Here We Stand: Chicanos Por La Causa and Arizona's Chicano/a Resurgence

STAND HERE WE

CHICANOS POR LA CAUSA AND ARIZONA’S CHICANO/A RESURGENCE 1968-1974

STAND HERE WE

CHICANOS POR LA CAUSA AND ARIZONA’S CHICANO/A RESURGENCE 1968-1974

View the accompanying documentary produced by PBS at: WWW.CPLC.ORG/DOCUMENTARY

STAN HERE WE

EDITED BY DR.

PETE DIMAS

WRITTEN BY

BRYANT PARTIDA MARCO ANTONIO ROSALES BEN SCOLARO View the accompanying documentary produced by PBS at: WWW.CPLC.ORG/DOCUMENTARY

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CHICANOS POR LA CAUSA AND ARIZONA’S CHICANO/A RESURGENCE

1968-1974

© 2019 Chicanos Por La Causa, Inc. Editors: Veronica Carrillo, Dr. Pete Dimas, Bill Irwin Text and cover design: Ben Scolaro ISBN: 978-0-578-47815-9 Printed and bound in Arizona

1112 East Buckeye Road Phoenix, AZ 85034 cplc.org

A NOTE ABOUT IDENTITY TERMS Identity was a critical discussion throughout the Chicano/a Movement and continues to be today. Below are identity terms used in this text: INDIGENOUS: The original inhabitants of North, Central, and South America MEXICAN: A Mexican citizen MEXICAN-AMERICAN: A US citizen of Mexican descent MEXICANO: Spanish word for “Mexican” used to indicate both native born and immigrant population of Mexican descent CHICANO/A: An identity marker adopted by Mexican-Americans in the late 1960s and 1970s to redefine and reclaim their cultural and political identity. Unlike “Mexican-American,” which implies foreignness by hyphenating with “American,” “Chicano/a” conveys a complete identity that belongs in the US. In traditional Spanish, the “o” in “Chicano” refers to either the community as a whole or a male member of this group, while “Chicana” refers exclusively to female members of this group. Over the years, variations on these terms have surfaced, including “Chicano/a,” which include both the male and female suffixes, as well as “Chicanx,” which removes gender binary altogether.

We chose to use the term “Chicano/a” in this text to remain consistent with terms used during the time period while recognizing the contributions of Chicana activists, who were often overlooked and are equally important.

“HERE I STAND...

RICH IN COURAGE AND WEALTHY IN SPIRIT AND FAITH...

I AM THE MASSES OF MY PEOPLE AND I REFUSE TO BE ABSORBED...

THE ODDS ARE GREAT BUT MY SPIRIT IS STRONG...

I SHALL ENDURE! I WILL ENDURE!” —CORKY GONZALES, “I AM JOAQUIN”

CONTENTS

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Foreword

Part I

Part II

by Pete Dimas

LABOR

EDUCATION

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THE FARMWORKER MOVEMENT

THE PHOENIX UNION HIGH SCHOOL WALKOUTS

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Part III

Part IV

POLITICS

COMMUNITY

THE GOVERNOR JACK WILLIAMS RECALL CAMPAIGN

RECLAIMING CHICANO/A HISTORY AND IDENTITY

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Dedication

Bibliography

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FOREWORD

by Dr. Pete Dimas

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he founding of Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) in 1969 appeared to be a radical political act. However, this moment was actually a natural result of the long evolution of the Chicano/a community in Phoenix, and in Arizona as a whole.

The Spanish movement north from central Mexico that began in the 16th century was one of a racially mixed people that included Spanish, indigenous peoples, Africans, and Asians (This racial mixture is called mestizaje). They were miners, farmers, merchants, ranchers, and laborers.

At the time of the American invasion of Northern Mexico in 1846, what is now Arizona was engulfed in a deadly conflict today known as the Apache Wars. The Mexican, O’Odham, and Maricopa peoples had already formed an alliance to fight the Apache, which the American military operations leveraged to impose peace in the region.

The creation of American Arizona depended heavily on Mexican merchants, miners, farmers, and laborers, resulting in extensive Anglo/Mexicano intermarriage, and a bicultural/bilingual society was a significant feature of life in Arizona.

But the arrival of the railroad to Phoenix in 1887 made the region easily accessible to large-scale American and European capital and migration, which in turn marginalized Phoenix’s Mexicano population.

FOREWORD

Additionally during the 1880s, American railroads penetrated central Mexico and accessed a Mexican population undergoing tremendous turmoil, especially through dispossession of community lands. The railroads made possible the explosive growth of the farms, mines, and cities of Arizona—and access to cheap labor from Mexico that provided the basis for regional growth and prosperity.

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Two sources of population were now established as major factors in the economic and demographic growth of Arizona: 1) continuous migration from the rest of the United States; and 2) continuous migration from Mexico.

Segregation was now becoming a feature of life in Phoenix.

Extensive flooding in 1891 and 1905 made the area north of Van Buren Street more desirable for residents, and non-Anglos were excluded from these areas through real estate covenants. Segregated neighborhoods meant essentially segregated and substandard schools. Even St. Mary’s Church, built by Mexicanos in Downtown Phoenix, was segregated in 1915. As a result, the Mexican population established Immaculate Heart of Mary Church a few blocks away.

