CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS

THESIS SIGNATURE PAGE

THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE

MASTER OF ARTS

IN

SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE

THESIS TITLE: Resistir Para Existir: "Giving Power Back to the Community"

AUTHOR: Luis M. Higinio

DA TE OF SUCCESSFUL DEFENSE:

THE THESIS HAS BEEN ACCEPTED BY THE THESIS COMMITTEE IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN SOCIOLOGICAL PRACTICE.

Sharon Elise ~ /c, l,"1­ THESIS COMMITTEE CHAIR ~

Christopher Bickel s/1Ir) THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER DATE

Richelle Swan THESIS COMMITTEE MEMBER ,-GNATUREfrtJd"CWv Resistir Para Existir: “Giving Power Back to the Community”

By Luis M. Higinio

MASP PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN MARCOS

THESIS COMMITTEE Dr. Sharon Elise, Chair Dr. Christopher Bickel Dr. Richelle Swan

Abstract

My research question asks how, in Fallbrook, California, Mexican@/Chican@s mobilized to create Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pubelo (MUDP), challenge white supremacy ideology

and give a voice to the Mexican@ community. In a time of racist repression fueled by Tom

Metzger’s White Aryan Resistance (WAR) ideology, hyper policing of youth, surveillance by

Border Patrol and intense everyday racism, a counter resistance organization emerged. Given the

racially antagonistic relationship toward the Mexican@ population in Fallbrook, the narrative of

MUDP reveals the shape and form of resistance against white supremacy in this rural

community. I conducted six in-depth focused semi-structured interviews with former and current

MUDP members, 4 men and 2 women. The counter narrative uncovered in these interviews

captures the years of struggle in this community and their liberatory practice, one built on transparency, education, self-determination, and liberation.

Keywords: Resistance, racism, grassroots organizing, Chicano Sociology, empowerment,

Internal Colonialism, counter narratives, protest, liberation, historical accounting, identity,

Mexican@, Chican@

1 Acknowledgements

Para Estevan Huitzilli, Mijo espero que continúes siendo libre Y siempre recuerda que te quiero. From the moment, I heard your little heart beat I knew that I had to make you proud. Hope I don’t let you down!

To Morayma: You are my strength and biggest supported, I love you. This MA wouldn’t be possible without you. It was you who introduced me to la resistencia. You allowed me to reach a level of, social cultural, and political understanding that has continued to shape me. You are an inspirational woman and I’m blessed to have you. Thank you for understanding all the late nights away from you and Estevan. This MA has been a family effort. Los quiero mucho.

Para mis padres: Los quieros Mucho! Gracias por traerme a este mundo. Admiro su fuerza de migrar y de luchar por una vida mejor. Les agradezco que me hayan enseñado a ser humilde y luchar.

To my brothers and sister: This is only the beginning. Our family has endured a lot and we continue to push forward. We have a story to share, let’s share it.

Para mis suegros: Gracias por creer en mí. Sus palabras siempre me ayudaron cuando las cosas se ponían difícil. “las cosas más difíciles de la vida son las cosas buenas de hacer.” Los quiero mucho.

To the Flores Brothers: You have inspired me to continue my education. Thank you for the love, advice, and wisdom you have shared with me. You are the epitome of the Toltecayotl.

To my MUDP Comrade brothers and sisters: Your impact and knowledge have forever shaped how I look and interact with the world. I continue to learn from each one of you. Your commitment to the liberation of our gente is inspiring. I will forever be grateful for the opportunity to organize alongside each of you. MUDP has truly been the foundation of my life and now my scholarly work.

To my committee members: This research started out as an idea. It was the hours of conversation that shaped it into this MA. Dr. Sharon Elise thank you for pushing my work forward, your feedback and critical perspectives transformed this MA. Dr. Chris Bickel, thank you for believing in me and my work. I truly appreciate your edits, “show don’t tell” will be ingrained in my writing forever. Dr. Richelle Swan when I took your class I knew that I wanted you to be part of this project. I truly appreciate all your knowledge. The pro-seminar was informative and helpful and you taught me to believe in myself as a scholar and researcher. This was a collective effort and I thank you all for turning my idea into this beautiful MA. Gracias!

Dr. Xuan Santos:

2 It was that fateful day that we ran into each other in San Marcos. I am a strong believer in being at the right place at the right time, we were. You pushed me to come back and made me believe that I could return and finish the program. Thank you for believing in me. It’s professor like you that are needed in the academy. I will forever be grateful for your words of encouragement.

To the many cohorts I was fortunate to be a part of: Thank you for allowing me to learn from you. You are all some dope scholars. Stay grounder, stay humble and believe in your work.

Stalin: You believed in my work when I first came back to the program. I appreciate your friendship and I admire all your tenacity. You are a Chican@ Sociologist. Vámonos recio!

Guillermo: Thanks for the writing sessions. Let’s continue producing some critical work.

3 Table of Contents Abstract ...... 1 Acknowledgements ...... 2 Introduction ...... 5 Statement of the Problem ...... 8 Literature Review: Resistance Movements ...... 9 The Creation of a New Identity and the Resistance to Colonialism ...... 10 The Chican@ Movement in Los Angeles Proposed a New Model for Resistance ...... 11 A Resistance Tactic Emerges to Embrace Community Control ...... 12 The War on the Power Movements of the 1960s and the Weakening of Community Control ...... 14 Chican@ Park and the Centro Cultural: Taking Control of Our Own Spaces ...... 15 May Day 2006: Moving towards the politics of inclusion ...... 16 Theoretical Frameworks ...... 18 LatCrit: Sharing Narratives ...... 19 Internal Colonialism ...... 19 Chican@ Sociology: A Chicano looking at the Chican@ Experience ...... 21 Methodology ...... 22 Interviews ...... 22 Participant Profiles ...... 25 Reflexivity ...... 26 Findings ...... 30 Fallbrook: Growing up in the Groves, Suburbs, Barrio Neighborhoods of apartments and trailer parks...... 31 Facing Racism at School: “Hey Wetback” ...... 35 Facing Racism in the Community: “No más, Aquí!” ...... 39 Facing Racism: Fallbrook Sheriffs and La Migra ...... 42 History of Organizing: M.E.Ch.A, United Pride, Aztlan Creation, and the Zapatistas ...... 45 The Beating: “He was brutalized…by cops” ...... 50 From I to We: “All this struggle… went to form Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo” ...... 53 The March: “My protest sign was my middle finger” ...... 56 The Struggle for Bilingual Education: “La Escuela Popular Rogelio Favela” ...... 60 The trailer park struggle: “We have the right to determine our own housing situation” ...... 64 Back to Theory: Making Sense of Narratives ...... 68 Conclusion: La Lucha Sigue ...... 70 Appendix ...... 73 References...... 75

4 Introduction

He called for backup, as if he needed it. At 13-years old, I was handcuffed and taken to the Sheriff’s station with my friends. They placed us in different rooms. I still remember his name—Officer Joe Montion. He would later have the pleasure of arresting all the men in my family. Back then, he came in with a Coke and a bagel and began his interrogation:

Why did we write on the wall? “I didn't,” I responded. So, who did? “I don't know,” I mumbled. “Are you a VFL?” referring to a local gang. “No.” “Don’t lie to me, you little piece of shit!” he yelled. “I’m not lying; I’m telling you the truth.” “What do they call you on the streets? What’s your gang name? What do your homies call you?” Before I could respond, “I don’t want to hear no bullshit,” he shot back. “You’re a fucking gang member running with the VFLs. But you’re not shit. I will beat the shit out of you and all your homies.”

I was scared, crying, I didn’t know if I would ever go home. He walked out of the room. I could hear my friends sobbing. When he returned, he said “Guess what? I called one of your older homeboys and he said, if you don’t tell me you’re a VFLs he will personally kick your ass. But if you tell me you are, I will tell him you proved yourself to me.” I started making things up, “I’m VFLS, I got jumped in at the age of 12. They call me Shorty.” I was torn inside; it was all lies. He took me in front of a white wall. “Stand there and show me your gang sign,” he commanded. “My what?” I was confused. I mimicked his hand gestures. I made an F with my fingers. This was it. I was a gang member. He snapped a picture.

As a Mexicano growing up in Fallbrook, California I experienced firsthand how police criminalized youth. My experience and these types of encounters with the police are not unique.

This type of policing is rooted in a white supremacist ideology that has permeated Fallbrook.

Simultaneously, while Sheriffs criminalized Mexican@ youth, a white supremacy group was freely operating out of Fallbrook.

