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Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974

1973-04-14 Keynote Speech Page 10

who refused and voted against changing their name to LULAC. To this day theirs is the only chapter in this nation that exists with the name, Orden Hijjos De America. Maria Hernandez in the 1930's, along with Eluterio Escobar was getting 30,000 people in the streets of San Antonio protesting the same issues that we would protest in the sixties- the lack of education. 

The youth and the women then joined hands with the other force. They have always been put down and relegated to inferior status even by ourselves, the compesinas (the farm workers). Chavez comes up and he shows the effectiveness of consumer boycotts. The effectiveness of picket lines and of strikes. And he wins what his brothers started sixty, seventy years before. So, the farm workers, the youth and the women now have become the leaders of what is called the "Chicano Movement". From this change then we have had many, many contributions. There has been numerous organizations on campus, MECHA, UMAS, MAYO, MASO, you name it. Like flowers in the spring, we have had numerous organizations spring up throughout the whole of the country and a concept called Atzlan is introduced by Denver. A concept that calls for the creation of a nation within a nation. It's a concept that our enemies and some of us mistakenly limit geographically to the Southwest. Atzlan is where a Chicano is. The land in the Southwest that belongs to the people in the Southwest is only a part of the land. Since we were conquered in 1848 we have began, La Reconquista of this nation. There are settlements in Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Canada, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and throughout this country. There is not one state that does not have a Chicano settlement. Our constituency and our grounds are everywhere that we walk. We have earned this right. We have earned this land through our struggles and our skills and the talents we have poured into this land.

As we already mentioned, railroads, agriculture, timber, sugar beets, copper, iron, silver mines, we have earned it by also paying our dues in other ways. For our loyalty to American institutions. When we win or when we take over school districts we remain loyal to the socializing process of American institutions. We continue to speak English, we continue to read about Plymouth Rock and George Washington. But the opposite is true from the white person. When he loses control of his school he forms another school. This has been the while answer to integration in the South and it is now the white answer to Chicano liberation of schools in the Southwest. In Cristal, where I come from, when we were successful in winning elective office to the school board and changing the policies to reflect a more equitable system of the majority of the students, 91 percent to be exact,

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who refused and voted against changing their name to LULAC. To this day theirs is the only chapter in this nation that exists with the name, Orden Hijjos De America. Maria Hernandez in the 1930's, along with Eluterio Escobar was getting 30,000 people in the streets of San Antonio protesting the same issues that we would protest in the sixties- the lack of education. The youth and the women then joined hands with the other force. They have always been put down and relegated to inferior status even by ourselves, the compesinas (the farm workers). Chavez comes up and he shows the effectiveness of consumer boycotts. The effectiveness of picket lines and of strikes. And he wins what his brothers started sixty, seventy years before. So, the farm workers, the youth and the women now have become the leaders of what is called the "Chicano Movement". From this change then we have had many, many contributions. There has been numerous organizations on campus, MECHA, UMAS, MAYO, MASO, you name it. Like flowers in the spring, we have had numerous organizations spring up throughout the whole of the country and a concept called Atzlan is introduced by Denver. A concept that calls for the creation of a nation within a nation. It's a concept that our enemies and some of us mistakenly limit geographically to the Southwest. Atzlan is where a Chicano is. The land in the Southwest that belongs to the people in the Southwest is only a part of the land. Since we were conquered in 1848 we have began, La Reconquista of this nation. There are settlements in Iowa, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Canada, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington and throughout this country. There is not one state that does not have a Chicano settlement. Our constituency and our grounds are everywhere that we walk. We have earned this right. We have earned this land through our struggles and our skills and the talents we have poured into this land. As we already mentioned, railroads, agriculture, timber, sugar beets, copper, iron, silver mines, we have earned it by also paying our dues in other ways. For our loyalty to American institutions. When we win or when we take over school districts we remain loyal to the socializing process of American institutions. We continue to speak English, we continue to read about Plymouth Rock and George Washington. But the opposite is true from the white person. When he loses control of his school he forms another school. This has been the while answer to integration in the South and it is now the white answer to Chicano liberation of schools in the Southwest. In Cristal, where I come from, when we were successful in winning elective office to the school board and changing the policies to reflect a more equitable system of the majority of the students, 91 percent to be exact,