Resistance to the marginalization and outright racism that Chicanos faced in Arizona began shortly after the arrival of the railroads.

A major depression in 1894 brought forth the usual cry against Mexicans as a cause of economic disaster. In response, La Alianza Hispano Americana formed in Tucson to fight for the benefit of the community and spread nationwide, including an active lodge in the barrios where Chicanos Por La Causa was incorporated.

Other organizations which formed to fight discrimination against Mexicanos between 1910 and 1930 included La Liga Protectora Latina and the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which arrived in Phoenix in 1940.

Perhaps the most consequential surge of activism in Arizona prior to the 1960s came from Chicano veterans of World War II.

FOREWORD

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Chicanos were overrepresented in American military forces during World War II. In Phoenix, Chicano veterans coming back from the war were determined to challenge segregation in all of its forms.

They formed American Legion Post 41 and were successful in desegregating public facilities and housing.

Post 41 member Adam DĂ­az became the first Mexican-American Phoenix City Councilman and later a board member of Chicanos

Por La Causa. Post 41 member Manuel “Lito” Peña from Tolleson, AZ became involved with the Community Service Organization (CSO), which also included César Chávez, a Navy veteran, and Dolores Huerta, both of the United Farm Workers (UFW).

In the mining towns of Arizona, the veterans formed a major force in establishing unions, finally giving power to the Mexicano miners long-relegated to a dual wage structure in which they received a lower wage than their White counterparts.

Into this mix of activity and longstanding issues came Father Albert Braun, OFM. As a veteran of World Wars I and II, he became a lifetime member of Post 41 and therefore a comrade to the many Post 41 members in the Sacred Heart Parish which he led.

He put his many national veteran and Catholic connections to use in the coalescence of a tight-knit community centered around Sacred Heart Church and its chapels: St. John’s, St. Mary Magdalene, and Santa Rita. Out of the poor barrios of Sacred Heart Parish came youth centers, a parish school, a St. Vincent de Paul Society, a Head Start Program, street pavement, and more.

And into this mix came Chicano/a students from Arizona State University. The synergy between their new energy and the MexicanAmerican community’s long history of activism allowed these students to take unprecedented action, reflecting the confidence of the Chicano/a Movement across the Southwest and leading directly to the founding of Chicanos Por La Causa. 

FOREWORD

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LABOR PART I:

THE FARMWORKER MOVEMENT

L ABOR: THE FARMWORKER MOVEMENT

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he core of Arizona’s economy has historically been driven by the Five C’s: copper, cattle, cotton, citrus, and climate. All of these sectors have relied heavily on Mexican labor.

Cotton and citrus both played a large role in the development of Phoenix and its surrounding cities, but farms in the area also produced significant amounts of onions, corn, alfalfa, melon, and grapes.

In order to assure the benefits of cheap labor, growers in the first half of the 20th century established associations to overrecruit labor from Mexico. By keeping supply above demand, they undercut the bargaining power of farm workers.

This tactic was the basis for the profitable expansion of agriculture, especially in the Salt River Valley, and Arizona’s agricultural industry has since relied on Mexican farm labor to plant and harvest the state’s crops.

WORKERS IN CEBOLLA (ONION) FIELDS On the eve of the Chicano/a Movement, Chicanos/as and Indigenous Americans made up the majority of Arizona’s agricultural workforce, and they were among the lowest paid workers in the country.

In 1965, the average annual income of a farm worker was $1,378 (compared to $3,800, the poverty level for a family of five) with an average hourly pay between $1.10 and $1.35.

While Mexicans were central to one of Arizona’s most profitable industries, their presence in the state has been wrought by tension, alternating between being welcomed as a source of cheap labor or deported (often regardless of their immigration status) during periods of heightened economic downturn, with its accompanying heightened xenophobia.

Throughout Phoenix’s history, a large percentage of Arizona Mexican-Americans either depended on wages from agricultural work or had family members and friends who worked in the industry.

Mexican and Mexican-American farm workers faced deplorable conditions in the fields. Agricultural workers suffered poverty-level wages, dilapidated housing, exclusion from overtime/workman’s compensation pay, and employer retaliation when they attempted to address such grievances. Because they were excluded from the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, farm workers were not guaranteed the basic rights to organize into unions and engage in collective bargaining.

CHILD AND ADULT IN CEBOLLA (ONION) FIELDS A young boy waits as his mother harvests green onions on a farm in Arizona. Substandard wages, which required both parents to work and left little money to pay for childcare, often forced farm worker families to bring young children to the fields.

To address this need, daycare centers became one of the first services farm worker unions provided to their members in Arizona.

L ABOR: THE FARMWORKER MOVEMENT

Artificially low wages forced many children of farm laborers to work in the fields rather than attend school, trapping families into a cycle of generational poverty.

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Additionally, many growers sprayed crops and workers alike with pesticides such as DDT and Parathion, which cause a variety of health problems including neurological damage, birth defects, and several types of cancer.

Inspired by César Chávez and led by Gustavo “Gus” Gutierrez, Arizona farmworkers organized to advocate for better working and living conditions beginning in the late 1960s.

In many ways, Gus Gutierrez’s life paralleled the Chicano/a experience in the state. He grew up during a period of extreme economic hardship and social marginalization for Chicanos/as, and his ethnic roots—half Opata and half Mexican—represented the diversity of the Chicano/a experience.