In the early 70s throughout the late 90s Fallbrook was home to Thomas Metzger, Ku

Klux Klan member and founder of White Aryan Resistance (WAR). Metzger’s WAR networks, affiliates, and repressive tactics are shared on his web page and hotline (Dees 1993). Metzger and his son John recruited Fallbrook High school students to join Aryan Youth Movement

5 (AYM), a youth component of WAR, and were openly opposed to Blacks, Mexicans, and Jews

(Dees 1993). His attempts to scare and brutalize communities of color are evident in his hate

literature and violent practices in North County San Diego (Hennessy 2009). In the early 80s

Metzger, along with 40 other Klansmen incited a riot in Oceanside at the John Landes Park when

they attempted to “rid it of Mexicans and other aliens” (Hennessy 2009:9) Like most hate

groups, Metzger preyed on adolescents to carry out his violent ideology and advocated a Lone

Wolf strategy, underground activity of individual or small groups to attack proposed targets

(Dees 1993). In Fallbrook, the following attacks were documented:

1984, Fallbrook California, six U.S Marines conduct “beaner raids,” armed attacks on Mexican migrant workers in their caves; 1985, Fallbrook, California, sniper shoots and wounds 17-year-old migrant in back and paralyzing him from the waist down (Suárez- Orozco 1995:39).

During his stay, overt racism in Fallbrook was prevalent and violent assaults on

Mexican@s were carried out with impunity. The large concentration of Mexican@s in Fallbrook

made for a convenient target. Known as the avocado capital of the world, Fallbrook’s

agricultural business attracts many immigrants from south of the U.S-Mexico border. The

presence of Mexican@s and hegemonic white views of them are articulated as follows in local

Fallbrook History:

Among the most interesting and colorful visitors from the south are the “wet-backs”, in the United States without permit and subject to immediate return to Mexico if picked up by the border patrol. There have always been some wet-backs in the area and since the termination of the bracero program there are probably many more (Marquis 1977:60).

Mexican@ agricultural workers have impacted the economic growth of the agriculture business and have made others in Fallbrook wealthy. The annual revenues from the avocado industry approximate $26 million. In addition, nursery products and flower markets contribute about $83 million, while citrus crops add another $1.3 million, altogether accounting for a third

6 of Fallbrook’s income (Fallbrook CPEP 2006). However, from the perspective of the Fallbrook

white elites, Mexican@s are still seen as nothing more than illegal “wet-backs” in their native

lands (Ponce 2012). When the need for cheap labor is fulfilled the Mexican@ population

experiences repression of another sort. In broader social context, the geographic proximity of the

Temecula border check point adds another dimension to the repression of Mexican@s in

Fallbrook.

U.S Border Patrol agents patrol the streets aiming to deport those who fail to provide

proof of residency. In one instance, my mother was sweeping her front yard when she witnessed

the persecution of a Mexicano man. The Border patrol agent was chasing after a “suspected

illegal,” who happened to run through my mother’s house. The agent lost track of his suspect. He

returned to my mother and asked for her legal documentation. When my mother couldn’t provide

legal papers, she along with my brother and I—though we were both U.S citizens—were

deported to Tijuana, Mexico.

In a time of racist repression, fueled by Tom Metzger White Aryan ideology, hyper

policing of youth, surveillance by the border patrol, and everyday racism a counter resistance

organization emerged. On May 26, 1993, 200 Mexican@s marched down Main street to the

Fallbrook Sheriff Station to denounce police brutality (Chris Moran Union Tribune 1993). This

action lead to the creation of Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo (MUDP).

In this thesis, I take a closer look at the events that lead to the creation of MUDP. By

deconstructing the political climate of the 1990s, I explore how Mexican@s organized and resisted white supremacy in a rural community, paying particular attention to how they reclaimed

their existence. My research question asks how Mexican@/Chican@s organized/mobilized

against white supremacy in a repressive rural community.

7 Statement of the Problem

In 1984, a group of Mexican@ youth formed a “do good” organization called United

Pride. The idea behind United Pride was to help shape and change the negative white perception

of the Mexican@ community. United Pride’s first self-appointed task was to clean up the

neighborhood of trash and graffiti. The white community and media responded by joining the

youth in the initiative to clean up “their streets.” United Pride members felt accepted and

recognized, and believed they had gained acceptance from the white community. However, even

as the police acknowledged the group for cleaning up the community, they simultaneously

continued to repress the Mexican@ youth through arrests and brutality. The arrest and beating of

a United Pride member by the local sheriffs was the culminating event that lead to community mobilization and creation of MUDP. A well-known youth and member of United Pride,

Guillermo Covarrubias, was arrested and beaten at his home in front of his grandparents by

County Sheriffs in Fallbrook. The brutality of the arrest mobilized the community to march

toward the Fallbrook Sheriff’s station and demand justice for Guillermo (Chris Moran Union

Tribune 1993).

In the 1990s California passed propositions that would ignite conversations of race and

racism (HoSang 2007). Two of the propositions, Prop. 187 in 1994 and Prop. 227 in 1998

directly targeted Latina/o majorities in California. Latina/os, in particular Mexican@s are viewed

by Anglos as threat to the white hegemonic American culture. These racial propositions are

indicative of an enduring history of white supremacy in California and are an attempt to recolonize the Mexican@ population. In 1994, Proposition 187, also known as “Save our State,” proposed to eliminate public services ranging from health care to education for supposed illegal immigrants and their children—even those born in the U.S., thus attempting to abolish the

8 benefits of the 14th Amendment. Proposition 227 eradicated bilingual education in public schools (HoSang 2007). The idea of a monolingual education is rooted in a white supremacy ideology for the continual internal colonization of a people (Bartolomè 2006). Imposing an

English only education perpetuates internal colonization, directly targeting and eradicating peoples’ native language rendering the colonized groups culture dependent, forcing assimilation and acculturation but not fully allowing groups to assimilate (Mirandé 1982). These, added to other racially repressive legislations including Proposition 209, the “Civil Rights Initiative” that terminated race and gender considerations for affirmative action, and the “Three Strikes” law that mandated 25 to life sentences for a third criminal offense, altogether curtailed access to social resources and extended the pipeline to prison.

In Fallbrook, members of MUDP pointed to anti-immigration/Mexican@ sentiments to help frame a need for community organization rooted in three prong campaign, “Por un Pueblo

Libre, Sano y Combativo” (For a Free, Healthy, and Combative town). The creation of MUDP in a rural community to challenge the repressive tactics and white supremacy ideology gave a voice to the Mexican@ community. Given the racially antagonistic relationship toward the Mexican@ population in Fallbrook, it is imperative to capture the narrative of MUDP to uncover the shape and form of resistance against white supremacy in a repressive rural community. To better understand how Mexican@/Chican@ movements have unfolded in the U.S it is important to take a closer look at the literature on Mexican@/Chican@ movements.

Literature Review: Resistance Movements

To understand how some Mexican@s organize/mobilize and resist white supremacy in a repressive rural community I analyze the literature on the emergence of Chican@ identity,

Chican@ movements, resistance tactics, and the repression of the power movements of the

9 1960s. Furthermore, it is crucial to look at how Chican@/Mexican@ resistance develops in the

Southwest and how these movements and organizations frame a discourse that challenges colonialism.

The Creation of a New Identity and the Resistance to Colonialism

Prior to the 1960’s some Mexican@s living in the U.S considered themselves racially white and even referred to themselves as Mexican-American to embrace this racial categorization (Haney- Lopez 2001). This racial superiority and white identity can be traced to the Spanish conquest and the mestizaje of the Americas where white (Spanish) identity was imposed to reject and wash out the “Indian” blood that was considered racially inferior (Escobar

1993). Cristina Beltran (2005) further explains, “In the U.S., to engage in assimilation with

Anglo America would be to legitimatize the, ‘second conquest’ of 1848” (599). Rodolfo “Corky”

Gonzales’ poem, “Yo Soy Juaquin” captures through text, the duality of an identity rooted in violence and conquest, emphasizing the need for Chican@s to come to terms with their history to know who they are and where they are going (Beltran 2005). This knowledge of history and awareness becomes a precondition for political agency and consciousness (Beltran 2005). The need for a new identity emerges out of resistance to the settler colonial domination of

Mexican@s in the southwest.

Furthermore, the new Chican@ identity emphasizing familial unity and community was performed by resistance and cultural pride (Garcia 1995). According to Denise A. Segura

(2001), the term Chican@ not only become a new identity but a way of life, not fully Mexican,

American, nor Mexican-American, “a new cultural identity for our people signaling a rebirth of pride and confidence” (542). This new outlook on culture and birth of consciousness can be observed in Gloria Azaldùa’s work “the conditions for new possibilities and a new

10 consciousness- a mestiza consciousness” (Beltran 2005: 596). Works like Anzaldúa’s and other

Chicana feminists, allowed for the Chican@ identity to be reinvented and imagined beyond

“tradition” (Dicochea 2004). This newfound identity helped combat assimilation and shifted the gaze toward an anti-colonial approach to resistance, giving birth to the Chican@ movement. A newfound identity not only gave new possibilities for the self but it also helped reimagine their communities beyond the patriarchal master narrative. The new Chican@s armed with culture and pride and a need to understand their own history to confront the present helped guide the discourse of the Chican@ movement (Dicochea 2004). This new identity was created out of contention with assimilation, a model of integration that proposed that Mexican@s relinquish their Mexican identity and culture for their internal colonization. Although the literature helps capture the creation of a Chican@ identity, founded on knowledge and history, it fails to explore how this identity is shaped in everyday experiences with colonialism and what everyday resistance looks like. There is a sense of rebirth from a dehumanizing colonial condition that has impeded the development of Mexican@/Chican@ toward their complete humanity. This sense of rebirth allows us to explore how resistance helps shape the existential for the colonized.

