In Sacramento, California an artistic cultural movement initially named the Rebel Chicano Art Front (RCAF) was founded to generate a sense of pride of indigenous culture during the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. The Rebel Chicano Art Front was created in 1969 by José Montoya and Esteban Villa. Villa and Montoya were originally part of a group called the Mexican American Liberation Art Front (MALA-F). The Rebel Chicano Art front name was a tribute to the previous MALA-F which they adopted their ideas from. Present in their work is a combination of blended Mexican, Indian, and American cultures. Their acronym caused a lot of confusion due to it being the same as the Royal Canadian Air force; in good humor they instead adopted their final name …show more content…
as the Royal Chicano Air Force. This group was made up of dedicated activist artist committed to social change specifically to the United Farm Worker Struggle. Villa and Montoya left the MALA-F when it was disbanded in 1969. During the Chicano Movement Mexican-American students pressured colleges and universities to diversify faculty. Thanks to their efforts Montoya and Villa were both hired as art professors at California State University, Sacramento (CSUS) by the newly created Ethnic Studies Department. Through this grand opportunity they created many programs including the RCAF in support of movement to organize farm workers in California. These programs allowed them to require university students to go out into the community and make a difference through their art. Its primary agenda was to regain pride to the Latino community through art and politics as well as grant artist an opportunity to exchange ideas, create educational workshops and present their art to the community. The RCAF is well known for its mural paintings, poster art production, and individual artistic contributions. RCAF is significant as a collective of twenty-five years of written, painted, preformed history expressing the important events in which the Chicano culture struggled in history to gain equal rights. The Royal Chicano Air Force often used their artistic talent to get the Latino Community actively involved on issues surrounding the Mexican-American community.
Two major issues the RCAF took interest in was the UFWA and Cesar Chavez; when the RCAF took involvement in these social issues, Villa and Montoya joined up with their students and other activist to produce posters, murals, and poetry reading for their cause. They advocated Cesar Chavez’s meetings and became the poster makers for the United Farm Workers Union (UFWA). The UFWA was an American labor union representing federal government employees which existed from 1937 to 1946. For many years farm workers had been exploited and denied decent living conditions. Farm workers began to realize they could change demand better wages and working conditions. The Mexican American community began to realize they could make a difference by even doing the smallest tasks just as the RCAF used their skills to make posters. As poster makers for the United Farm Workers Union and Cesar Chavez, they created a vast collection of silkscreen posters which they used to bring attention to such an important issue in the Latino …show more content…
Community. The Royal Chicano Air Force didn’t limit themselves to plays, murals or any type of art to educate and contribute to their community.
In 1972 they created a non- profit organization to assist cultural and political activism called the Cento de Artista’s Chicano. From then on there on came the La Nueva Raza Bookstore, Aeronaves de Aztlán (Automotive Repair Garage), RCAF Danzantes (Cultural Dance Venue), Barrio Art Program, the Chicano Culture Committee, and the Human Development Unit of Sacramento. They also created the Alkali Redevelopment Committee which specialized on housing projects. The Centro de Artista’s Chicanos also served as an agency to provide social services to low-income families such as the low-income Breakfast program in 1977 which served children breakfast before
school. Through their art and organizations the Royal Chicano Air Force created artistic cultural and political involvement throughout their community. Their artwork stands as a creation of national pride at a time when the Mexican-American communities were having identity crises. These students, faculty, and activist made an incredible impact through what they knew best, art. In addition, their well preserved posters and murals still show us today how strong the Latino community can be when they work together. With their impressive artistic talent and their drive to be politically involved in their community they not only recorded Chicano history but made it as well.
