavez
and the National Farm Workers Association march from
Delano to the California state Capitol in Sacramento. |
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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. |
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May, 1966: High school students in
East Los Angeles form the Young Citizens for Community
Action(YCCA). |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Mar. 13, 1967: 250 students
representing seven Los Angeles colleges and universities
meet to form the United Mexican American Students(UMAS). |
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1967: The Mexican American
Federation is organized in Yakima, Washington, to
advocate for community development and political
empowerment in the Yakima Valley. |
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Jun. 5, 1967: Reies Lopez Tijerina
conducts an armed raid in Tierra Amarilla on the Rio
Arriba County Courthouse. |
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Aug. 19, 1967: The Alianza Federal
de Las Mercedes changes its name to the Alianza Federal
de Pueblos Libres. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Mar. 10-11, 1968: Cesar Chavez
breaks his fast at a mass at a park in Delano. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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.' |
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1969 |
Active Mexicano is established in
Seattle. The organization works toward providing
individuals social services including job placement and
legal assistance. |
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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 |
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1969: "La Escuelita" is founded in
Granger through the efforts of students and UW faculty. |
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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. |
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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. |
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Mar. 27-31 1969: The first National
Chicano Youth Liberation Conference is sponsored by
Crusade for Justice in Denver, CO. |
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1969: The Granger School Board
refuses to allow use of a gym for a presentation by
Cesar Chavez. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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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. |
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