The Chican@ Movement in Los Angeles Proposed a New Model for Resistance

According to Ian F Haney-Lopez (2001), the creation of a Chican@ identity was crucial to the emergence of the Chican@ movement of the 1960s and the continual resistance to white supremacy. In the U.S, Anglos do not recognize Mexican@s as white, rather they believed the

Mexican@ people to be inferior (Estrada 1981). It was this sentiment of superiority and repression toward the Mexican@ population during the 1960s in California that created an opportunity for a rise in a Chican@ counter narrative to the white ideology and the assimilation model (Escobar 1993).

11 According to Robert Bauman (2007), rather than focusing on integrating into the dominant culture, “the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles shifted from inclusion and representation to self-determination and community control” (288). Two documents framed this idea: El Plan de Aztlan, a call to arms by activist in the movement for the creation of a Chican@ homeland, Aztlan, and El Plan de Santa Bárbara which highlighted a need to bring the history of

Mexican@/Chican@s to schools and universities to benefit their communities (Segura 2001).

Furthermore, as Rodolfo Acuña (2000) expressed, Chican@ youth who participated in their communities during the 1960s can’t be characterized as “rebellious” since their activities differed from state and region and they “were not separatist but expressed a desire to work within progressive community organizations” (333). For Chican@s, getting involved in their communities and seeing the need for improvements in their neighborhoods helped solidify their ethnic identities, lead them to participate in and promote events focused on Chican@ culture and history, and shifting their attention to issues of group empowerment and cultural nationalism

(Bauman 2007). However, resistance toward white ideology and white hegemonic culture was not wholly embraced. Activists created varying tactics of resistance. Two distinct tactics that reveal differences in the Mexican@/Chican@ community can be observed during the War on

Poverty in Los Angeles: an assimilation or inclusion approach, and self-determination, a community control approach.

A Resistance Tactic Emerges to Embrace Community Control

In Los Angeles, these competing tactics can be observed during the War on Poverty campaign which was shaped by a framework rooted in inclusion and representation, however, issues of cultural identity and empowerment were emerging as important factors (Bauman 2007).

12 Edward J Escobar (1993), explains that in a time where Mexican American leadership,

League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), The American G.I. Forum (AGIF), and

Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) believed in an integrationist tradition, a competition for War on Poverty funds and resources ensued with African Americans. The

traditionalist Mexican-Americans believed they were more deserving of resources than the Black

community, simultaneously middle class African-Americans believed they were more deserving.

Both middle class traditionalists focused on the funds and resources for a top-down approach to

making changes in their communities (Bauman 2007). This competition for “scarce resources”

creates a division between black and brown communities and supports a divide and conquer model, ultimately benefiting elites, and fostering individuality within the communities. The

Mexican-American leadership generation was composed of upward mobile, middle-class professionals who saw their progress in the American context as a gradual acculturated, assimilated, individual objective (Escobar 1993). This model for self-achievement and organizing is rooted in organizations that exist between government and business that shift from community based organizing toward an economic model for “self-determination” (Bauman

2007). This model for “resistance” has a goal of integration and assimilation that doesn’t help develop a colonized conscious-raising experience (Getrich 2006).

In contrast, community involvement and a bottom-up approach to organizing helped foster a collective identity to critique the U.S government and its white ideology (Beltran 2005).

The emergence of the Brown Berets informs us of the civic practice of the youth and their opposition to institutional racism, between the Mexican community and the Police department, allowing for the Brown Berets to become a political nationalist organization (Correa 2010).

However, the latter tactic is portrayed as a threat to “white male dominated state” and will be

13 repressed through violence (Correa 2010: 85). This resistance tactic is rooted in community

control directly challenging institutional and overt racism, embracing self-love and self-

determination in brown communities.

The War on the Power Movements of the 1960s and the Weakening of Community Control

As the social movements of the 1960s embraced self-love and self-determination and

became critical of their social conditions, they created an alternative for communities to criticize

the state. According, to Hank Johnston (2011), social movements became an apparatus for

making claims against the state to affect policy relevant to members’ group interests. During the

1960s the U.S witnessed a variety of organizations employ protests as a form of political action.

The protests would become actions that were short-lived but would give rise to organizations.

Some of the organizations during the 1960 became independent of the government and were

grassroots in nature.

Organizations like the Black Panther Party of Oakland, California, Crusade for Justice of

Denver, Colorado, and the American Indian Movement of Minnesota, to name a few, were grassroots in nature and had specific political, economic, and cultural agendas. Furthermore, the presence of these organizations allowed for members of the community to become directly involved in addressing the conditions they saw as unjust (Vigil 1999). The power movements became targeted by the FBI and were portrayed in public media as a threat to internal U.S security, however, FBI memos described the groups as non-menacing, who’s objective was to improve the living standards for their communities (Correa 2010).

Jennifer G. Correa (2010) discusses how the Brown Berets in Los Angeles were

dismantled by state sanctioned racism. Correa (2010) adds, “sanctioned racism, via the judicial

system and its sentencing guidelines played a crucial role in the disbanding of the Brown Berets

14 and other movements as members became extremely concerned for their livelihoods” (92).

Institutional racism embedded in the judicial system, through the police, targeted members of organizations deemed threats to national security. Organizations that were independent of state or federal funds with limited resources, turned their focus on keeping members out of jail, paying for lawyers, and staying alive, thus experienced relentless state repression (Rodriguez 2007).

This sponsored state repression served as one of the catalyst for disbanding political grassroots organizations and the politics of self-determination and community control. Organizations and communities that opted for community control and cultural revitalization proved effective in San

Diego, California.

Chican@ Park and the Centro Cultural: Taking Control of Our Own Spaces

The Chican@ Park struggle of 1970 emphasized the need for community control and proved the effectiveness of a community’s strength through grassroots efforts. The struggle for the park in Barrio Logan, a predominantly large Mexican community, was born out of a need for a park and the belief that the city would provide a space to create a park. The community mobilized and occupied the land beneath the San Diego-Coronado Bridge for 12 days when they found out that a California Highway Patrol station would be built instead (Rosen 2001). The takeover of the space involved between 250 and 500 residents, students, families, supporters and children who disrupted the work already in progress (Rosen 2001). The demand was clear: the community wanted a park to express their culture through art, so much so that organizers started to work the land in preparation for their park. The land occupation resulted in the creation of the

Chicano Park Steering Committee (Rosen 2001). The occupation ended when organizers, refusing to leave the occupied land, reached agreement with San Diego City officials culminating in a grant of 7.4 acres and a victory for the Barrio Logan community (Rosen 2001). Chicano

15 Park murals with themes of Chicano nationalism and cultural identity represented a community’s

efforts in reclaiming their heritage and simultaneously developed a sense of self-determination

and community pride (Rosen 2001).

Similarly, the struggle for the Centro Cultural de La Raza utilized the same strategy of

community control that was proved effective in the Chicano Park struggle. Chicano artists came

together to found the Centro Cultural de La Raza, and demand a space that would serve to

express cultural performances and cultural pride. Both struggles rooted in community control and reclaiming spaces proved to be effective and served as a counter-hegemonic cultural expression. Although these are two examples on how Mexican@/Chican@ communities employed community control tactics, there is limited research on how participants within resistant movements shift from tactics of inclusion to tactics of community control, specifically in rural communities. A closer look at a contemporary movement and mass mobilization of 2006 will help further understanding of the forms of resistance employed.