1969 was a pivotal year in Arizona’s farm worker movement. In the spring and summer of that year, Chicanos/as across the Valley demonstrated the power they could wield as a unified movement:

L ABOR: THE FARMWORKER MOVEMENT

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In April, the Chicano/a community came together in a march for farm worker justice that crisscrossed the valley before descending on the state capitol on Easter Sunday.

MAN WASHING HANDS IN CANAL UNDER CROP DUSTER Arizona’s farm workers suffered severe health problems from exposure to pesticides. In the late 1960s, the Farm Worker Movement made pesticide regulation a priority.

This effort became one of the Movement’s successes, as labor contracts between workers and growers increasingly included protections from pesticide exposure, stipulations regarding acceptable pesticides, and rules for pesticide application.

UFWOC HUELGA FLAG The huelga, or strike, was the primary source of power for the Farm Worker Movement to assert the rights of agricultural workers. Led by César Chávez and Dolores Huerta, the UFWOC (United Farm Workers Organizing Committee) was the organizing vehicle for these workers across the Southwest.

In June, hundreds of farm workers went on strike, and the support from the broader community pushed them to victory. Several growers signed contracts with their workers that raised wages, introduced pesticide regulations, and provided medical care.

Chicano/a farm workers successfully compelled growers to respect their labor rights. As a result, respect for the civil and human rights of Chicanos/as grew as well.

The connections between labor rights and civil rights, farm worker dignity and the dignity of the Chicano/a community as a whole, led the farm worker struggle to become a unifying cause within Arizona’s diverse Chicano/a Movement. 

L ABOR: THE FARMWORKER MOVEMENT

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GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ One could argue that no individual was as instrumental in driving Arizona’s Chicano/a Movement as Gustavo “Gus” Gutierrez.

As the leader of Arizona’s Farm Worker Movement, he understood how economic exploitation and racism worked hand in hand to perpetuate injustice. He addressed both problems by uniting the various parts of Arizona’s Chicano/a Movement as a co-founder of Chicanos Por La Causa.

Gutierrez’s dedication to Chicano/a and Indigenous activism never faltered until his death in 2012. He served as a bridge between generations of Mexican-descent activists as he mentored many of Arizona’s young leaders in today’s Immigrant Rights Movement.

L ABOR: THE FARMWORKER MOVEMENT

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THE FIGHT FOR HUMAN DIGNITY As Chicano/a farm workers asserted their labor rights, respect for the civil and human rights of Chicanos/as grew as well. At its core, the Farmworker Movement was a fight for human dignity.

EDUCAT PART II:

THE PHOENIX UNION HIGH SCHOOL WALKOUTS

TION

E DUC AT ION: T HE P HOE NIX UNION HIGH S CHOOL WA L KOU T S

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hicano/a struggles for fair working conditions in the fields paralleled struggles for equity in the classroom.

Phoenix and the Valley at large have a long history of educational segregation dating back to Arizona’s territorial days, with segregation aimed at Black students written into law while segregation against Mexicans and Chicanos/as manifested through district and school policies.

The fight for educational equity made many strides from the 1920s through the 1950s. However, in the 1960s, racism continued to permeate schools in Arizona, as in the rest of the country. The Chicano/a Movement was central in demanding educational equity during this period.

Most historical accounts of Chicano/a student-led school walkouts reference Los Angeles and Texas; however, this movement was much more widespread.

A wave of Chicano/a student walkouts across the Southwest, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest took high schools by storm.

Arizona was no stranger to this wave of activism. The state harbors its own history of student-led walkouts that has been largely overlooked. Ground zero for this movement was Phoenix Union High School.

CHILDREN IN BARRIO WITH DOG For generations, the practice of segregating Mexican-American elementary students, like those pictured here, from their White peers was widespread. The 1951 Gonzales v. Sheely federal court decision out of Tolleson led to the removal of many barriers to desegregation in Arizona and was the first case that made an unqualified argument against segregation. It, along with cases in California and Texas in 1947 and 1948, laid some of the groundwork for the Brown v. Board of Education US Supreme Court Decision of 1954. Beyond integration, however, remained the issue of relevance in education.

CPLC CONFERENCE Phoenix, while historically under-documented in Chicano/a history, offers many contributions to the larger narrative of this movement, including the founding of Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC) in 1969.

This image depicts a 1970 Chicanos Por La Causa meeting with two of several founders, Joe Eddie López (far right), Ascensión “Sonny” Nájera (back), and student activist Daniel Ortega (at lectern).

As the first established high school in the city of Phoenix, Phoenix Union High School did historically allow Mexican-American students to attend, although many had already dropped out to help their families work in the fields. In the meantime, their Black counterparts were relegated to Phoenix Union Colored High School, later renamed Carver High School.

The integration of Phoenix Union High School in 1953 was an important civil rights victory for Black students. However, it accelerated massive White flight to the fringes of the city, which drastically shifted the school’s demographics and transformed Phoenix Union High School into an underserved and marginalized “inner-city school” made up of more than 80% Black and Chicano/a students by 1970.

ALFREDO GUTIERREZ Alfredo Gutierrez, who was born and grew up in Miami, Arizona, was a pillar of the Chicano/a Movement in Phoenix.

