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Title: Brown Berets oppose Minutemen
Source:
KRGVTV
URL Source: http://krgv.com/2005/7/27/3753/Brown-Berets-oppose-Minutemen-
Published: Jul 27, 2005
Author: unknown
Post Date: 2005-07-28 00:20:14 by robin
Keywords: Minutemen, Berets, oppose
Views: 191
Comments: 37
WESLACO -- Members of the activist group the Brown Berets were in the Valley to express their opposition to the controversial Minuteman Project. WESLACO – Minutemen may face more opposition in South Texas. Members of the Brown Berets were in town Wednesday to spread a message. The group of militant Chicanos popular back in the 1960s said their group is still active in the Rio Grande Valley, addressing perceived threats to the Mexican-American community. This time, Delgado said they are in the Valley to confront the Minutemen, who plan on patrolling the border in search of illegal immigrants. Pablo Delgado, prime minister of the Brown Berets, leads more than 1,000 members of the Brown Berets. The name came from the color of berets members wore in the 1960s and 1970s. “We monitor the system,” Delgado said. “When there is a threat to the Mexican-American community we are there.” Members of Hidalgo County’s Democratic Party who also oppose the Minuteman Project welcomed the Brown Berets with open arms. “They communicated to me there sincere intent in organized confrontation a physical confrontation against the minutemen,” said the county’s Democratic party chairman Juan Maldonado. Beret leader Delgado said the group does not get physical unless it have to -- but he has been shot twice. That, he said, is the reason members no longer wear the famed berets. “If we use the brown beret we will be a target,” Delgado explained. Marcia Martinez is also a member of the Brown Berets. She said although the group is not as popular as they once were, they are still strong. “"The Brown Berets deserve respect, because few very few people have knowledge about us...and secondly people don't speak up in what they believe anymore,” Martinez said. Delgado said he has fought for 40 years for his people. He added he plans to fight as long as he is alive. Delgado said if the Minutemen make their way to the Valley, the Brown Berets will be there to greet them.
Brown Berets oppose Minutemen
Wednesday, July 27, 2005 Posted: 05:52 PM 
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#5. To: robin (#0)
We get closer and closer to violent civil war..
They really believe this. That California would have the 5th or 7th largest economy in the world if Mexico (or rather Spain still) owned it. Not that California would look like Tijuana. Even after all the economic aid we have sent to Mexico, and all their poor we have absorbed. True gratitude. And Native Americans take strong exception to his revisionist history.
Fight Back!: Who were the Brown Berets? Carlos Montes was a co-founder of the Brown Berets in 1967. Carlos Montes: We were a group of young Chicano revolutionaries from the barrios of the Southwest fighting for the self-determination of our people. We organized in our barrios, published the newspaper La Causa, ran a free clinic and fought against police brutality as well as against the U.S. war in Vietnam. We evolved from a youth group - from Young Citizens for Community Action, to Young Chicanos for Community Action to the Brown Berets. We evolved from civic participation and assimilation to revolutionary nationalism. The brown beret was a symbol of the pride in our culture, race and history. It also symbolized our anger and militancy and fight against the long history of injustice against the Chican@ people in the U.S., especially the Southwest. We claimed the Southwest as Aztlan, the original homeland of the indigenous Aztec ancestors and founders of Mexico City, Tenochtitlan. We were from poor working class families growing up with the racism and police abuse. Fight Back!: Why did you join? Carlos Montes: My family came to L.A. from Juarez, Mexico in 1956. I grew up in the barrios of South L.A. and East L.A. and experienced the racist conditions in the schools, police abuse, drugs, and the poor living conditions. This led me to get involved in the first Chicano student group, the Mexican American Student Association (MASA), at East L.A. College in 1967 which saw using education as the solution to injustice. I was also working as a youth center director and came across Young Chicanos for Community Action and La Raza newspaper, which were starting to voice opposition to the racist conditions in the barrio. I was drawn to the more active and direct action approach of Young Chicanos for Community Action, which became the Brown Berets in late 1967. Fight Back!: What kind of community organizing did you do? Carlos Montes: We first took on the issue of police brutality. The East L.A. sheriffs were notorious for their brutality, especially against Chicano youth, which I experienced cruising Whittier Boulevard on the weekends with hundreds of other youth. We were the first to lead a protest at the East L.A. sheriffs station to protest the killing of youth at the station in 1967. We also started working with the car clubs in East L.A. to defend them against police abuse. We opened a local cultural center in East L.A., The Piranya Coffee House, where we held youth meetings and cultural programs. It became one of the meeting places for the Brown Berets. We also started working on the problems of the bad school conditions and the racist educational system. Our schools were old and in bad condition, with high drop out, or push out, rates and racist administrators and teachers. Over time, we started agitating for bilingual education, better school conditions, Chicano studies and more Chicano teachers. We attended community, school and youth meetings to raise demands for better educational and school conditions. This finally led to the historic East L.A. Blowouts in March of 1968, where thousands of high school Chicano youth walked out of the four predominantly Chicano high schools in the Eastside over a two week period. Police photo of Brown