May Day 2006: Moving towards the politics of inclusion

Mass protests arose across the U.S in 2006 against H.R 4437, an anti-immigration bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner that would criminalize undocumented immigrants and make it a felony to be in the U.S illegally. This, among other punitive laws against immigrants, sparked outrage in Latin@ communities (Pantoja et al. 2008). The mobilization that ensued has been characterized by some as the awakening of a “sleeping giant” (Mariscal 2006). The mass response of the Latin@ community suggested that this was a spontaneous reaction toward the anti-immigrant bill. However, this notion is disputable given that these marches were highly organized and collaborative between local and national grassroots organizations (Martinez

2010). The response to H.R 4437 also struck a chord within the familial ties of the Latin@

16 community and the intergenerational turn out resembled this frame. The organizers utilized the

family frame to provide meaning to the marches and to render more participation (Martinez

2010). Furthermore, the mass turn-out was also supported and fueled by social networks, Spanish

media, churches, unions, and immigrant advocacy groups (Pantoja et al. 2008). The various

organizations involved in framing the mass mobilizing were evident from the different protest

signs, “we are all immigrants”, “we are Americans also”, and some waving American flags,

Mexican flags, or both indicating a move closer to the politics of inclusion vs real transformative politics and negating the historical roots of resistance within southwest (Ponce 2012). While much of the literature on the May Day 2006 protests have focused on the collective action and reasons for marching there is a limited amount of research that has focused on historical roots of resistance (Ponce 2012). A closer look at historical roots of resistance will indicate the deep roots of racialization that have constructed inferiority and “illegality” and perpetuated colonialism

(Ponce 2012).

Since the 1960s organizations were not only dismantled by law enforcement but have

been coopted by the non-profit organizations, who have been heavily funded by wealthy

philanthropist (Rodriguez 2007). This move has allowed for the rise in law reform as the new

vehicle for social justice moving resistance away from transformative politics (Spade 2015).

Taking a closer look at law reform we can see that these laws have and will continue benefiting

the State by placing more power and control over marginalized communities.

In the new age of neoliberal politics this move to law and order has been successful by

tapping into the realm of free choice and individualism and ignoring the historical roots of

racism and colonialism. Spade contends, “obscure[ing] systemic inequalities and turn social

movements toward goals of inclusion and incorporation and away from demands for

17 redistribution and structural transformation” (Spade 2015:50). A concern arises with the

organizations that fight for new immigration reform and although an important struggle, by

instituting a reform it will not accomplish the goals of liberation for the marginalized population

or deal with the question of colonialism and racism.

The literature on Chican@ identity, emerging Chican@ movements, resistant tactics, war

on the power movements on the 1960s, and the May Day actions of 2006 helps us understand the

historical roots of resistance. Although the literature helps us understand how identity, tactics,

and movements developed to combat white hegemonic culture, there are gaps in the literature on

our understanding of how some Mexican@s/Chican@s organize/mobilize against white

supremacy in rural repressive communities. Furthermore, a counter narrative directly focused on the activists and organizers is missing from the literature. The voice from the oppressed, from the colonized is crucial to our understanding on why some Mexican@/Chican@s decide to organize.

This research proposes to utilize a Latina@ Critical Race theory and Internal Colonial model as frameworks to unearth the intersectionality of Mexican@/Chican@s and their resistance tactics in a repressive rural community.

Theoretical Frameworks

In this research, I use LatCrit Theory and the internal colonial model as a framework to

help understand how Mexican@/Chican@’s organized/mobilized against white supremacy in a

repressive rural community. Capturing the narratives of the participants directly involved with

MUDP allows me to explore the meanings participants make of their stories. Furthermore, a

Chicano@ Sociological approach acknowledges the historical colonization of

Mexican@/Chican@s in the southwest and places their experiences at the center of this inquiry.

18 LatCrit: Sharing Narratives

Latin@ Critical Race Theory or LatCrit draws from Critical Race Theory or CRT and focuses on “language, immigration, ethnicity, culture, identity, phenotype and sexuality” to help uncover the intersectionalities of gender/sexuality, race, and class oppression (Solorzano

2001:311). This approach brings to the forefront the multidimensional identities of Latin@’s and will help me understand the intersectionality of the forms of oppression perceived by

Mexican@s/Chican@s in Fallbrook (Solorzano 2001). Given the nature of LatCrit to center race and racism as factors for defining and explaining individual experiences, this framework also helps me in situating other forms of subordination and the intersection of colonialism as a form of oppression. LatCrit’s framework of counter story telling is useful in situating my story in this research. I have been influenced by the organization I propose to study and therefore my story is also helpful in deconstructing the white hegemonic narrative. LatCrit will allow me to capture the stories of the individuals involved in the creation of MUDP, however the internal colonial model will allow me to reference the historical roots of colonialism that shape the experiences of

Mexican@/Chican@s in the southwest to understand resistance movements.

Internal Colonialism

I was first introduced to the works of Frantz Fanon (1967) as an organizer in my community and his position and focus on the colonial conditions of the oppressed have forever shaped the way I interact with world. Fanon (1967) provides us with a different approach that not only contends with the master narrative, but allows us to see the colonized conditions from a different vantage point, the standpoint of the colonized. I have always wondered why a colonial theory or postcolonial thought was missing from the social sciences, and particularly in

Sociology. It seems that a history of the colonization of peoples has been overlooked or when

19 addressed it is merely to compare it to the “superior original” (Go 2016:50). Julian Go (2016)

discusses why postcolonial thought has not been utilized in Sociology. Sociology was born out

of empire, in a way, European sociology is still interwoven within the imperial and colonial

episteme, theories themselves and some of the methodological frameworks continue to be

influenced by the imperial gaze.

A Eurocentric ideology has continued to shape our understanding of the social world. The works of Marx, Weber, and Durkheim fall short of addressing the colonial conditions, rather their focus has always been European countries, territories and everything and everyone else as an opposed “Other”. Julian Go states, “The social science that we know today emerged in a

specific time and place: nineteenth-century Europe and North America (2016:77). Therefore,

without question we can state that the social sciences have been influenced by the imperial

standpoint. Postcolonial thought serves as the counter narrative to the Eurocentric ideology.

Furthermore, it not only challenges the ideas of colonialisms but also the impact on the

oppressed peoples and serves to counter the way we do research in Sociology.

It is not enough to critique the imperial and colonizers dominant culture and standpoint,

to further challenge this “metrocentrism”, we should include how the colonized resist their

oppression and make meaning of their worlds (Go 2016:95). This approach will help us shape the discourse and give the colonized their own narratives. Centered in postcolonial thought, I will

observe how an organization is created to resist their perceived oppression, how they make sense

of their world and how they frame their struggles. Considering the historical legacy of hate in a

community, but simultaneously proposing we see the counter narrative and resistance of a

community, I shift the vantage point to the colonized and how they make meaning of their world.

20 Utilizing an internal colonial framework can grant us insight on how racism, culture and

economic exploitation is experienced through the narratives of the colonized (Blauner 1969).

Robert Blauner (1969) outlines four concepts that inform us of the colonized complex. 1.

Colonization is forced and involuntary. 2. There is an impact on the culture and the social

organizations of the colonized. The colonizing power transforms and destroys native values,

culture and way of life. 3. Colonization involves a relationship of power imbalance, where the

colonized is controlled and administered by a dominant power. 4. Racism is a tool used to

dominate, exploit, oppress socially and physically by colonizer. Furthermore, a significant result

of colonization is the inability or weakening of the colonized will to resist their oppression

(Blauner 1969). The deep roots of internal colonialism also impact the identity, cultural

allegiance, and political position of the colonized. The aspiration and belief on integrating and

assimilating by the colonized to gain acceptance into the dominant culture collapses under the

contradictions of colonialism and racism by not fully allowing colonized people to integrate

completely (Blauner 1969). Furthermore, I propose to observe the experiences of

Mexican@/Chican@s from a Chicano standpoint acknowledging the historicity of the colonization of the southwest.

Chican@ Sociology: A Chicano looking at the Chican@ Experience

Alfredo Mirandés’ (1982) theory of Chican@ Sociology and the internal colonial model is a theoretical framework for conducting research on the Mexican@/Chican@ experience within the U.S. This model arose in response to the assimilation model, noting that

Mexican@/Chican@s have not been fully integrated in American society, thus the ideology of a

melting pot is a myth (Mirandé 1982). The experience of the Chican@ population can only be

studied by using a framework that looks at the historical exploitation of brown bodies in the

21 southwest. Any theory of Chican@s must recognize the colonization of the Chican@. If not, it negates historical facts that Chican@s are colonized, were conquered militarily, forced into the

U.S and had a settler colonial language and culture imposed (Mirandé 1982).

“The ideology of the ‘Melting pot’ and of ‘Cultural pluralism’ serves to make the oppression of certain racial-ethnic groups and to create the illusion of equality” (Mirandé 1982: 208). Mirandé proposes that if Chican@ Sociology is to serve the interest of the oppressed groups, it must examine the position of Chican@s from the perspective of Chican@s. To be colonized is to be powerless; to lack control over vital institutions such as the economy, polity, religion, education and even one’s culture (Mirandé 1982). This framework assists me in looking at Chican@s from the vantage point of a colonized perspective. How do colonized peoples become aware of their oppressed conditions and decide to wage a countermovement? What do the colonial conditions tell us about how some Mexican@s/Chican@s organize/mobilize and resist white supremacy in a repressive rural community?