As a founding member of Chicanos Por La Causa and Valle Del Sol, he helped organize the Phoenix Union High School boycott and served as a leader of the Mexican-American Student Organization (MASO) at Arizona State University.

Gutierrez would go on to join the Arizona State Legislature in 1972, serving for 14 years. While in office, he remained active in the community and became an advocate for immigrant rights.

E DUC AT ION: T HE P HOE NIX UNION HIGH S CHOOL WA L KOU T S

The quality of education at Phoenix Union dramatically declined as the district’s school board attempted to shift Phoenix Union into a vocational school. This effort gave little regard to the actual needs

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and aspirations of the school’s student body and greatly diminished students’ possibility of attending college and attaining a high-paying professional career.

In addition, increasing tension surfaced between Black and Chicano/a students, which led many students to feel unsafe at school.

Countering these issues at Phoenix Union High School would become a primary effort that led to CPLC’s incorporation in 1969.

E DUC AT ION: T HE P HOE NIX UNION HIGH S CHOOL WA L KOU T S

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In 1968, CPLC founders Joe Eddie López and Alfredo Gutierrez brought together a group of concerned Chicano/a and Black students at Phoenix Union High School to petition the district to address the lack of education opportunities and school security.

However, the district ignored their requests, forcing the students to look for an alternative solution.

Inspired by school walkouts in Los Angeles, López and Gutierrez engaged angry parents and families of students gathered at the Calderon Ballroom and won their support for a walkout to push the district to address the issues at Phoenix Union.

Students walked out and boycotted Phoenix Union and other schools in the district for almost a month in 1970, with student participation in the boycott reaching 50%.

PHOENIX UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT WALKOUTS (1/2): CHICANO POWER A defining moment for Chicanos Por La Causa and the Phoenix Chicano/a community was the Phoenix Union High School walkouts.

The purpose of the walkouts was to demand that the Phoenix Union High School District address issues of educational inequity as well as conflict between Black and Chicano/a students.

In response to the district’s attempts to penalize student absences, Barrio Youth Project, incorporated by CPLC founders and volunteers, established an informal alternative high school for boycotters during this time at Immaculate Heart Church led by CPLC founders with Alfredo Gutierrez as principal. The strong support of Immaculate Heart pastor Father José Hurtado made this arrangement possible.

This experience inspired Joe Eddie López to seek public office. In 1970, he ran for a seat on the Phoenix Union

CLASSROOM The fight for educational equity for Chicanos/ as manifested in diverse streams, including school desegregation efforts, bilingual education, and culturally relevant education.

E DUC AT ION: T HE P HOE NIX UNION HIGH S CHOOL WA L KOU T S

The extended boycott of 1970 finally brought the district to the negotiating table to avoid losing revenue from decreased student attendance. A dialogue ensued between the district, parents, students, and CPLC members, creating the reforms necessary to provide a more relevant education for Chicano/a students in the Phoenix Union High School District.

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High School District (PUHSD) Board of Education. Although he did not win at this time, he would go on to serve in public office in the county and for the state of Arizona. In 1990, López ran again for a PUHSD Board of Education seat and won, becoming the first Mexican-American to hold the position.

Through the 1970s and 1980s, school districts across Arizona closed thousands of public schools as a financial strategy, which imposed adverse consequences on students of color. When the district attempted to close Phoenix Union High School as part of this strategy, the community fought back through legal action.

E DUC AT ION: T HE P HOE NIX UNION HIGH S CHOOL WA L KOU T S

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In 1982, a judge ruled that Phoenix Union would remain open.

However, the district found an alternative means to close the school that same year.

Despite Phoenix Union’s eventual closure, the student walkouts of 1968-1970 remain a major milestone and example of tactics used in the continuing struggle to achieve equitable education opportunities for the rapidly growing Chicano/a and Latin-American communities of Phoenix and Arizona at large. 

PHOENIX UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT WALKOUTS (2/2): BROWN IS BEAUTIFUL Phoenix Union High School students, along with their parents, community members, and Chicanos Por La Causa, organized and staged a nearly month-long boycott from October 9th to November 2nd, 1970 after several shorter attempts in 1968 and 1969.

The boycotts finally succeeded by lowering attendance enough to threaten the District’s state funding.

POLITI PART III:

THE GOVERNOR JACK WILLIAMS RECALL CAMPAIGN

ICS

POLITICS: THE GOVERNOR JACK WILLIAMS RECALL CAMPAIGN

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B

y 1972, Arizona’s Farm Worker Movement had accomplished what, for decades, seemed impossible for Chicano/a agricultural workers. This progress was even more impressive in such a deeply conservative state.

In response, Arizona’s powerful agricultural interests successfully lobbied to pass the anti-union House Bill 2134, which crippled farm workers’ ability to improve their wages and working conditions by restricting their ability to strike and boycott.

HB 2134 threatened to dismantle the improvements farm workers had fought so hard to attain. To protect these new rights, renowned Chicano/a rights activist César Chávez came to Arizona and initiated a campaign to recall Republican Governor Jack Williams, who had signed HB 2134 into law.

CHILDREN SLEEPING AT CAPITOL DURING 1972 RECALL CAMPAIGN The struggle to defeat HB 2134 and recall Governor Jack Williams included the actions of the whole community, from prominent figures such as César Chávez and Coretta Scott King to the young children pictured here sleeping in the chambers of the Arizona State Capitol.

