UC San Diego UC San Diego Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Sacramento en El Movimiento : Chicano politics in the civil rights era Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0qv0r4w8 Author Márquez, Lorena Valdivia Publication Date 2010 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO Sacramento en El Movimiento: Chicano Politics in the Civil Rights Era A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Lorena Valdivia Márquez Committee in charge: Professor David G. Gutiérrez, Chair Professor Miroslava Chávez-García Professor Jorge Huerta Professor Vicki L. Ruiz Professor Nayan Shah Professor Daniel Widener 2010 Copyright Lorena Valdivia Márquez, 2010 All rights reserved. The dissertation of Lorena Valdivia Márquez is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm: ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________ Chair University of California, San Diego 2010 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ……………………………………………………………… iii Table of Contents ………………………………………………………….. … iv List of Images………………………………………………………………… vi List of Maps………………………………………………………………….. viii List of Tables…………………………………………………………………. ix Preface ……………………………………………………………………….. x Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………….. xlv Vita …………………………………………………………………………… li Abstract ……………………………………………………………………. .... lii I. Chapter One: Community Politics in Chicana/o Sacramento……...………. 1 Gate Keeping in California’s Gold Fields………………………….……… 3 Carving Out Mexican Space..…………………………………….………... 13 Economic Turmoil Leads to Mexican Political Organizing……………. …. 29 From the Bracero Program to Mexican American Ideology…………… …. 42 Post-War Sacramento………………………………………………………. 65 II. Chapter Two: The Debate Over the Benefits of Desegregation.………….. 75 The Call for Desegregation in Sacramento……………………………….. 82 Chicano Use of Courts..…………………………………………………... 100 Dynamics of the Washington Barrio……………………………………… 104 SCUSD Adopts Plan to Desegregate……………………………………… 109 Chicano Political Divisions Arise…………………………………………. 119 SCUSD Moves Forward with Desegregation……………………………… 152 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 156 III. Chapter Three: Cannery Workers Resist………………………………….. 160 Early Life of Rubén Reyes..…………………………………………… …. 165 History of Canneries in Sacramento ……………………………………… 173 The Rise of Teamsters Union in Sacramento……………………………... 180 The Formation of the Cannery Workers Committee……………………… 199 Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 222 iv IV. Chapter Four: Chicano and Native American Student Radical Organizing.. 225 Red Power…………………………………………………………………. 229 Brown Power …………………………………………………………........ 234 Intersecting Histories ……………………………………………………… 246 DQ-U is Born out of Protest……………………………………………….. 258 Fracturing Identity Politics………………………………………………… 293 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………. 305 V. Chapter Five: Conclusion …………………………………………………. 311 Community Ideological Lessons…………………………………………… 312 Retrospective Thoughts……………………………………………………. 316 VI. Bibliography ……...……………………………………………………….. 325 Primary Sources……………………………………………………………. 325 Secondary Sources…………………………………………………………. 332 v LIST OF IMAGES Image 1: “Bridge”…………………………………………………………... x Image 2: Dolores Huerta …………………………………………………… xi Image 3: “Stop Destroying Our Raza”……………………………………… xv Image 4: Bert Corona……………………………………………………….. xxvii Image 5: Mexican Track Workers………………………………………….. 13 Image 6: Alianza Hispano Americana…………………………………..….. 35 Image 7: Mexican Center Ladies Auxiliary…………………………………. 54 Image 8: Centro Mexicano………………………………………………..… 55 Image 9: Mexican American War Monument………………………………. 60 Image 10: Enriqueta Anadazola’s Family…………………………………… 62 Image 11: La Casa de MAPA……………………………………………….. 73 Image 12: Turkey Task……………………………………………………… 107 Image 13: A Rebirth of Chicano Art………………………………………… 108 Image 14: Demolition of Washington Elementary………………………….. 118 Image 15: CWC Bumper Sticker……………………………………………. 160 Image 16: CWC Newsletter…………………………………………………. 163 Image 17: CWC Poster………………………………………………………. 164 Image 18: Sacramento CWC Board Members………………………………… 204 Image 19: Vacaville CWC General Meeting…………………………………. 207 Image 20: Rubén Reyes holding Zapata Poster………………………………. 212 Image 21: Think Indian Sign…………………………………………………. 225 Image 22: Indians Before Monkeys………………………………………….. 267 vi Image 23: Tents at Army Depot Site………………………………………… 270 Image 24: Arturo J. Apodaca………………………………………………… 272 Image 25: Bárbara Ramírez………………………………………………….. 274 Image 26: March in Support of DQ-U………………………………………. 