Methodology

I employed in-depth focused semi-structured audiotaped interviews with founders, members and ex-members of Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo (MUDP) to answer the research question, how did Mexican@’s organize/mobilize against white supremacy in a repressive rural community?

Interviews

I conducted six in-depth focused semi-structured interviews with former and current

MUDP members, 4 males and 2 females. The participants self-identified as Mexican@/Chican@ and were between the ages of 29- 51 years old. This approach provided me with insights into the lived experiences of participants and the meanings they make of their experiences through their

22 own narratives (Seidman 2013). It was important to interview the founders, members, and ex

members of MUDP as their voices and experiences allowed me to reference the events that led to the creation of MUDP. The selection of the participants for this research was based on accessibility and willingness to participate. Knowing some of the participants helped me get in

contact with participants. However, coordinating a meeting and a time was a challenge since all

the participants with the exception of two work full-time jobs. During the interview process I

made use of specific themes to discuss, demographic identities, experiences in Fallbrook CA

during the height of white supremacy, family, police, school, involvement with MUDP, roles,

and goals. I opened the interviews with the first question and thereafter I let the participants tell

their stories in their own way. However, I asked the same questions centered around themes to

maximize fairness in responses. Below are the questions asked:

1. What was the social and political climate in Fallbrook, California when you were

growing up?

2. What do you remember about the March in Main St in 1993?

3. Tell me in your words why MUDP was created?

4. What was the objective of MUDP?

5. Can you describe how some of these objectives were carried out?

6. What tactics did the organization utilize to reach the organizations objectives?

7. What was your role in the organization?

These questions helped me identify how MUDP organized in a repressive community and the

tactics employed. Again, the questions were used a guide, through conversations with

participants all the questions were answered in one way or another. I also used the question for

moments that needed clarification.

23 The interviews were all conducted in the participants’ homes except for one. I used a conference room at California State University San Marcos. My bilingualism came in handy and

allowed for participants to feel comfortable speaking English and Spanish. Before each

interview, participants were handed a consent form to be signed if they decide to proceed with

the interview. In some cases, I provided the consent form via email with a small paragraph

explaining the research. Given the prominence in the community as known members of MUDP it

was clear from the start of the research that all participants were willing to share their names in the final write up. Participants were given the opportunity to hear the audio so that they may decline any part of what they shared published. Initially I had built in the consent form with the

choice of being audiotaped or videotaped. During my first interview the video recording proved

to be a challenge because the camera needed to be checked every 20 minutes or it automatically

shut off. Getting up and down every 20 minutes during the interview proved distracting,

therefore I decided not to video record any of the interviews. The audiotape option was the only

method provided to participants. Each interview lasted between one and three hours. I recorded

notes after every interview. I transcribed all the interviews myself.

This type of design allowed the participants to have a platform for expressing their

experiences and I hoped it helped them reflect on the significance of resistance in their

community. Furthermore, this type of design helped provide the community and the organization

allowing a space in the academic world to share their stories.

My access to the organization and its members has been fostered from the many years of

being a resident of Fallbrook and a former member of MUDP. I shared my research interest to a

great friend and member of MUDP, Ricardo Favela and his blessing has confirmed that a counter

narrative to the Eurocentric history of Fallbrook is needed. Ricardo agreed to help in any way

24 possible. This type of collaborative work is indicative of how MUDP operates, to empower,

cultivate and revitalize our communities.

Participant Profiles

The participants in this research were born, grew up, migrated, lived or still live in

Fallbrook, California. All of them became involved with MUDP at different times in their lives.

They all have college degrees or attaining a college degree. All participants became involved

with MEChA while in college or high school. Below I will introduce the participants.

Hector is fifty-one, from Tijuana Mexico. He migrated to the U.S when he was 8. He has a BA

and teaching credential. He teaches at a middle school. He is married and has two children.

Ulysses is forty-seven, born in Fallbrook, California. He has a MA in Education. He is a third-

grade teacher. He is married and has three children.

Yesenia is forty-one, from Puebla Mexico. She migrated to Vista with her family. She has an

MA in Education with an emphasis in counseling. She is a Director and Counselor. She is

married and has three children.

Ricardo is thirty-nine, born in Valley Center, California. His family moved to Fallbrook when

he was elven. He has a BA in Visual Art. He is a community organizer. He is married and has 3

children.

Morayma is thirty-three born in Fallbrook, California. She has BA degree in Human

Development with a minor in Psychology. She is a stay at home mother and has the privilege of

presence with her two-year-old.

Miguel is twenty-nine from Tijuana Mexico. He migrated to Fallbrook with his family at the age

of seven. He is a student at a four-year university. He works full-time and is a community

organizer.

25 Reflexivity

The poem below was inspired by my experiences growing up in Fallbrook, California. As

I went through the educational system I became disenchanted with how teachers and administrators treated brown bodies. Growing up in the late 1990s in Fallbrook was difficult. I always felt in between cultures. I saw some of my peers on the educational track who separated themselves from their communities. Teachers would encourage you to leave our communities.

On the other hand, the ones that stayed behind were swallowed up by the streets. But in the middle of all this there were community organizers who addressed the oppressive conditions in our community. They were proud educated Mexican@/Chican@s. I was privileged to have met these brothers and sisters. I had no sense of how rich my culture was until I met MUDP and the tutoring program. It was the love for the education of our youth that motivated me to join the tutoring program. The students were just like me, struggling to survive.

We have to Resist to Exist

Malcom Spoke to me on my senior year, his words were empowering I couldn’t believe how fast I engulfed his words We connected, it clicked I was from the hood too I couldn’t stop reading I wouldn’t stop reading

How can we survive in a world that suffocates us? Pouring their values and education down our throats It never made sense to me. As I sat in their well-organized classrooms Where are the people that look like me?? Who are these white faces on these books? Why should I care? Can someone really answer that question, please?

I’m not dumb. I can remember your stupid lesson Let me guess? It’s a multiple-choice question test All I need to know is the wrong answers to get the right one Am I, right? Think about it My brothers were on their way to success

26 Do I really need AVID in my life?

Ok. Hey Mr. Counselor with a Spanish surname Would it be possible to be in AVID or college prep classes? He looked at me as though I had asked a dumb question. No such thing as a dumb question they say Well, if I put you in advanced classes you will fail, he replied

I had failed without even trying. I enjoyed wood shop, auto mechanics, and every other “elective” class All those 3 years went by fairly quick. While everyone stressed about their homework I walked without a care or worry.

It was my last year and everyone was ready to be in the real world Isn’t this the world I’m living? My father was hardly home, probably on a binge Jefita was always working, probably doing an extra shift She worked hard to provide for us

I was lost. I had no direction, where should I go? My brothers had been swallowed up by the streets Following my Jefitos footsteps, I suppose Horizontal violence was perpetuated

Police contact was frequent Being pulled over and harassed was the norm Turning us into gang members. Forcing us into gangs. Making sure we knew our place, in rout to prison gates

Seem like our stories had been told Until I met Corky Gonzales, I am Joaquin too Caught between two cultures Spanish, English, Spanglish I began looking at the world through a different lens

We have to tell our own stories Self-determination through community organization Breaking the self-fulfilling prophecies We have to resist to exist

As a former member of MUDP my interest in this research is subjective. During high

school, I became involved with the Escuela Popular Rogelio Favela (EPRF) a popular education

27 program created by MUDP. This was my first encounter with MUDP organizers and their

popular education program. The EPRF tutoring program was created in direct response to the

eradication of bilingual education in California, Prop 227. I became a tutor for the EPRF, the

idea of helping children that looked like me resonated with me. I too faced the same challenges

in school grappling with the English language. I continued to participate throughout my high

school years. I was intrigued by the ideas of educations, self-determination, liberation, cultural, social and political awareness. Through my involvement with MUDP I became what Paulo

Freire (2002) calls, conscious. Being involved in my community motivated me to pursue higher education. I eventually joined MUDP and the critical ideology and decolonizing methodology I gained have remained with me. When I was accepted to SDSU I departed from the organization, breaking ties with the organizers and organization was difficult. On the one hand, I had education in mind and felt that I had learned all that I could from the movement. However, I soon learned that being involved in my community kept me grounded and rooted in my educational path and my community.

Returning to the organization as a researcher was not easy. I soon found out that I was not an insider anymore. My first encounter with one of the participants proved that my research needed to be validated. We were scheduled to meet at 7 pm on a Sunday evening. We had scheduled our meeting a few days’ prior at a Fallbrook Human Rights Committee meeting. I texted Hector on Sunday at 3PM to ask where he wanted to meet. He replied at his house and sent me his address. I showed up about 30 minutes because of car problems. I pulled up to his house, unsure if it was his house because it was my first time going to his home. I showed up with my backpack, camera, and tripod in hand and proceeded to ring the doorbell. I realized I was ill prepared and didn’t have the informed consent form or the questions. Hector opened the

28 door and greeted me with a handshake and let me in his house. He introduced me to his nephew

who was in the kitchen and his mother. I greeted both with a handshake.