MASS NOTICE AT SANTA RITA HALL This makeshift church marquee hung on the wall of Santa Rita Hall, a small building on 10th Street and Hadley in the heart of South Phoenix’s El Campito Barrio, where César Chávez performed his 24day fast to protest HB 2134.

Today, the building is a historic property and cultural center owned and operated by CPLC.

The effort to defeat the anti-farm worker bill and recall Governor Williams drew its strength from the community organizing that was flourishing in Phoenix’s south side barrios. In the years before 1972, the barrios responded to their exclusion and neglect from the city by building vibrant and united communites, particularly the one centered in Sacred Heart Parish.

Father Albert Braun, a Catholic priest, created Sacred Heart Parish in the 1950s and built it into an institution that truly belonged to the community and served its needs. The parish became a community base that helped establish the most important organizations of Arizona’s Chicano/a Movement, including Chicanos Por La Causa, which held its founding meetings in Sacred Heart’s Santa Rita Hall.

ROSIE LOPEZ CPLC founder Rosie López, at left with pen and paper at an early CPLC meeting, learned the importance of becoming a deputy registrar during César Chávez’s fast at Santa Rita Hall.

She began registering Chicano/a voters for the 1972 recall campaign, a practice she would continue for decades. Note the presence of community women in this image, who played an important role in founding CPLC. (Photo courtesy Jose Cortez)

The activist students found a ready community base within Sacred Heart Parish—they would later engage in a fight for laundry workers’ rights at ASU with strong support from Sacred Heart. From this combination of young activists and a well-organized community flowed the community-based organization Chicanos Por La Causa.

POLITICS: THE GOVERNOR JACK WILLIAMS RECALL CAMPAIGN

Sonny Nájera, a resident of Sacred Heart Parish, first introduced the married couple Rosie and Joe Eddie López and other ASU students to Sacred Heart Parish when they needed a rehearsal space to practice Spanish Christmas songs.

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POLITICS: THE GOVERNOR JACK WILLIAMS RECALL CAMPAIGN

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By the late 1960s, the parish was the spiritual and organizational heart of Phoenix’s Chicano/a community, so it was only natural that the movement against HB 2134 and recall effort against Governor Williams began at Santa Rita with César Chávez’s famous fast for justice.

Santa Rita was also the site where Dolores Huerta forcefully responded to doubts as to whether a recall of the RALLY AT ARIZONA STATE CAPITOL (PREVIOUS PAGE)

Richard Chávez, César’s brother, speaks to a group of Chicanos/as gathered at Arizona’s State Capitol to protest HB 2134, a law that restricted workers’ ability to organize by outlawing strikes during the harvest season and imposing new rules that made certain boycotts illegal.

GOVERNOR RAUL CASTRO AT DESK The election of Raúl Castro in 1974 as Arizona’s first and only Governor of Mexican descent exemplifies the shift in political representation spurred by the 1972 recall campaign.

Castro’s election was the most visible political success of Arizona’s Chicano/a Movement.

POLITICS: THE GOVERNOR JACK WILLIAMS RECALL CAMPAIGN

On May 12th of 1972, César Chávez began a 24-day fast to protest the law at Santa Rita Hall. Santa Rita became the center of Arizona’s struggle for farm worker justice as upwards of 2,000 people crowded into the tiny hall for nightly masses.

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governor could be successful with “¡Sí! ¡Se puede!”

This phrase would become the slogan of the Chicano/a Movement for decades to come, and Barack Obama would later adopt its English translation (“Yes, we can”) as the informal slogan of his successful 2008 presidential campaign.

The fast and recall effort brought many national civil rights and political figures to Santa Rita Hall, including Coretta Scott King (widow of Martin Luther King, Jr.) and Democratic Presidential Candidate George McGovern.

POLITICS: THE GOVERNOR JACK WILLIAMS RECALL CAMPAIGN

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While the recall effort of Governor Jack Williams collected the necessary signatures for placement on the ballot, the state’s attorney general refused to certify the necessary signatures.

After a lengthy legal battle, a federal judge sided with the recall effort in 1976, but by that time, Governor Williams had already left office.

However, the recall attempt was effective in registering tens of thousands of new Chicano/a voters and led to the election of many Chicano/a activists to public office at the state and local levels, including Arizona’s first and only Mexican-American governor, Raúl Castro.  NOGALES RESTAURANT The poster in this image commemorates President Ford’s visit to Arizona, where he was greeted by Arizona Governor Jack Williams two weeks before Raúl Castro would win the election and become Arizona’s governor-elect. The stress of the recall campaign against him led Governor Williams not to seek re-election in 1974.

COMMU PART IV:

RECLAIMING CHICANO/A HISTORY AND IDENTITY

MUNITY

C O M M U N I T Y: R E C L A I M I N G C H I C A N O/A H I S T O R Y A N D I D E N T I T Y

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FACES OF A MOVEMENT Phoenix’s Chicano/a roots, which date back to Trinidad Escalante, the founding “Mother of Phoenix,” are represented in the faces that would found, build, and populate the region for generations to come.

GUITARIST Isolated from the city at large, Phoenix’s barrios maintained a rich tradition of Mexican culture and regularly brought national acts from Mexico to perform, such as at the annual “Feria de las Flores” hosted by the Sacred Heart Parish as a fundraiser for youth services.