While working on the farms they would be sprayed with pesticides. The farm owners did not care at all for these people, only for their crops. They would work long hours without rest and little to no access to water or restrooms. All the workers would share drinking water by passing around a can and everyone would drink from there. Women had it more difficult because restrooms were not available, “it would be embarrassing, extremely humiliating,” as union co-founder, Dolores Huerta, described it in the video. This mistreatment kept going for years, some workers even said that it felt like slavery. In 1962 the National Farm Workers Association was created in Delano California to protest against all the farm owners that took advantage of the migrant workers. The founder of this association was a farmer named Cesar Chavez. He gathered farmers of all cultures to launch a strike that would hopefully undo all of these injustices that the workers had to go through. The farmers began their strike walking and yelling “Huelga” on the roads alongside the farms. This strike lasted two years but
3. Dolores Huerta was the main negotiator during the Delano grape strike. In 1965 Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez were approached by Filipino members of the Agricultural Workers Organizing Committee ("AWOC"). AWOC wanted higher wages from the Delano are grape growers. AWOC wanted to negotiate new contracts with their employers but they needed the help of Huerta and Chavez. The NFWA was still new and growing although Huerta thought that NFWA was not ready to attack corporate America she could not refuse to help AWOC. The two unions formed into one union called United Farm Workers union. Under this the union Dolores began the battle with the Delano grape growers. Dolores organized over 5,000 workers to walk off their job and to strike until they could reach an agreement with their employers.
Cheech Marin, a comedian actor and activist, said, “You have to want to be Chicano to be Chicano.” What Cheech Marin means by this is that being Chicano is something Chicanos feel and think instead of letting others give them that title. Before there were Aztecs and Chicanos there were the Mexica. The Mexica were natives who migrated all through out what is now known as Mexico. They each spread to different parts of the land. Most ended up in what is now present day Mexico City. Those Mexica later became the Aztecs. The Aztecs had a myth of how the earth and all living things were created. In the myth the Aztec sun god and the goddess of Earth both created all living things. Hence, making all Aztecs royalty. The city was then destroyed by the Spanish conquistadores. Although the Spaniards won the Aztecs didn’t go down without a fight.
The video “La Raza de Colorado: El Movimiento” and the exhibit “El Movimiento” at UNC’s Michener Library chronicle the struggles and triumphs of Mexican Americans in Weld County and throughout the state of Colorado. Visitors of the exhibit can see different graphics and pictures posted on the walls depicting many of the important events such as the protests against Kitayama farms in the 1960’s which aimed at improving working conditions and pay, especially for women. Not only were farm workers being exploited, but factory workers lacked appropriate conditions as well, to help with this, several groups such as United Farm Workers, Brown Berets and Black Panthers organized a united front in order to launch strikes and boycotts against offending farms, factories and businesses which oppressed and exploited minority workers. Another source of dissent was the Vietnam war. Minority groups felt that White America was waging a war against colored
The mission of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes is a non-profit organization/museum founded to celebrate and cultivate an appreciation for the enduring and evolving influence of Mexican and Mexican-American culture, with a specific focus upon the unique Mexican-American experience in Los Angeles and Southern California. The museum itself is near where Los Angeles was founded in 1871 and includes a 2.2 anchor campus that includes two historic and renovated buildings (Vickrey Brunswig Building and Plaza House). All surrounded by beautiful public gardens. La Plaza is also located near the heart of Los Angeles surrounded by other ethnic sites like Little Tokyo. (However after visiting one can 't help to realize the homeless problem in the Los Angeles area, and realizing some are even Chicano.)
...tural unions. Dolores Huerta’s energy, organizing, and speaking abilities only advanced the cause of the union.
This also showed that they also believed farm workers should be treated with more respect and dignity. This association did not just help its members gain more rights, but it also helped navigate social services and government agencies. Later, members of the NFWA could participate in a funeral burial program, a farm workers credit union, and the union. The NFWA, being one of the most active, have gained all these rights and privileges through its hard work and dedication. Leading pilgrimages, strikes, boycotts and fasts, helped to gain better fair medical coverage, better working conditions, higher wages, and workable
In 1938, the Chavez family lost their farm due to the Great Depression. They were forced to relocate to California and become migrant workers. Chavez was distressed by the poor treatment that migrant farmworkers endured on a daily basis. His powerful religious convictions, dedication to change, and a skill at non violent organizing cultivated the establishment of the United Farmworkers (UFW). It was also referred to as “La Causa” by supporters and eventually became a vital movement for self-determination in the lives of California's farmworkers. The astounding nationwide lettuce and grape boycotts along with public support revealed the atrocities of California agribusiness and resulted in the first union hiring halls and collective bargaining for migrant workers. The details of the childhood of Cesar Chavez and how they would later shape his actions are a vital aspect of this book and the establishment of the farm workers movement.