As we sat around the dinner table we began to discuss the project and I explained to

Hector what the research entailed. I wanted to capture the narrative of the people involved in the

formation of Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo (MUDP) and the social, political climate

in Fallbrook during that time period. Hector handed me a notebook where he said he had been

thinking about the political climate of that time. It was a short, 1 page handwritten account of

how Hector’s family arrived to Fallbrook. As we sat and talked I asked Hector if he had an

opportunity to read the consent form I had previously emailed him. I told him I had forgotten to

print one, Hector pointed to a stack of papers on the kitchen counter and said he had printed a

copy of the questions and the consent form, but would rather just sit down and talk and not

record. I respected his decision and we continued to talk about his experience in Fallbrook.

Although I could relate and hold a discussion with Hector this interaction reminded me of my

research status and kept me on the outside. Not only was I coming back to a space to conduct

research, I was no longer a member of MUDP and I had to prove my intentions. Through this

interaction I was made aware of my privilege as a graduate student researcher and although I can

empathize with his work as an organizer I no longer am an organizer myself. My early

experiences and knowledge of organizing was important to note while conducting interviews, but

being away from the organization for so many years allowed me to come back as an outsider I

paid attention to how participants shared their stories of resistance. This awareness allowed me to see things from a comparison standpoint and simultaneously allow me to make new inferences.

29 Being a Mexicano/Chicano male also gave me a certain level of privilege. This is evident from the questions I asked and how I interacted with my participants. The questions formulated come from a male perspective and embody my maleness, as they focus on the formation and objectives of MUDP. The straight forward questions rendered a male perspective of the movement. My interactions with the males also extracted a male perspective of the formation of

MUDP. My maleness might have also influenced how the female participants responded to the questions and rendered their stories. I wonder if a female researcher asking the same questions would arrive at different responses.? As I reflect on my privilege as a male I am conscious of how my, tone, questions, and follow up shaped the dialogue.

I once again immersed myself within in the organization for a different purpose, to explore how a community resists. This immersion as explained by Robert Emerson et al

(2011:3), “involves both being with other people to see how they respond to events as they happen and experiencing for oneself these events and the circumstances that give rise to them.”

This approach, rather than that of a passive observer, allowed me to capture the narratives of

MUDP members and actively interact in their day-to-day lives. This level of immersion allowed me to see from the inside, how members of MUDP and sympathizers lead their lives, how they organize in their communities, and how they find and make meaning of resistance.

Findings

This research explores how Mexican@/Chican@s in a rural community resisted and organized against white supremacy. During my conversation with founders, members, and ex members of Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo(MUDP) I learned that the process of resisting and creating an organization in Fallbrook, California has a long history. This is an attempt to capture, the narratives and struggles of my participants, their struggle. It all begins in

30 Fallbrook, a rural community in San Diego County, tucked away in its most forgotten corner.

The presentation of my findings counters the narrative that Mexican@s are passive and don’t engage in creating history or are a sleeping giant waiting to be awaken to act. The years of struggle in this community lend a different story, one that’s built on transparency, education, self-determination, and liberation.

Fallbrook: Growing up in the Groves, Suburbs, Barrio Neighborhoods of apartments and trailer parks.

There is a shared experience in how participants growing up in Fallbrook recount their stories. Mexican@s who arrived to Fallbrook share a similar story, their parents migrated from

Mexico for work and a better life. Their parents all migrated at one time or another and ended up in Fallbrook. Some remember the migration and others were born in Fallbrook. It is in Fallbrook

that the youth growing up begin to make sense of their immediate surroundings and develop

awareness and understanding of their own identities in relation to white people, school, police,

and ultimately within the Mexican community. Furthermore, the difference on how the

participants grow up in Fallbrook is key to understanding how they each arrive at similar

intersections in regards to their identity. There are those who grew up directly in the groves, the

agricultural industry of Fallbrook those that grew up in the suburbs of Fallbrook, outside the

agricultural industry and those that grew up in the Barrio neighborhoods of apartment complexes

and trailer parks.

Hector, one of the founding members of MUDP arrived to Fallbrook in 1974 and

remembers his arrival vividly. It was a mixed excitement that he arrived to Fallbrook expecting

to see a big house with grass like he had seen on television, but instead Hector recalls arriving to,

“a trailer, it was a small trailer that was on an avocado grove and I was like what happened to the

31 big house you know…. that was kinda of disappointing but I was still excited you know just to

be here.” His excitement was filled with a notion that his life was about to improve and this was

confirmed by his parents. The excitement of arriving to the U.S and in particular to Fallbrook can be observed in the way Hector expresses himself, “I remember just seeing all the workers and people coming and going and you know I was really happy I was like wow so much movement so many things to do so many jobs and I just remember my parents talking about how lucky we were that they had jobs.” Hector was immersed in the groves and was happy to be among all his people. For Hector, being in the groves felt like being right at home where he could listen to the trabajadores share their stories. Hector shares, “when we were in the groves and stuff like that it was mostly my people so I felt you know everybody was equally poor everybody was equally used to that life.” It is this connection to the groves that begins to shape Hector’s understanding of the differences between the patrones and the peones.

Ricardo, a member of MUDP was born into the groves. For his father being in the groves

was life, “my dad came as an avocado worker, working in the avocado industry …since he was

young, since he was in his late teens, so I mean that was his life.” Ricardo explains life in the

groves, “we were living in the middle of the groves umm you know it was just our family and the

workers in the groves we would call them the workers, los trabajadores. You know it was usually about 30 men that lived on the ranch, worked on the ranch, never left the ranch ‘cuz they didn’t have any papers.” Ricardo recalls that his father along with his family would have to drive into the nearby market to bring food and necessities for the workers living in the groves. It is in these experiences that Ricardo begins to understand how los trabajadores lives are limited to the grove. Like Hector, Ricardo’s early experiences in the groves began to shape his world views.

32 Ulysses, another founder of MUDP, experience is quite different, being born and growing up North of Fallbrook in a predominantly white neighborhood. Ulysses’ parents also migrated to

Fallbrook and although his father worked in the fields with his own father, he eventually became a mechanic, allowing him to become a home owner and move north of Fallbrook. Ulysses, like

Ricardo, was born in Fallbrook. But unlike Ricardo or Hector, Ulysses wasn’t connected to the agricultural industry. Ulysses explains, “we grew up in that environment north of Fallbrook… where eventually the Mexicans there became more assimilated, not even acculturated, assimilated into mainstream society and I remember I wanted to completely move away from being Mexican.” Not only did Ulysses become removed from his Mexican identity, he recalls his parents, “trying to move away from that, they were trying to make a better life for themselves and in the process…. I also noticed…, they were moving away from who they were you know and so instead of talking about my culture my people and my people’s history they wouldn’t, my mom and dad never bothered with that.”

You would think that Morayma would also internalize her position, but by the time

Ulysses was coming into consciousness Morayma was growing up. Unlike Ulysses experience of growing up in Fallbrook, his younger sister Morayma’s identity as well as their parents had become impacted by Ulysses’ conzientizacion. Having older brothers and parents that promoted her culture, Morayma, a former member of MUDP, shares:

I was born in 1983 in Fallbrook… I did all my schooling years in Fallbrook… Having brothers that were 10 yeas older … I understood things as they were talked to me also. I became very aware of the social… implications within our community… like racism and such. I was aware of that when I was really young… What I would see a lot of… when I would be on my way to school was there was a large Latino presence because I would see a lot of the moms walking their kids in strollers and stuff like that and just being like a lot of Mexicanos you know going to school. Very early on I remember one of the big things was bilingual education probably, because my mom wanted them to teach me, which was interesting, English at school only and … she would take care of the Spanish

33 piece at home… they always told me that it was really important for me to speak Spanish because I have to know who I am…that’s our tradition that’s our culture that’s our language… it was very important to… always keep.

Yesenia, a former member of MUDP arrived to Fallbrook after the organization had been

established. She recalls being attracted to the work that was being carried out with bilingual

education that would later turn into a housing struggle at a mobile home park. Miguel migrated

to Fallbrook with his mother, he was brought over as a child from Tijuana, Mexico. Miguel a

member of MUDP, shares his early experiences as a new arrival to Fallbrook:

When I got here [Fallbrook] I didn’t have any documents…I guess growing up I always knew that I was undocumented… my mom would always tell me… don’t give out your information especially to law enforcement or… especially immigration ….it was hard you know. I remember like a particular incident in school… when you finish the DARE program… in 4th grade they’ll give you like a certificate where you gotta sign your name and you have to put your birth place and stuff and I was so scared that I didn’t want to put my birth place… I actually broke down…, I always felt that I didn’t necessarily belong in that space.