The 1964 “Feria de las Flores,” held at what is now Celebrity Theatre, received statewide attention, with more than 50,000 event flyers printed and paid ads in the program purchased by both candidates for AZ governor.

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n important legacy of the Chicano/a Movement was reclaiming and reasserting the suppressed cultural and historical contributions of this vibrant community.

While the popular historical narrative of Arizona often leaves out the significance of Chicanos/as, the state would not exist as it does today without their presence. Whether acknowledged or not, Chicano/a and Indigenous Arizonans have played a crucial role at every step of Phoenix’s development.

Jack Swilling, a Confederate veteran of the Civil War, is credited with founding Phoenix. However, at his side was his wife Trinidad Escalante, a Mexican woman born in Hermosillo. As the “Mother of Phoenix,” Escalante played a critical role in Swilling’s acceptance by the Mexican population of the region.

Additionally, Phoenix’s success was only possible thanks to the ancient Hohokam people, who built the complex canal structure necessary for the city’s agricultural economy to thrive.

This founding couple serves as a symbol of Phoenix’s development.

As Anglos have found success and recognition throughout the city’s history, Chicanos/as and Indigenous people have been the city’s unacknowledged “mother” making every step possible.

From Phoenix’s founding to the present day, Mexican and Chicano/a involvement and cheap labor have been the foundation of the city.

Mexicans settled along the Salt River due to its agricultural richness, which provided economic opportunities for homesteading and work.

After the Salt River floods of 1891 and 1905, Anglos with economic mobility moved north of Washington Street, leading to the establishment of Phoenix’s first segregating color-line, as Mexicans who remained south of Washington met socio-economic and political marginalization.

All along, the city’s economic interests pitched Phoenix to outside investors as an Anglo city, denying the Mexican-American community’s very presence.

Isolated in almost every way, barrios became the incubator of a vibrant Mexican cultural heritage.

However, as Phoenix’s economy began to shift after World War II, these communities occupied increasingly valuable land and were viewed as obstacles to economic opportunity. There is no better example of this than Golden Gate Barrio: Golden Gate Barrio formed in the 1920s in what is now the area just west of Sky Harbor Airport. By the time Father Albert Braun volunteered to serve in Golden Gate Barrio in 1952, the neighborhood was a well-established community of multiple generations.

BARRIO HOUSES AND CHILDREN This image depicts a row of houses in one of Phoenix’s poorer barrios in the 1970s. Since Phoenix’s inception, housing conditions for Chicanos/as have been a source of socio-economic and political disenfranchisement.

C O M M U N I T Y: R E C L A I M I N G C H I C A N O/A H I S T O R Y A N D I D E N T I T Y

For years to follow, segregation, whether de facto or de jure, would resonate throughout the generations, forcing Mexican-American inhabitants into less desirable pockets of town and frequently outside city limits. Poor housing conditions, segregating color-lines, and lack of access to equitable resources permeated South Phoenix barrios.

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Father Braun played an outsized role in solidifying the unified sense of community and, in turn, political power of Golden Gate Barrio. By getting to know his parishioners on a personal level and respecting their culture, he quickly developed the support of the community.

Under Father Braun, residents came together to build their own Parish, Sacred Heart Church, along with a series of outlying chapels including the Santa Rita Center. These became the nexus for the parish’s community and charitable efforts, which included rent assistance and meals for the hungry.

C O M M U N I T Y: R E C L A I M I N G C H I C A N O/A H I S T O R Y A N D I D E N T I T Y

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In 1954, Father Braun led the community in an effort to pave its roads, and residents credit him for bringing electricity, city water, and sewer services to Sacred Heart and the surrounding barrios. As the community strengthened together, its community services strengthened and expanded as well.

Sacred Heart also became the cultural center of the barrio, regularly hosting celebrations—jamaicas and ferias—primarily to bring the community together and also to raise funds for community benefit.

FOLKLORICO DANCERS Every year since 1970, the Chicano/a and Indigenous communities of the Santa Cruz River Valley have gathered to celebrate their culture and history together at the Fiesta de Tumacácori.

This annual celebration brings together Chicano/a, Mexican, and Indigenous communities at the 17th century Franciscan Mision de San Jose de Tumacácori, located 45 miles south of Tucson.

The festival includes music, food, crafts, storytelling, and dance performances such as the one depicted here of a Ballet Folklórico group performing regional Mexican folk dances.

The strong organizing background provided by Sacred Heart in the Golden Gate Barrio was one of the foundations for the activism of the Chicano/a Movement. Sacred Heart Community leaders such as Abe Arvizu Sr. became strong supporters of CPLC’s community action. Arvizu was a member of the Sacred Heart Parish Council as well as CPLC’s board of directors.

However, just as this community, which began as a exploited population forced into an undesirable part of town, was coming into its own as a cultural and political powerhouse, another shift was occurring which would ultimately result in the neighborhood’s demise.

Phoenix Sky Harbor airport was established in 1929. By the late 1940s, it had become one of the busiest airports in the country and one of the city’s most reliable sources of revenue.

Organizing efforts to stop the expansion of the airport would prove to be Golden Gate Barrio’s last stand.

ELDERLY WOMAN IN CEMETERY The devastation of the Golden Gate Barrio left many elderly residents at risk. One of CPLC’s board members, Guadalupe Huerta, championed this vulnerable population.

