Aztlán
At night Alurista, a young poet, was hard at work. Drawing upon Aztec folklore, he drafted a new mythology for Chicanos, describing a symbolic Chicano homeland within the borders of the United States. According to legend, the Aztec people had migrated from a place called Aztlán to Central Mexico. For Chicanos, aztlan came to mean the Southwestern United States. Their homeland. Aztlan became a call for political power. A call heard when over a thousand chicanos marched out of conference headquarters to the state capitol. There they lowered the Colorado state banner and raised the Mexican flag. To outsiders it looked like chicanos were turning their back on America, to chicanos it meant they were here to stay. The conference adopted Alurista’s poem as the preamble to its 15 point plan. The next step was to make aztlan a reality. Within a year the movement was poised to launch an independent political party. The kickoff would coincide with a demonstration against chicano casualties in Vietnam. President Richard Nixon came to office in 1968, promising to reduce American troops in Vietnam. Instead, he widened the war. Opposition to Vietnam was taking hold in the chicano community. Mexican American casualties were disproportionate to their numbers. In the southwest, Mexican Americans made up 12% of the population, but accounted for almost 20% of the regions deaths in Vietnam according to many sources. Mexican American’s had served with distinction in the u.s. military since the civil war and during world wars 1 and 2 received the highest military honors. Los Angeles times columnist, ruben Salazar, had been following the chicano movement ever since the Denver Youth Conference. Chicanos in turn were coming to respect his frank commentary. Salazar now joined chicanos in vocal opposition to the war. A chicano moratorium committee was formed to build momentum against the war. They held antiwar rallies in Chicago, san Francisco, Austin, and Houston with a major demonstration slated for los angeles in august 1970. A moratorium march. Afterwards, corky Gonzales and others hoped to convene the first meeting of an all chicano political party. On august 29th, twenty-five to thirty thousand chicanos gathered in los angeles to protest the war in Vietnam. After a four and a half mile march the demonstrators gathered in laguna park. During the afternoon rally a disturbance erupted at a local liquor store. Demonstrators found refuge in nearby homes or in local business as police forced people out of the park and into the streets. Deputy sheriff Thomas Wilson responded to a report that an armed person was in the silver dollar bar on whittier boulevard. Some people inside never heard the orders to come out, among them, ruben Salazar. The deputy sheriffs teargas canister hit Salazar in the head, killing him. Chicanos mourned the life of a friend, and their only ally in the mainstream media. The death of ruben Salazar had a profound impact on the chicano movement. Two hundred people were arrested, sixty were wounded, three died, and plans to create an all chicano political party were postponed.