The participants recount their early experiences growing up in Fallbrook that helped shape them. These experiences show us how participants become aware of their identity and help shape their understanding of life in Fallbrook. For Hector and Ricardo, their immediate connection to the groves and the workers helps situate themselves amongst their own Mexican community. This space becomes an access point to understanding life outside of the grove. Both grew up in similar circumstances, situated in the middle of the groves. For Ulysses and

Morayma who live outside of the grove, their experiences are shaped different. Ulysses is situated in a space that’s predominantly white, where he is removed from a Mexican community.

This alienation allows Ulysses to remove himself from his Mexican identity and adopt an acculturated outlook, where whiteness becomes the goal to emulate. Whereas Morayma has the support of her parents and older brothers (who later develop an understanding of their Mexican identity through community organizing) to shape her Mexican culture and the importance of

34 language. For Miguel, his awareness of his family migrating to the U.S and undocumented status shape his understanding of not belonging and living in fear.

The stories can guide our understanding on how life is growing up in a rural community.

Although participants share unique experiences on how they arrive to Fallbrook it is how they

make sense of their identities that consolidates their experiences. It is in these early experiences

that the participants begin to shape who they are and how they interact with the world outside

them. Furthermore, we will see that the identity each participant has is not stagnant. Identity

changes as participants become involved in movement and organizing.

These early experiences and connection to the groves, workers, culture, language and

belonging will become confronted as they enter the educational system. It is in the school

environment that they experience first-hand the racialization that gives shape to their

understanding of how they are viewed by those outside of the Mexican community.

Facing Racism at School: “Hey Wetback”

The schools in Fallbrook became the place where Mexican@ children were made aware of their differences. This othering was not only performed by students but, also by staff, teachers

and administrators. The relationship that was instituted on Mexican@ children was emblematic

of the racial culture that existed in Fallbrook. These indifference and blatant racial practices in

the school are present in the narratives of the participants.

When Hector arrived to Fallbrook he was excited to attend school. He was filled with the same excitement of when he first arrived to Fallbrook. However, Hector would soon be disappointed with his expectations of attending school and met the reality with which he was greeted, “when I got to school I realized that none of the teachers spoke Spanish and none of the teachers were very receptive or welcoming when I got there.” Because Hector had yet to master

35 English and his primary language was Spanish he was treated differently than other students. He wasn’t alone. He relied on friends that had been born in the U.S and had already mastered the

English language to help him translate. Hector, recalls how he felt that day, “I went from being very excited to the first couple of weeks being depressed because it didn’t turn out the way that I had thought it was going to be. I thought I was going to come into this very good open place where people where just nice and it wasn’t.” Hector reflects on one of his first interactions:

I remember the librarian calling me a beaner one time and… I asked my friend Lucio, ey wey que quiere decir beaner? He’s like frijolero pendejo and I’m like frijolero of course I eat beans. I eat beans every day… I didn’t take it as an insult until somebody told me ... you know that’s like somebody calling you like the N word and I was like what, pinche vieja.

This type of treatment was not an isolated incident. Hector explains, “I just knew that there was a distinction between you know if you were what’s called white or if you were

Mexican… there was that distinction and everything was out in the open.” The normalization of discriminatory treatment in schools toward Mexican@ children was not limited to staff and teachers.

Ricardo shares, “I remember again in elementary school, kids calling me wetback you know just on the playground kids going back to class running by me, hey wetback, wetback and that was in first or second grade.” To have children in first or second grade calling Mexican@s wetbacks can speak to how Mexican@s were viewed by whites in Fallbrook. There were constant attempts to make Mexican@s in Fallbrook feel inferior to their white peers. Moreover, this was not a fad that children were going through, these types of racial slurs and behaviors carried into other realms. Ricardo shares a story of how even in school sports the outright racism was present:

If your Mexican they bench you, you know the coaches are racist and so … after seeing like what my teammates were doing, now the coaches are racist I’m

36 like…fuck this shit. That totally… had me doubting … giving up baseball and I heard other shit from other people too… another friend of mine tried out for basketball and I guess he dribbled with the wrong hand and the coach … straight out called him… this beaner… he doesn’t know what he’s doing, like straight out you know … this was the racism that was seen in the school.

However, for Ricardo it wasn’t all passive, he learned from his father early on to defend

himself. Ricardo recalls never being the initiator but, he was ready to defend himself if someone

would mess with him. Morayma also found ways to defend herself from unfair treatment.

Morayma experienced an incident at school where the racial treatment was not as explicit, a

teacher tried to punish her with detention for speaking Spanish in class. Morayma remembers

this incident with detail and how she confronted it:

I was always taught that that’s your right, you know that… that’s your inalienable right is to speak your native tongue. That nobody could take that away from you that nobody could deny you the right of speaking your native language anywhere, like not even in school… I remember in 6th grade Mrs. S, I still remember her she was one of my favorite teachers. I had friends in class and she told me that we couldn’t communicate in Spanish, that it was prohibited. I remember being like, just something within me like this fire and… rage… I had never felt something like that before you know, I was more infuriated than anything else because I understood growing up that that was my right..., to speak my language.

When Morayma informed her parents about this incident, her parents immediately called for a meeting with the teacher. Morayma was a good student, wasn’t being disruptive and didn’t understand why she was being punished for speaking her native language. When her parents met with the teacher, the teacher couldn’t show anywhere in the school rules that prohibited students from speaking their native languages:

I remember her trying to prove her point… trying to defend herself, she was…representing the state… she was... this is who we are, this is America… this is a classroom whether you like it or not… My mom and dad told her… show me… in the papers of the school where students cannot speak their native language… she couldn’t make a case for herself…

37 Miguel also remembers the racism that existed within the schools in Fallbrook. He recalls not only being called a wetback but confronting it as well:

The people that I grew up with… in elementary school you know especially white people… as we started to grow up they started to drift more and more apart… even so that … some of those people called me wetback or beaner at one time when I was going to high school… in high school we still had a little bit of what was left over of the White Aryan Resistance you know so we had skin heads… that… would wear their insignia on their clothing and stuff like that and we would get into fights with them.

Unlike Ricardo, Morayma or Miguel who remember confronting racism, Ulysses early experiences in the school system pushed him toward assimilating into whiteness:

One day I was walking down the little hill that takes you down to the cafeteria some white kid went by and he said “hey what’s up beaner?” … it was funny... Yeah, I eat beans…I didn’t know what that meant until I asked my dad… today… Un niño me dijo beaner… and my dad was pissed, No, that’s a bad word. It’s like calling black people the N word… I had no clue… that was my first political… education class… So even that pushed me more into adopting their ways, the way they talk, their mannerisms, the way the dressed in particular.

These experiences show the blatant racism that existed in the schools in Fallbrook. It is through these interactions that Mexican youth in Fallbrook begin to understand they were different in comparison to their white peers. The treatment Mexican@s experienced on behalf of students, teachers, coaches, and administrators would begin to shape the various responses from the Mexican youth. These interactions push Mexican@ youth to either confront this racism or internalize it and assimilate.

The overt racism and the everyday slurs in schools pushes the Mexican@/Chican@ youth toward various forms of resistance. While some choose to conform and assimilate, others find ways to resist by quitting sports, bringing in parents do advocate, and by discussing experiences amongst each other to make sense of how they are being treated. The resistance, whether minimal or even physical, further shapes the identity of the Mexican@/Chican@ youth. Not only

38 was the racism in the schools prevalent and often overt, out in the community racism took a

violent form.

Facing Racism in the Community: “No más, Aquí!”

The racism that existed in Fallbrook came from a white supremacy ideology that had

been seeded since the early 1970s. This racism and how it was employed on the Mexican

community came in a violent form. Participants share their stories of how Tom Metzger’s years

of white supremacy organizing was present in Fallbrook. These brutal interactions with racist

began to inform the Mexican@ youth of the deep roots of racism within Fallbrook. Some of the

participants share how they first became aware of this racial element. Hector recalls how he

became aware of the racial element that existed in Fallbrook:

I remember coming into contact with… Jon Metzger who’s… Tom Metzger son… and people talking about the Ku Klux Klan… they said… his dad is… the Grand Dragon of the KKK or he represents the KKK and I just remember that… instantaneous, I don’t want to say hatred but it was more like okay I know… that person would do me harm or would be willing to harm my family for no other reason but the fact that I was Mexican.

