From his humble beginnings as fieldworker and boxer, Corky learned how to persevere in the role of Chicano activist - he dedicated his life to fighting for the rights of others. Corky, born Rodolf Gonzales June 18, 1928, had to grow up quickly in life. At the young age of 2 Gonzales' mother Indalecia died, leaving his father Federico, to raise his 8 children, Corky being the youngest. Corky was raised in the tough east side barrios of Denver, and through the years his father instilled the histories of Mexico in his children. The family was very poor, so at a very young age Rodolfo began to work in the beat fields alongside his brothers and sister, all while attending school and eventually graduating. He was a humble young man but knew he wanted a different life. He fought his way out of the barrio through boxing, becoming a professional boxer and at one time being ranked in the top 3 feather weight by "Ring Magazine." Even before his retirement form boxing in 1955, he began his political activism, registering a record braking number of Latino voters for the Democratic Party in 1950 and leading the "Viva Kennedy" campaign. His successful efforts for change within the Democratic Party became a crucial turning point toward Chicano Nationalist Politics.
Chicano Pride
Chicano is a person of Mexican origin or descent, especially a man or boy. To get a more detailed definition I had to go into Wikipedia where it defined it as, Chicano or Chicana is a chosen identity for people of Mexican descent born in the United States. Wikipedia is more in line with the meaning because it states that the person of Mexican descent is living in the United States, though Chicano means so much more. The Chicano word is best known for the Chicano Movement where the community rose up against the "gringo establishment," had a voice and demanded reforms in education, social acceptance and economic stability. Not only did if fight for that, but it also fought for the Mexican roots such as the art, music, vision, pride and culture. Once used as a demeaning term to define poor, lower class working Mexicans in America, became something totally different. It became a word that brought a sense of, "meaning to be proud of your Mexican Indigenous roots and committed to the struggle for liberation of all oppressed people." This defines the people who are not totally Mexican nor totally what is perceived as American. Those of us who have one foot and half of your heart here, and half in our native land. It does not mean I am not as American as anyone else, but it means that I am not just American, and I will continue to live by my other culture as well as my American culture. These lines from "I am Joaquin," impacted me greatly, "I shed the tears of anguish as I see my children disappear behind the shroud of mediocrity, never to look back to remember me. I am Joaquín. I must fight and win this struggle for my sons, and they must know from me who I am" (Gonzales.) We must teach our sons and daughters the history of us, we are all Joaquin, and if we do not then our culture will fade and be lost under the American culture. To me, Chicano means not losing our Mexican roots in this American society, being able to proudly represent both through a balance and understand the battles that were waged in order for people like me to be able to do so.
Yo Soy Joaquin
In 1966, Gonzales wrote a letter of resignation to Alfredo J Hernandez where he told him " I will not compromise my principles, may ideas and my honor to be seated at the same table with hypocrites" (Gonzales). He firmly and unapologetically believed that the 2-party system offered few benefits and the Chicano's could not rely on the "Gringo establishment" to provide education, economic stability or social acceptance. From there rose a party he co-founded, the party of the Congreso de Aztlan. The Congreso of Aztlan, which focused on the right of the Mexican American people, gained immense support in Texas by 1970 but due to lack of coordination and resources it died out within a decade. His best-known contribution to the Chicano Movement that rose it to its national level, is a piece he wrote as a poet knows as, "Yo Soy Juaquin." It spoke to the nation, battles won and lost by Mexico, bloody depictions of defeat and of the heart that resulted from these battles that would not give up on Mexico's people. It's captivating ending is, "I shall endure, I will endure" (Gonzales.) There he let the nation know there was no giving up for the Chicano people. Gonzales fought for the cause because he both experienced and saw the injustices the community faced. He wanted a better future for the Chicano community, especially focusing on the youths, which now included his own children. He believed if the Chicano community became educated, they could once again control their own destinies.
The Fight for Equal Education
In 1968, Chicano Movements were beginning to catch way. Famous public Chicano figures, such as Corky, were elevating the Movement to a national level. More and more Chicanos were losing their fear of speaking up and beginning to join the fight for equality of life in the United States. Equality in, housing, education, job opportunities, police brutality and culture were their main focus. Though, the nation was not prepared for what was about to come from the young Chicano population attending the five High Schools in East L.A. These students would not be silenced anymore, nor continue to endure the inequalities. That groundbreaking day Julian Nava, the only Mexican American on the LA school board at the time, said to Superintendent Crawther, "This is B.C and A.D., the schools will not be the same hereafter" (Sahagun). Nava was making it clear to Crawther that the Chicano initiated student walkouts, unfolding in front of their eyes, mandated immediate education reforms. The school board was not prepared for thousands upon thousands, of minority group high school students, to walk out of their classes to march alongside each other in protest. Protesting run down campuses they were forced to attend, lack of college courses and guidance being offered and racist, indifferent, or under trained teachers working at those school. How were the Chicano's attending these schools supposed to prosper with all those obstacles standing in their way to a brighter future? They believed the same as Corky, with better education, the Chicano community could once again control their own destiny, and they were now demanding it.
