The Chicano Movement by Sara E. Martínez

Author:Sara E. Martínez [Sara E. Martínez]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781610697088
Publisher: ABC-CLIO

Buffalo Z. Brown encounters the poem again later in the book, after his failed campaign for sheriff (he came in second place!). He is visiting his brother Jesus and partying in Acapulco when Jesus challenges him about his support of the Chicano movement. Acosta’s real-life brother’s name was Robert or Bob, so we can take his fictional stand-in’s name as significant. Jesus takes him to the monument commemorating a former mayor of Acapulco, Lopitos, a humble campesino who brought his people to a scenic mountaintop in order to take it back from a gringo millionaire. He fought a long, hard battle but was ultimately assassinated. Brown defends his own actions in the Chicano movement—he “got in some licks”—but Jesus is not convinced that the Chicanos are ready to die and give all for their cause, as Lopitos did. While Brown is in Acapulco, he reads about the Chicano Moratorium protest march and rally. He is moved on learning that the rally turned into a riot and that the movement gained its first martyr in L.A. Times reporter Rolando Zanzibar (fictional alter ego for venerated L.A. Times reporter Ruben Salazar), a person whom Brown respected for reporting the truth with courage and conviction.

Besides Cesar Chavez and Zanzibar/Salazar who interviews, supports, and warns Brown about the dangers of challenging the powers that be, Buffalo Z. Brown interacts with other progressive leaders of the time. He leads the inquiry into Zanzibar’s death, defends Corky Gonzales, and works with Angela Davis; “The most famous Chicano of them all”—Anthony Quinn—supports him in his run for sheriff. But Brown’s constituents are the people, the pueblo, the students, los vatos locos, and the militants—“the little beasts that everyone steps on” (135).

When he seeks out the Chicano militants (the fictional stand-in group for the Chicano Liberation Front) at the beginning, Brown is carried away by the energy and passion of the incipient movement. The law degree and license he got just “to prove that even a fat brown Chicano could do it” (24) enable him to take on the role of defender and leader.

The high school students are the first to take to the streets protesting the conditions and their treatment in the schools in the Walk Outs3 with the support of the militants, the community, and the vatos locos. After walking out of school to march in protest, they are beaten, arrested, and outrageously charged with conspiracy, a charge that could put them in jail for up to 40 years—an example of the heavy-handed tactics the powers that be are willing to use when their grip on power is threatened.

The high emotions and bloody scenes of violence are potent and found at regular intervals throughout the book:

“VIVA LA RAZA! …

Big burly cops with shotguns on their shoulders jump out of the cars….

The cops begin to prod slow students with their clubs. Then there are a couple of swings. I see a kid with a blue beanie strike back. Down he goes. A long black club strikes him down like a twig….

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