Beret led walk-out at L.A.'s Lincoln High School The Brown Berets were the first to run in to the high schools, yelling, ?Walk out! Walk out!? To get the blowouts started, me and James Vigil (a k a Mangas Coloradas) ran into Lincoln High School on the first day to kick off the walkouts. We then went on to Roosevelt High School and the other schools. We also supported the land movement in New Mexico of the Chicano small farmers and ranchers. They fought to recover the land stolen by the rich Anglo ranchers and the U.S. federal government. We supported the United Farm Workers' struggle for union recognition and better working conditions. We marched with the first Rainbow Coalition in the Poor Peoples Campaign in Washington D.C. in the summer of 1968. We were at the first historic Chicano Youth Liberation conference, where the Plan Espiritaul de Aztlan was formulated in Denver, Colorado. We also organized the first Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War in December 1969. This led to the historic national Chicano Moratorium march and rally against the Vietnam war on Aug. 29, 1970, where over 20,000 Chicanos protested the high casualty rate of Chicanos in Vietnam and demanded self-determination at home in the Southwest. 'Raza si! Guerra no!' Fight Back!: What were major successes? Carlos Montes: We exposed police brutality. Back then, some people tried to deny it existed. We were part of building the Chicano movement for self-determination, which raised the slogan of Chicano Power. It also started the movement for cultural awareness and pride in our Chicano history in the Southwest and Mexico, and our culture and language. The blowouts were historic because it was the fist wave of mass actions by Chicanos in the urban barrios of the late 1960s. We eventually won bilingual education, Chicano studies, better school conditions and Chicano teachers and administrators. The mass anti-war demonstrations were part of the movement that eventually forced Nixon to pull out of Vietnam. We also opened the doors for affirmative action in higher education and political representation. Fight Back!: How did the political views of the Brown Berets develop? Carlos Montes: We started out with civic involvement and education as the road to equality, but soon learned that only real revolutionary change and political power by poor working people would gain real equality and freedom. We evolved from civic duty, work within the system, to self-determination, revolutionary nationalism and international solidarity with the liberation movements of Latin America, Africa and Asia - like the Vietnamese, the Congolese and Cubans fighting for freedom from U.S. domination. Fight Back!: How did they see the world? Carlos Montes: We believed in self-determination for Chicanos. The Brown Berets' thirteen-point political program talked about self-determination as having political and economic control over our lives. It called for a return of our land, release of prisoners, jobs, education, housing, an end to the destruction of the environment by the capitalists, open borders, solidarity with all revolutionary peoples engaged in the struggle for self-determination. And we denounced the U.S. system of capitalism and imperialism. Fight Back!: Did they work with groups in the Black community? Carlos Montes: Yes, we supported and formed alliances with Black groups such as the Black Panther Party. We supported them when the police attacked them. We also set up similar programs like the East L.A. Free Clinic and free breakfast programs. We also were part of the first Rainbow Coalition when we joined the Poor Peoples Campaign in the summer of 1968. The Rev. Martin Luther King had struggled within the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to include the Chicano militant groups in the march on Washington, such as the Crusade for Justice, from Colorado; Alliance of Free City States, from New Mexico and the Brown Berets. Fight Back!: What happened to the Brown Berets? Carlos Montes: The Brown Berets grew to have about fourteen chapters throughout the Southwest, with East L.A. being the National Office. After the initial organizing efforts, the Los Angeles Police Department and sheriffs sent undercover officers to infiltrate the Brown Berets. The police infiltrators spied and acted as agent provocateurs, with the purpose of arresting the leadership and disrupting the organization. The police used secret grand jury indictments to try to jail and tie up the leadership in court trials. The top-down military structure of the group did not allow for the development of new leadership, or the leadership and development of the women who did a lot of the internal work. The Brown Berets continued 'till about 1972, when they were disbanded. By then, the Prime Minister David Sanchez had degenerated into staging publicity stunts and running a one-man egomaniac undemocratic group. Fight Back!: What are the lessons for today? Carlos Montes: Building a mass militant movement to the stop the U.S. war drive, for social change and for revolution is key. Also rebuilding grassroots militant organizations in the community that fight for self-determination, social justice and liberation - not just for reforms. We need an organization that includes the participation of the entire family and that values and promotes the leadership of women. Fight Back!: What about today's 'Brown Berets?' Carlos Montes: The current group that call themselves Brown Berets have not led or been involved in any positive mass campaigns for self-determination or social change. They have not been able to grow or get support from any large segments of the Chicano community. They have not taken up the fight for immigrant rights or other important issues, especially the growing anti-war movement of today. They are primarily male and male dominated. They use militant rhetoric, but do not organize. To talk with Carlos Montes contact him at the Centro CSO (323) 221-4000
I'm keeping an eye on them nevertheless. And the MSM gave them some media time, more positive perhaps than they ever gave MMP.