The walkouts caused national attention, forcing the board of education to listen. The numbers spoke for themselves. The Chicano dropout rates, were some of the worst in the nation, ranging from a 39% to a soaring 59%. The UCLA Chicano enrollment was at a low 100 students and college enrollment on a national level was only at 2%. A short year after the walkouts and the education reforms they fought for were enacted, the number rose substantially at UCLA from 100 to 1,900 and today Chicanos make up 25% of college enrollments nationwide. Today the Chicano dropout rates are thankfully substantially lower, at 13-28% at those east LA school mentioned above. Yet those numbers are much higher than the west LA schools such as Malibu, with only a 5% drop out rate, meaning there is still work to be done today. These groundbreaking walkouts, made headlines, became a movie, became part of our history and brought significant education reforms for our nation, paving the way for a much brighter future for the Chicano people.
Lasting Impact
The Chicano movement, where Corky was a leading figure, lead to greater possibilities for the Chicano community, including myself and fellow classmates, to build a better future graduating high school, attending college and demand equality and justice for our people. Yes, we have come a long way but still have so much farther to go. The stats for 2017 show that just in that year in California, 172 Hispanic or Latinos, were killed by police, yet you don't see that all over the news (Egelko.) What I see everywhere is Black Lives Matter, and injustices against them. Which is great because they are a minority group who have had to face so much, but we must begin to bring our injustices to light as well. What recently happened with Vanessa Guillen, would not have become what it became if her family did not push the issue as they did. They spoke to news channels and anyone who would listen, they protested for her and are still in the fight for justice for her. Segregation in housing and schools are no more, but there is racism everywhere. Laws are being passed where police can ask for documentation during a routine traffic stop. Undocumented families are detained and kept in cages, children separated from their parents, where many have been sexually assaulted. When i was a correctional officer for CDCR my housing unit held 200 hundred inmates daily and about 130, 65%, of those men were classified Hispanics. Today the Hispanic race makes up one third of the prison population in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation alone, not taking into account federal and private prisons!
Silence is Violence
Corky was a Chicano activist that stood for the rights of Chicanos back in the 1960's. Though the issue he speaks upon in a news interview I watched, is an issue that we continue to experience today. He spoke upon the police brutality and injustices against a minority. When you look up the statistics, between 2016 and 2018 Hispanics made up 39% of California's population but represented 46% of deadly police shootings (Koran). Yet we fall second to the rates for African Americans meaning that every other race makes up only about 7% of Police deadly shootings.
The numbers speak for themselves. This is what "Corky" was fighting for. To end the injustices, to not let the police brutalities go unpunished. His daughter recalled on an interview her father telling her, " Afraid, why? If your standing up for the right reason, for justice and humanity then you stand up. You can lose something in the process, you could even lose your life, but then what's the sense of even living it if you have to live in fear?"
Fight to the End
In that same interview Corky said something that hit home with me, "We will not be treated like animals, subdued and bent,"(Gonzales). In 2006 my father was taken into police custody. He was seen resisting arrest by witnesses and bystanders, so Brawley PD used force they deemed necessary, tasing him. He was subdued, handcuffed and taken into custody at around 5 am. By 8am that same morning my father was taken to PMH by Brawly PD clinically dead. Nurses and doctors had to perform life saving measures and brought my father back to life three times. He was cut at the wrists from the cuffs, had a blow to his skull that cracked his cranium which lead to his swollen brain and had bruises and cuts all over his arms and face. Brawley PD waited over three hours to notify us, his immediate family, of the situation. Three days later we had to disconnect him, I was 12 years old when my father died while in police custody. What happened to my father within those three hours in custody? He went in alive and came out beaten and dead. We were never able to get answers or justice, my mother as a resident was too scared to go up against the police department. What Gonzales said many years before this occurred, applied to my father, he was treated like an animal, subdued and bent. The blame was thrown on my father. This is where I truly ask as Gonzales did, "ARE THE DEAD THE GUILTY PARTY?" Gonzales threw his life into fighting against injustices like these, yet we continue to experience them about fifty years later. Why?