Guadalupe Huerta was a moral force in the fight to stop the destruction of Golden Gate Barrio. A dedicated, hardworking, and religious person, she was unrelenting in finding services for those in need. Huerta advocated for elderly housing, especially for those whose support networks were destroyed by the way the city scattered friends and families in Golden Gate Barrio. Thanks to her efforts, CPLC opened Casa de Primavera Senior Apartments and other senior housing across the state. She also served on the advisory board of the Braun-Sacred Heart Center to stop the imminent demolition of the Historic Sacred Heart Church.

Guadalupe Huerta received numerous awards for service. Upon her death in 2000, the Arizona State Legislature passed a resolution in her honor.

C O M M U N I T Y: R E C L A I M I N G C H I C A N O/A H I S T O R Y A N D I D E N T I T Y

In the 1950s, the city and its economic boosters determined that expanding the airport was necessary for continued economic growth, and the most viable way to do so would be to acquire the land occupied by the Golden Gate Barrio.

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Through a variety of strategies culminating in the irrefutable threat and eventual use of eminent domain, the City devastated Golden Gate and the surrounding barrios, paying its residents a fraction of what their land was worth, and scattering what was once a strong and vibrant community across the city.

The demise of the Golden Gate Barrio illustrates how Phoenix’s powers-at-be historically lacked concern for the city’s MexicanAmerican contributors.

While economic interests ultimately destroyed Golden Gate and neighborhoods like it, the barrios provided an opportunity for the Chicano/a community to incubate and assert its unique history and culture, which have continued to resonate through the generations.

C O M M U N I T Y: R E C L A I M I N G C H I C A N O/A H I S T O R Y A N D I D E N T I T Y

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This legacy continues today, as the Phoenix City Council voted in 2017 to award CPLC exclusive rights to redevelop the land where Golden Gate Barrio once stood. While the neighborhood was leveled, except for the Historic Sacred Heart Church, none of it was ever directly used for the airport’s expansion.

Fifty years after its inception, CPLC, whose headquarters are still just across the street from Santa Rita Hall and whose services have expanded across Arizona and the surrounding states, will have an opportunity to rebuild for community benefit the tierra that gave it life.

As Chicanos/as continue to assert their rightful place, they stand on the foundation laid by the Chicano/a Movement 50 years ago.

The Farmworker Movement stands as the community’s demand for human dignity. The Phoenix Union High School Walkouts stand as a precedent of the community’s strength and organizing potential. The Governor Jack Williams Recall Campaign stands as a catalyst for Chicano/a political representation. And the reclamation and reassertion of Chicano/a history and identity stands as a powerful statement of the legitimacy of this community in Arizona and the US at large.  CHILDREN As the center of the Golden Gate Barrio community, Sacred Heart Parish offered youth programs at the Santa Rita Center for children such as those pictured here. The Parish also offered Head Start services, elderly care, rent assistance, and meals for the hungry.

In loving memory of

TERESA “TERRI” CRUZ “Mother of CPLC” 1927–2017

Born in Tucson, Terri Cruz was orphaned as a very young child and raised by her aunt and uncle in the Salt River Valley. She left school after eighth grade to work in a laundry and then as a house cleaner for 22 years. Her recognized integrity and faith in God led her to take chances that resulted in a career in social services for the poor in the 1960s, along the way earning her GED. While working at a War on Poverty program, Terri was approached by young Chicano activists Alfredo Gutierrez, Gus Gutierrez, and Joe Eddie López to use the ditto machine to print some flyers, and so she became involved with the group that would become Chicanos Por La Causa (CPLC).

Early meetings of these activists attracted the ire of the older generation of community leaders, who suspected the militancy of the young and did not like the term “Chicano.”

When asked by this “old guard” why she supported the young activists, Terri responded that, more than others, these young leaders wanted to help the poor.

When a vote was taken on what to name the new organization, “Chicanos Por La Causa” won by one vote—including Terri’s. Her signature is one of the three names on CPLC’s articles of incorporation.

Terri served on CPLC’s Board of Directors before she was hired by CPLC to do what she loved: connect people of all ages with services they needed, and advocate for needed services that were not yet available. Terri worked in her CPLC office until her dying days.

Terri received numerous awards for her unquestioned dedication to helping everyone in need. US Representative Ed Pastor called her the matriarch of the Hispanic community in Phoenix. Upon receiving the 2012 Arizona Latina Trailblazers Award, she succinctly stated what was in her soul: “You do it because it’s in your heart to do it. You don’t do it because you want to be recognized and have someone pat you on the back.”

(Photo courtesy Yvette Meyer)

DE DIC AT ION

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BIBLIOGRAPHY Bolin, B., Barreto J.D., Hegmon, M., Meierotto, L., York, A. “Double Exposure in the Sunbelt: The Sociospatial Distribution of Vulnerability in Phoenix, Arizona.” In Urbanization and sustainability: Linking urban ecology, environmental justice and global environmental change edited by Christopher G. Boone & Michail Fragkias, 159-178. New York London: Springer Science & Business Media, 2013.

Brunk, Linda M. “A federal legacy: Phoenix’s cultural geography.” Palo Verde: Magazine of Student Writing and Art 4, no. 1 (1996): 60-77.