277 Image 27: Nordwall and Peace Pipe………………………………………… 278 vii LIST OF MAPS Map 1: Greater Sacramento Region…………………………………………. xiii Map 2: Gold Mining Regions……………………………………………….. 5 Map 3: Sacramento Barrios…………………………………………………. 21 Map 4: DQ-U…………..……………………………………………………. 227 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Latino Growth in Sacramento County…………………………….. 28 Table 2: Reaction to Report…………………..…………………………….. 113 Table 3: Production Workers……………………………………………….. 199 Table 4: Race/Ethnicity in Sacramento County…………………………….. 319 ix PREFACE Image 1: “Bridge,” Freeport Bridge, Freeport, CA. Marchers approaching state capitol. (Courtesy of Center for Sacramento History, Farm Labor Folder, SBPM5221, 4-10- 1966.) On Easter Sunday, April 10, 1966, tens of thousands of migrant farm workers and their supporters chanted “¡SÍ SE PUEDE, SÍ SE PUEDE!” (“Yes We Can, Yes We Can!”) in unison as they approached California‟s capitol. Armed with flags of the image of La Virgen de Guadalupe and the black eagle (the United Farm Workers Union‟s emblem) the marchers—whether they knew it or not at the time—were making history in the fight for Mexican labor rights in the United States. César Chávez and Dolores Huerta had organized a successful pilgrimage from Delano to Sacramento x to shed light on the poor working conditions of grape pickers. In her speech at the state capitol, Huerta addressed California Governor Edmund Brown and the California legislature on behalf of farm workers: “We are the citizens and residents of the state of California and we want to have rules set to protect us in this state.”1 In making these demands, Huerta asserted farm workers deserved the human and civil rights granted to other California residents. Image 2: UFW Co-founders, Dolores Huerta (right) and César Chávez (left). Huerta speaking at the UFW rally at state capitol following dramatic 300-mile farm worker march from Delano to Sacramento. (Courtesy of Center for Sacramento History, 83/149/2078, 4-10-1966.) The marches orchestrated by the UFW are synonymous with the Chicano Movement. It was a well-known and -represented event, yet we know little else about what transpired in the Sacramento region before, during, and after the Delano farm 1 “Marchers: Capitol Protest Ends Grape Strikers‟ Walk,” The Sacramento Bee, 11 April 1966, p. A10. Also see: Susan Ferris and Ricardo Sandoval, The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement (New York: Harcourt Brace and Company, 1997): 122-123. xi workers went home. What kinds of movements did Chávez and Huerta inspire and/or draw on? What was the context of the greater Sacramento valley in terms of political protest and activism?2 Sacramento, as the state capitol, has functioned as a symbolic point wherein the imagery of protest has been particularly prominent and Mexicans in the region have been impacted by those demonstrations.3 Indeed, by the time Chávez, Huerta, and their followers made their way to the capitol steps they had entered a terrain marked with an extensive historical trajectory of ethnic Mexican political organizing. Mexicans had historic roots in the Greater Sacramento Valley stretching as 2 For purposes of this dissertation the Greater Sacramento Region/Valley is defined here as El Dorado, Placer, Sacramento, San Joaquin, Solano Sutter, Yolo, and Yuba Counties. Sacramento has served as the social and cultural hub for ethnic Mexicans residing in surrounding counties. The eight- county region is expected to grow from a year 2000 population of 2.84 million, to 4.27 million by 2025 (an increase of 50 percent). Nancy Findeisen, President, Community Services Planning Council, Inc., “A Regional View of Social Disparities: A Visual Examination of the Socio-Economic Status of the Greater Sacramento Region” (Sacramento, CA: January 2004): 5. 3 I use the term “Mexican” or “ethnic Mexican” to refer to the combined population of the people of Mexican descent and heritage in the United States regardless of their actual nationality and/or citizenship status. I employ the term “Latino” as an umbrella term for descendents and nationals of Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean who reside in the United States regardless of nationality and/or citizenship status. Since the 1980s, large numbers of political refugees from Central and South America have settled in California and other states in the U.S. Thus, the term “Latino” played a more significant role during the 1990s than in previous decades when Mexicans were culturally dominant in California and the U.S. Southwest. Since the Chicano Movement of the late 1960s, many Chicano and Latino activists have viewed