We Demand Equality
Today we can see some of what I've spoken of through movies and music, the biggest platforms to get anything out in the public eye. The movie “Walkout” is a movie that came out in 2006 depicting the East La Walkouts of the five high schools in East LA that were majority attended by minorities. Olmos did a good job depicting the walkouts and the police involvement on top of many other things, thought it didn’t show much of the bad barrios the students grew up in or other struggles, nor did it show other major character in the actual Walkouts such as the “East LA 13” who each faced up to 60 years in prison. Other movies such as “Blood in Blood Out’" “American Me,” or” La Mission” depict the uglier side of growing up in tough barrios as Chicanos. A song that has been coming out everywhere lately, has lyrics that say exactly what Corky used to say back then, in today's words. The title of the song is what attracted me to it, “Exigimos Igualdad,” translated to English means; we demand equality! The artist Roaro isn't a big-time artist, he's an aspiring upcoming Mexican artist, born in Leon Guanajuato and currently living in Los Angeles, though he’s been using his platform to spread a message.. The story behind this song is of the brutal killing of the young 20-year-old soldier, Vanessa Guillen, who was killed at the hands of her superior who had sexually harassed her beforehand. Towards the beginning Roaro uses a simile saying "Como animales a nuestros niños en jaulas los tienen encerrados," meaning they have our children locked in cages like animals. It's a very sad simile but it's a true one, we have seen on new reports and articles how children and adults are being held in ICE detention centers, in small cages stuffed to max capacity with a small plastic like blanket to cover up while sleeping on the cold cement floors. He uses the metaphor, "Pues nosotros siempre estamos pa' dar la mano, Y ustedes nos dan la espalda." Vanessa had taken an oath to defend America even if it meant giving her life, yet when she needed help, the Army and government turned their backs on her. They did not protect her; they did not search for her nor did they show any signs of intentions to do so. The mood in this song is a rising of empowerment through anger. Yet it's a wakeup call to all of our raza, that we must make our voice heard to prevent this from happening anymore. He makes the point that we are all equal and deserve to be treated as so, we have no reason to endure humiliation and mistreatments. From the deportation from lands that were once Mexican soil, to the inhumane treatment of our honest working people just trying to earn a living. What we can take from this, is that we do have a voice, we can make a change, we do have the same value and we will gain equality in America.
This I Believe:
Through all my research I have learned so much of everything Corky fought for, the humble beginnings he came from and the impacts he made in this country. If today I am appalled by the treatment of minorities, I could only imagine through my reading and research, how bad it was back then. This man fought for the Chicano communities' cultural rights, political rights, equality in housing, injustices by law enforcement and so many other things especially for our equality in education. Would I have wrote this paper if it weren't for the education reforms, he fought so hard for? What I've asked myself time and time again is, what would my sons futures look like if all those reforms and equalities he worked towards, never would have happened? As a parent, even before ourselves, we think of our kids. Today we can honestly tell our children, of any race, you can be anything you want to be in this world. From this man I learned that even people from the humblest beginning, such as working in the fields as both he and I have, you can achieve the unimaginable. Our voice is heard, we must speak up and we can cause a positive change in this world. He focused on the younger community and I figured out through this research, that that is the focus area I want to go into when I become a Social Worker, the youth which will shape our tomorrow. One of Corky’s greatest strengths was the ability to speak life into his people and he continues to today, even after his death. His words will forever be true in my heart, I must fight and win this struggle for my sons.
Work Cited
Walkout. Dir Olmos, Edward J. HBO. 2006. Film
Gonzales, Rodolfo. I Am Joaquin, Yo Soy Joaquin. Bantam, First Edition 1972
Gonzales, Rodolfo; forward by Antonio Esquibel. Message To Aztlan: Selected Writings of Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. January 2001. PP. 2-6.
“A Message to the Democratic Party”. El Gallo: La Voz De La Justicia. Aug. 1967
Vigil, Ernesto B. “The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government's War on Dissent.” June 15, 1999
Maceo Montoya. Chicano Movement for Beginners. 2016. Pp. 82-102
Sahagun, Louis. “East L.A., 1968: ‘Walkout!’ The day high school students helped ignite the Chicano power movement.” Los Angeles Times. March 1, 2018
Letter to Alfred J. Hernandez from Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, 1967, Ernesto Vigil Collection, 2-12, Special Collections and Archives at the University of Colorado Boulder Libraries.
Egelko, Bob. “Latinos account for nearly half of 172 people killed by police in California in 2017.” San Francisco Chronicle. Jan 2, 2019.
Koran, Mario. “We’re suffering the same abuses’: Latinos hear their stories echoed in police brutality protests.” The Guardian. June 12, 2020.