El Movimiento

1960–1970s

The Chicano Civil rights efforts spread in valley fields, in colleges and communities, empowering and inspiring art and culture. Education became the vehicle to lift the community from the fields to new fields of endeavors.  

La Causa, The Farmworkers Movement. ¡Ya basta! It started in the fields and spread to the younger generations who were few and alienated in the colleges and schools of the valley. The 1960s were the times of social justice movements across the nation, the Black, Native American, Women’s and Chicano movements. In the Central Valley, it gave us our most dramatic and recognized hero, César Chávez, and for many who had struggled to become Mexican American, a new identifier–Chicano. Organizing was the key to this movement. 

Many historians, journalists and documentarians have told and analyzed the story of the UFW, along with local interviews and memoirs. The 10-years period from the founding of the Union in 1962 to the 1972 success of the Grape Boycott are experiences that no one who was involved will forget. It lifted the profile, dignity and wages for farmworkers and forged the next generation of community leaders and those who still use the term  ‘Chicano” today. In the poster “Portrait of La Causa,” Cesar’s face is made up of images of people and symbols by Mexican artist O’Campo, capturing the UFW movement in its totality. According to the story, the poster was commissioned by Jane Fonda to sell as a fundraiser, as was the black and white documentary “Fights in the Fields,” giving viewers a you-were-there perspective. La Causa used the media, learning the tactics of the Southern civil rights movement to get the public’s attention and support, while involving clergy, lawyers and celebrities. They spread the message throughout the country with the Grape Strike, their first national boycott, and the March to Sacramento in iconic photos. From its heart in Delano through the valley’ spine of Highway 99, many had a story to add.  

La Cultura Cura, Culture Cures. The arts, music, theater, dance and poetry became the soundtrack and visual storytelling of the Chicano Movement. Teatro started in the fields by Luis Valdez, a Delano native and student of theater who returned to create El Teatro Campesino (farmworker theater), with the farmworkers in masks and actos on flatbed trucks. It was a way to educate and motivate the campesinos and spread to other groups formed in the colleges and communities with other issues and themes, like Teatro del Barrio, Teatro Aztlán, and others. Aztlán became the mythical homeland of the Mexican people.  

Music was a part of it, the soundtrack of the movement, with many of the songs written, sung and recorded by Valley musicians like Agustin Lira, Carmencristina Moreno, Al Reyes, and Luis Valdez’s brother Danny Valdez’ “Brown Eyed Children of the Sun.” Much of the movement music was in the style of Joan Baez, who often participated in key UFW events. Mexican muralist influences and folkloric dance traditions were revived and adapted to the vibrant Chicano culture of the Valley, fed also by artists from Sacramento to Los Angeles. The anthem became “De Colores,” an old Mexican folk song. 

La Raza,The Chicano Movement. From the fields to new fields of business, health, law, and politics—education was seen as the key to achievement and equal social standing. Organizing communities for involvement in voting and education was developed in many communities by the CSO, Community Service Organization, whose work that was based on empowerment continued even after the UFW grew out of it. The themes of organizing and education were linked together in the many community organizations that developed in this period from the Latin American Businessmen’s Club to the Chicano Media Association, to the many groups of MECHA, MASA, ADELITAS, and related groups in the colleges down to the high schools. Beginning with a few Mexican American students at Fresno State College in the 1960s almost all organizations devoted their efforts to raise scholarship monies and get students through college. Special programs and services like the Educational Opportunity Program Services, EOPS In the colleges recruited Chicanos and the nascent ChIcano studies courses informed and inspired them. Self-interest groups supported the Mexican American population from the Association of Mexican American Educators (AMAE) to the Leage of Mexican American Women, to the Employees of PGE, to the original MAGA (Mexican American Golf Association.) By the 1970s, larger self-help ambitions emerged, like El Concilio, Colegio de la Tierra, and Los Amguitos Preschool. Education was not only a goal to achieve, but bilingual education was the priority of AMAE. 

La Política. Being the first elected to public offices was another goal in this period, to achieve larger change than the self-help organizations could. Gradually there were the “firsts” in the smaller towns with majority Mexican American population, and then in Fresno and other cities. Al Villa, Robert Arroyo, Judge Armando Rodriguez, candidates partly supported by the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) began winning general elections and breaking barriers. However, political clout in the Valley was only a smaller part of Mexican American achievement until the first quarter of the next century.

The War in Vietnam. Involvement in this next national war split the nation–and the Chicano community. There are those who went to war, some of their stories told in Dr. Lea’s Ybarra’s book, and those who protested, notably through the Chicano Moratorium and the high school walkouts which spread from Los Angeles to the Valley. The Chicano community had its own “force,” the Brown Berets, for protection and support. Even many of the activists of the Chicano movement today call themselves “veterans.”