Throughout American history, minority groups have been oppressed and discriminated against. Racial and ethnic inequalities have been an outstanding issue since the birth of the nation. In the 1960s and ‘70s, the growing US involvement in Vietnam created a counterculture and new liberationist ideals. The passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 signaled a huge victory for activists and inspired other groups that change was possible. Women, gays, the elderly, the physically and mentally disabled, Native Americans, and Mexican Americans all joined the struggle for equal opportunity. The Mexican American Civil Rights Movement, popularly known as the “Chicano Movement”, is one of the least studied social movements of the 1960s. The movement dealt with the restoration of land grants, farm workers rights, enhanced education, and voting rights and equality. Without the Chicano movement, an entire population of Hispanics would still be facing extreme racial prejudice and other equal rights movements would not have been influenced, just as the Civil Rights movement did in previous years.
Because of racial discrimination and fears of overpopulation, by the early 1900s, government officials implemented bans and limits on the number of immigrants from different countries. Many Mexicans still found ways to get to America, known as “the land of opportunity”. Many immigrants were pushed away by poverty and violence and pulled in by economic opportunity. Although living and working conditions were somewhat of an improvement from where many were from, Latinos still faced unjust or prejudicial treatment, especially in the South and Southwest. In these areas, Latinos were segregated from whites and were denied voting rights.
The Chicano movement was initiated in New Mexico with the land grant movement led by Reies López Tijerina. The Land Grant Struggle was a movement that sought to reclaim the lands of Mexican Americans that had been taken by the government as a result of the Mexican American War. Tijerina, born near Falls City, Texas, studied to become a minister of Pentecostalism, traveled the Southwestern United States as a preacher, and attempted to create a utopian community in Arizona before moving to New Mexico, where he would soon air the land grant movement. With his goal to have land-grant claims adjudicated by the courts, Tijerina led an armed raid on a courthouse as a statement against whites who he accused of threatening Mexican culture. He successfully defended himself against charges of assault and thereafter founded the Federal Alliance of Royal Land Grants. Tijerina grew the organization as its president and could have won the election to be the New Mexico governor if the Supreme Court had not ruled Tijerina ineligible. Although the movement did not succeed, the land-grant struggle helped to advance the values and ideals of the Mexican Civil Rights movement.
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In the 1960s, Cesar Chavez, perhaps the most influential leader of the Chicano movement, created and led the United Farm Workers (UFW). Founded as a union, the United Farm Workers evolved as a civil rights organization speaking on behalf of migrant lettuce workers and grape pickers, most of whom were Mexican immigrants. The UFW’s actions created national attention for the Hispanic rights movement. Chavez and cofounder Dolores Huerta led non-violent protests, hunger strikes, and boycotts throughout the nation. In 1965, with the goal of improving farmworkers’ wages and treatment, the UFW organized a strike against the corporate grape growers in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Although most Chicanos lived in the cities, Mexican Americans everywhere empathized with the economic hardships that the farm workers faced, and felt inspired to protest their social inequalities as well. In a letter to the Grape Industry, Chávez stated: ‘We know that our cause is just, that history is a story of social revolution, and that the poor shall inherit the land.’ Chávez’s nonviolent methods, tireless energy, diplomacy with labor unions and religious groups, and the humble lifestyle he chose turned him into a respected national leader.
Although Chávez insisted upon nonviolent tactics, there were Chicano extremist militants that arose out of a desire to defend Mexican Americans from police brutality. The Brown Berets, who were modeled after the Black Panther Party, were against the war in Vietnam. They held marches and protests against the Vietnam War, and in 1970 they called for a Chicano Moratorium to protest both the war and police brutality. The Moratorium was one of the largest antiwar protests in the history of the nation, and soon fighting broke out. The police attacked the peaceful protestors, and violence ensued. Notably, the respected Chicano journalist, Ruben Salazar, died in the chaos.
The struggles that Hispanics suffered in the United States were similar to those that African Americans fought against with the Civil Rights Movement. Both groups faced extreme discrimination from the government and from whites, many of whom believed in white supremacy. Throughout the middle of the 20th century, racial and ethnic minorities of all types organized nonviolent protests to bring attention to the bigotry, intolerances, and racism that they endured every day.
Today, minorities still encounter relentless oppression from majority groups. The LGBT rights movement started in the middle of the 20th century but has not seen notable progress until the last two decades. Due to the success of other civil and human rights movements, the gay rights movement has successfully struck down laws prohibiting homosexuality and gay and bisexual people from serving in the military. Of great significance in 2016, the US Supreme Court ruled that same-sex couples can legally marry and adopt children in every state. Although the LGBT rights movement has made progress, activists are still pushing for housing, employment, and transgender equality.
By the seventies, the Chicano movement began to decline. Law enforcement that shut down the Brown Berets and other Chicano militant groups slowed down the movement as a whole. Rivalries among groups from different regions and Chicana feminists confronting male leaders divided the community. Despite the disunity that existed, the Hispanic rights movement empowered Mexican Americans on a broader scale than had ever been seen before. As the Civil Rights Movement influenced the Chicano Movement, it has inspired future civil and human rights activists, like those of the LGBT rights movement, to fight for equal opportunity. Although shortlived, the movement was a cultural revitalization for the Mexican American community and understanding it allows for higher awareness of the racism and discrimination that occurs in America.