They even got positive media publicity? What would be the result if the majority in the US formed a movement that was proud of it's culture, race and history? What groups would be against it (paging the censors)? This double standard, based as I said on Marxist principles, will cause problems for Americans. As millions of illegals flood the US each year, and as our system protects them, gives them special powers and rights, there will be less chance of broad assimilation. Too many Mexicans will harbor an us vs them mentality, driven by their leadership. And Americans will grow tired of double standards that affect them adversely. They may develop an us vs them mentality. Multi culti at it's finest.
that is just what I think too. And this 'brown beret' symbol is racist. It is reminiscent of the white sheets of the KKK. I live in phoenix area. Believe me, this is an accurate portrayal. they believe in brown power and brown pride. And when they are given special powers and privileges by the powers that be here in the US you will just encourage their racism. I can't emphasize enough that today in Chandler AZ at least and likely elsewhere little children who grew up speaking english are told in school that they must speak spanish. There are public schools where all instruction is given in spanish. No english. Little children who grew up with brown parents but speak english are told this. Little children who grew up with white parents who speak english are told this. I go into a McDonalds in downtown phoenix to buy something. and all the staff are recent arrival mexican. but 90% of customers are white. the staff is 100% recent arrival mexican because that is the group that is bilingual and the corporation has a policy of hiring bilingual only. And the person helping me can't even speak english, and that's happened to me, she goes and calls a translator to help serve me. and lots of young people have told me that they've been turned down from such jobs because theyspeak english only. I know people who are ethnic mexican, came here 30-40 years ago. their families are complete english speaking. and now they are learning spanish to get a job.
Exactly. The govt encourages racism in the special victim groups like the Hispanics. Since whites are portrayed as the predator group by govt and media, the govt stirs up the animosity of the Hispanics right off the bat. The relationship between the groups is set up by the govt to be adversarial. Then the govt gives the special groups protections rights and powers to go on the offensive against the white group- because they need special powers to combat the white group.
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#8. To: Lady X (#5)
Augustine Cebeda of the Brown
Berets deAztlanas he spoke on
Channel2 News: "Mexicans have
everyright to be here.
This land was stolen from us."
#10. To: Mr Nuke Buzzcut (#8)
"Mexicans have everyright to be here. This land was stolen from us."
#12. To: robin (#10)
source
The Brown Berets:
Fight Back! interviewed Carlos Montes, one of the founders and former Minister of Information of the Brown Berets National Office in East Los Angeles from 1967 to 1970. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Brown Berets emerged as one of the most powerful and militant organizations in the Chicano liberation movement. Like the Black Panther Party, the Brown Berets were hit hard by government repression. This interview brings out a part of our history that is rarely taught in schools and some lessons for today's activists from our movement's past.
Young Chicano Revolutionaries
#14. To: Mr Nuke Buzzcut (#12)
They use militant rhetoric, but do not organize.
#18. To: robin (#14)
The brown beret was a symbol of the pride in our culture, race and history.
#21. To: Bayonne, Robin, Zipporah (#18)
brown beret
#32. To: Red Jones (#21)
And when they are given special powers and privileges by the powers that be here in the US you will just encourage their racism.
Replies to Comment # 32.