Since 1962, Chavez created and maintained a union for farm workers called the United Farm Workers of America. He went through many hard times and had to make very hard decisions but nothing stopped him from giving up on his dreams to help other people. In Document A, Dick Meister talks about how he saw the UFW through his point of view, a highly skeptical reporter from San Francisco. He says ...
“Si se puede”, Is something Ceasar Chavez said when he wanted to inspire people and change their lives. Cesar Chavez changed farm workers lives by getting them new rights,better pay, and got them safer working conditions. “Mother” Jones helped the rights of factory workers, but the laws she wanted to be passed didn’t happen until a few years after her death. They both helped workers rights but Mother Jones did a little more than Cesar Chavez because she physically helped the factory workers by getting them safer working conditions so they did not get hurt. In this essay i will be talking about who helped the most and i will also be comparing them both.
If he didn’t take action and accept the US Senate’s offer many workers would continue to have harsh workplaces. To show his dedication towards equality he “appropriated Catholic traditions from Mexico in the UFW’s twenty-one day, 250-mile protest march from Delano to Sacramento in 1966” . He knew that a protest of this size would not be overlooked so easily someone would notice sooner or later.
Throughout the American labor movement, there have been consistent interest groups involved with instituting unions and those advocating for their destruction. No labor movement has succeeded without battle between groups that desire control. The early 20th Century is no different--with the massive influx of immigrants and quick birth of the industrial revolution, the years 1900-1920 truly exemplified the conflict between workers and companies. This essay plans to detail the motives and tactics of four central groups fighting for control of worker’s rights by using the text Triangle: The Fire That Changed America by David von Drehle.
Imagine seeing 10,000 of your classmates walking out of your school because they wanted a better education - a better way of life. In the 1960s’ Chicano students were being “pushed out”(Esparza) of school or being pushed towards vocational programs. East L.A was home to schools were “one out of every four Chicano’s completed high school”(Esparza). Instructors and the school board alike did not have an interest in helping Chicanos finish school to become someone other than a laborer and was expected of them to keep being a laborer. In “Taking Back the Schools”, Sal Castro a high school counselor claims, “I think the bottom line is the lack of concern of the teachers towards the kids and whether the kids were really getting an education or not...the reality set in that the teachers weren’t really concern for the kids.”(Esparza).
One of the greatest civil rights activists of our time; one who believed the ways of Gandhi and Martin Luther King that “violence can only hurt us and our cause” (Cesar Chavez); a quiet, devoted, small catholic man who had nothing just like those he help fight for; “one of America's most influential labor leaders of the late twentieth century” (Griswold del Castillo); and one “who became the most important Mexican-American leader in the history of the United States” (Ender). Cesar Chavez; an American farm worker, who would soon become the labor leader that led to numerous improvements for union workers; it is recorded that Chavez was born near Yuma, Arizona on March 31, 1927 and died on April 23, 1993 in San Luis, Arizona. (Wikipedia) His life affected many others as his unselfish deeds changed the labor union force forever. This essay will discuss the reasons Cesar Chavez became involved in Union rights, the immediate impact he had, and also the legacy he left behind with his actions that influenced American society.
Child rearing and family structure within the Hispanic culture is noticeably different than what is present in the mainstream Western culture of today. One apparent difference is in gender roles. There exists a vastly different expectation in Hispanic culture for males and females. The male is considered to be the independent breadwinner, and the head of the household. Accordingly, the female role is one of submission and provider of childcare. In contrast, it is more than acceptable in Western culture for a female to maintain a non-traditional role. Hispanic culture additionally differs from Western culture in the traditional makeup of the family. Within Hispanic culture the extended family plays a huge role