Dimas, Pete R. Progress and a Mexican American community’s struggle for existence: Phoenix’s Golden Gate Barrio. New York: Peter Lang, 1999.

Echeverría, Darius V. Aztlán Arizona: Mexican American educational empowerment, 1968-1978.

Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2014.

Gutierrez, Alfredo. To Sin Against Hope: Life and Politics on the Borderland. New York: Verso, 2013.

Luckingham, Bradford. Phoenix: the history of a southwestern metropolis. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1989.

Luckingham, Bradford. Minorities in Phoenix: a profile of Mexican American, Chinese American, and African American communities, 1860-1992. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994.

Lukinbeal, Chris, Daniel D. Arreola, and D. Drew Lucio. “Mexican Urban Colonias in the Salt River Valley of Arizona. Geographical Review 100, no. 1 (2010): 12-34.

Meeks, Eric V. Border citizens: the making of indians, Mexicans, and Anglos in Arizona. Austin: University of Texas Press, 2007.

Munoz, Laura K. “Separate but Equal? A Case Study of “Romo v. Laird” and Mexican American Education.” Oah Magazine of History 15, no. 2 (2002): 28-35.

Oberle, A. P., & Arreola, D. D. “Resurgent Mexican Phoenix.” Geographical Review 98, no. 2 (2008): 171196.

Plascencia, Luis F. B. & Cuádraz, Gloria H. Mexican Workers and the Making of Arizona. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 2018.

Powers, J. M. “Forgotten History: Mexican American School Segregation in Arizona from 1900-1951.”

Equity & Excellence in Education 41, no. 4 (2008): 467-481.

Powers, J. M., & Patton, L. “Between Mendez and Brown: Gonzales v. Sheely (1951) and the Legal Campaign Against Segregation.” Law & Social Inquiry 33, no. 1 (2008): 127-171.

Rosales, Francisco A. Chicano!: the history of the Mexican American civil rights movement. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1997.

Sanderson, C. H. The faces of Post 41: South Phoenix Latinos fight for their country abroad and for their civil rights at home. Phoenix: Latino Perspectives Media, 2008.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Valencia, R. R., & Stanford Center for Chicano Research. Understanding school closures: Discriminatory impact on Chicano and Black students. Stanford: Stanford Center for Chicano Research, 1984.

Valencia, Richard R. Chicano students and the courts: the Mexican American legal struggle for educational equality. New York: New York University Press, 2008.

Whitaker, Matthew C. Race work: the rise of civil rights in the urban West. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2007.

DR. PETE

DIMAS

EDITOR

Pete Dimas is an Emeritus Professor of History and Chicana/o Studies and Director of Southwest Studies at Phoenix College. Dimas’ past and present board membership includes: Central Arizona Chapter of the Arizona Historical Society (1993-2001), Arizona Historical Society (1997-2006), Arizona Historical Foundation, Advocates for Latino Arts & Culture Consortium (ALAC; founding member); Braun Sacred Heart Center (1987-present; founding member). His previous published work includes: author of Progress and a Mexican American Community’s Struggle for Existence: Phoenix’s Golden Gate Barrio, producer of multiple documentaries, Scholar-Consultant for the Smithsonian Latino Center, and Historical Consultant for the City of Phoenix. Currently, Dimas is producing a documentary series Arizona’s Mexican Heritage: An American Story for the Braun-Sacred Heart Center.

Dimas holds a Ph.D. from Arizona State University in Latin American History and is a US Navy Veteran of the Vietnam War.

BRYANT PARTIDA

AU T HOR • E DUC AT ION A L HIS T ORI A N

Bryant Partida was raised in South Phoenix as the son of Mexican working-class immigrant parents. He is currently a Doctoral Candidate in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies at UCLA. Partida’s dissertation focuses on the 1970 Chicano/a walkouts and boycott of Phoenix Union High School. He holds a B.A. in Chicana/o Studies and Political Science from Arizona State University and M.A. in Chicana/o Studies from California State University, Northridge. Partida served as the co-curator of the Walkout Exhibit at UCLA’s Chicano Studies Research Center.

MARCO ANTONIO ROSALES

AUTHOR • HISTORIAN

Marco Antonio Rosales was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. He graduated with a B.A. in History and Latino Studies from the University of Notre Dame in 2011 and is completing his Ph.D. in 20th Century United States History at the University of California, Davis. Marco’s dissertation focuses on Chicano/a labor organizing and leftist politics in Arizona and its relationship to the state’s emergent New Right in the decades following World War II.

BEN SCOLARO

AU T HOR • CR E AT I V E DIR EC T OR

Ben Scolaro is a writer, graphic designer, and photographer. His work has been featured in Financial Times Magazine, International Musician magazine, and several Arizona media outlets including KJZZ and The Arizona Republic. He is the Manager of Creative Services for Chicanos Por La Causa.

NYLE LEATHAM

PHOTOGRAPHER

(E XCEP T WHERE OTHERWISE NOTED)

Nyle Leatham was born in 1930 in Mesa, AZ where he was raised. Nyle was a lifelong photographer who worked for The Arizona Republic as a columnist and photographer as well as for Chicanos Por La Causa in its early days. Leatham passed away on November 23rd, 2007. $29.98 ISBN 978-0-578-47815-9

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View the accompanying documentary produced by PBS at: WWW.CPLC.ORG/DOCUMENTARY

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