Furthermore, it is the KKK and Tom Metzger’s white power ideology in practice that

begins to appear in Fallbrook. The presence of Tom Metzger and his ability to situate himself in

Fallbrook is explained by Hector:

In this period that I’m talking about this whole history you have to understand that Fallbrook is a small town … and it’s very backwards… you know for someone like Tom Metzger to be able to establish himself in a town like that and openly have Klan meetings and cross burnings… or a Klan march… he has to feel very comfortable that he has enough support in that community because the police is not harassing him as a matter a fact the police protected him… you know... a person of that ilk you don’t just establish yourself anywhere you have to feel secure in that community to do your racist work so obviously, he found receptive ears there you know very receptive.

The racism that Metzger imbued into the white community of Fallbrook and vice versa

the acceptance that he received from the white community became apparent in the tactics

39 employed to brutalize the community. Ricardo remembers in detail being introduced to this

brutality:

I remember reading… an incident where one of the workers… a day laborer was picked up from that area and he was pretty much kidnapped, he was disappeared and I think he showed up the next day on the side of the road bound and tied with a bag over his head and it said, “No más Aquí…” I remember saying, that’s fucked… you just don’t do that to somebody... I know these people are workers that could have been my uncle… why the need to do that to people who are working, all they’re doing is working, they didn’t leave the damn ranch … that was their life, that’s what they did, you know?

It was this type of racial climate that made Fallbrook dangerous for Mexican@s. People in the Mexican community began to talk about withstanding beatings or having close encounters with skinheads. It is also these beatings and harsh treatment of the Mexican@ community that

gave Mexican@ youth an understanding of the deep racism that existed in Fallbrook. Ricardo would later find out that his father was almost subjected to racist brutality:

My brother told me this story… my dad was out in the groves, not sure where in Fallbrook but he was digging a trench or something and a truck pulls up and two white boys get out and they approach him… my dad knows their up to no good, they’re surrounding him and…my dad got the hint like these guys are up to no good… they weren’t saying anything they didn’t say hi how are you doing, they just showed up and looked aggressive… my dad had a shovel in his hand, picked it up… and they backed off, when I learned… how… Metzger trained skinheads… they did this thing called beaner bashing… where they would look for workers in the groves and beat up on them

Ulysses’ experience with Metzger is told differently, although he was aware of Metzger and his racist ideology he didn’t seem to share any of the similar stories of the “beaner bashing”

or violence that existed toward the workers of the groves. This can be partly due to Ulysses

living north of Fallbrook. However, even though Ulysses lived north of Fallbrook in a predominantly white neighborhood, his family wasn’t completely accepted. He recalls

encounters with a racist neighbor. Ulysses shares:

40 El cabeza dura… would call la migra on us... so we would have migra raids every Friday and Every Saturday… la migra would come by… [to] my house... el cabeza dura thought he owned our property so he would come over and just walk around… thinking this was his property… he always carried a .22 on him.

Morayma and Miguel didn’t share any particular stories of the “beaner bashings” or seeing or experiencing this type of racism in the community firsthand. For Morayma and Miguel grew up in the late 1990s and early 2000s and by this time MUDP had been established and the blatant racial violence of the white community had become infrequent.

For Hector and Ricardo this violent racial repression began to shape their understanding of how the workers in the groves and the Mexican community were treated, bringing an understanding to how los trabajadores of the groves were looked at by the white community.

These youths began to see that los trabajadores worked all day and simultaneously were vulnerable to violent attacks. Becoming aware of these attacks also began to shape the youth to be vigilant and to fight back.

The level of violence inflicted on the Mexican@/Chican@ community and the fear of kidnapping, beaner bashings, migra raids and skinheads created real fear in the Mexican community. This level of violence in a rural community begins to give shape and form to resistance. When violence is present the responses that will come out will be rooted in self- defense and survival as a means for resistance. It is not only the white community that is inflicting violence, the police are also perpetuating the racialization.

Their experiences in Fallbrook and the racialization they experienced was not limited to school or life outside of their Mexican communities. The racialization and othering was also present when they encountered law enforcement.

41 Facing Racism: Fallbrook Sheriffs and La Migra

In the schools, Mexican youth were made aware of their differences, in the community they were brutalized for their Mexicanidad and the interactions with law enforcement were indicative of the racialization that was present in Fallbrook. The tactics employed by the sheriffs became a tool for keeping the Mexican community in their place. It is in these interactions with the police that forced the founders of MUDP to not only have conversations about their racial treatment, but also to plan ways to survive and resist.

Hector shares his experiences as a teenager with Fallbrook sheriffs:

Our problems were much bigger right. Now we’re in the streets… like typical teenagers… we wanted to go to the movies, we wanted to… hang out… of course that’s when we started confronting the police themselves… that’s when they started coming and saying…what are you guys doing? harassing all the time… we’d be standing… waiting to get into the movies…the movie theater in Fallbrook at that time still played movies and… all these white people were around and the sheriffs would show up and take us out of the crowd… and say what are you guys doing here?... We’re going to see a movie? Do you have money?... What, are you charging me? They would wait to make sure that we would pay money like if we were going to sneak in… things like that.

The sheriffs purposefully singled out the Mexican youth and questioned them about them being in a place where they were not meant to be, out in the community outside of their Mexican community. Incidents like this can help shed light onto a deeper form of policing and control that existed in Fallbrook where Mexicans were treated with insolence in the groves, schools and in the community. Fallbrook sheriffs profiled and harassed the Mexican youth. Hector shares another story of how encounters would eventually escalate:

We were standing around just messing around in the corner just laughing and this sheriff comes and same thing you know what I’m saying. Gets out of the car, him and his partner… we were kids… they start grabbing us, throwing us against the car… talking nonsense… I remember they asked Tito something… he responded and the cop… didn’t hear, [cop] said, what and then Tito said, clean the wax out of your ear and for that he just grabbed him by the throat, threw him around… we all started going hey… what the hell… they started grabbing all us and basically

42 just manhandling us, we were kids… they threw us in the back of the police car… Tito was the one that had the marks because the guy grabbed him by the throat… they drove… supposedly they were going to take us to the jail… I remember the guy stopped and said, “Get the fuck out of the car...” at that time your little, you’re all scared… we realized the reason he let us out was because we were minors.

Simultaneously the Border Patrol was also present in Fallbrook. Their presence came in different forms and Ricardo was made aware on how to behave when encountering them.

Ricardo recalls:

I remember… my older brother… would make sure to tell me, speak English correctly… we would approach the check point and I always wondered why what’s the point what are these people going to do to us… I mean I was born here… we had nothing to worry about… but still every time we saw border patrol it’s like… put your head [up], speak up, speak English properly… that was just all ingrained… of how your supposed to act otherwise this person or this law enforcement person is going… I don’t know what’s going to happen but something is gonna happen.

Not all Mexican residents of Fallbrook had the privilege of having residency or

citizenship. The undocumented Mexican@s of Fallbrook suffered a different outcome. Ricardo’s

concern of what would happen can be observed through what Hector witnessed as a young child:

I witnessed…border patrol going… to the grocery stores and they would come and they would have… vans and… they would go in the store and take whole families, I’m talking about babies… and just throw them in these vans with no air conditioning and… you can see people in there… packed. As a matter of fact, we used to refer to them as perreras… the dog pound because that’s how they took people… they would put 30 people in one wagon …one van and you would just see the people all crowded just sweating… and they’d leave them in there for an hour or so while they were off chasing other people… I just remember you know trying to speak out about it you know trying to confront the border patrol as a kid you know as 9, 10-year-old… sitting there and the only thing I could do because I was so pissed is to yell shit at them and so I would sit there say, fuck you moteherfucker… and they would just walk by and push me out of the way.

Miguel also recalls encounters with Fallbrook sheriffs. The show of force was utilized to take power away from community members. Even today, Miguel recounts this story I could tell that he still had a hard time re-telling this incident:

43 We were at a party it was getting late maybe 10 or 11 pm… we called my uncle if he could come pick us up. By the time my uncle comes, the police are already there and he tells everybody that no one could leave. So, we’re just standing there and… my uncle was already there ready for us to leave and I don’t understand there’s already a grown up than why aren’t you letting me leave? I just remember like that officer just being right there in front of us and questioning my uncle, who are you? What are you doing here? Who are they to you? Where are, you going? Where are, you taking them? The whole time telling us, put your hands beside you, take your hands outside of your pockets, don’t cross your arms, put your hands where I can see them… I’m just trying to go home you know I didn’t understand what I’d do... I mean now I understand that I didn’t do anything wrong you know except being a Mexican at a party …and even seeing my uncle go through that it was like hard you know (takes pause) it’s like a male role model somebody that I respected and to see somebody take away their power like that it just gets me pissed off you know, at being that powerless.

The sheriff’s role in policing the Mexican community of Fallbrook shows us the deep

racial inclinations present in the tactics employed by the sheriffs and the Border Patrol in a rural community. This type of policing is indicative of how the colonial arm of the State attacks the humanity and dignity of the Mexican communities (Blauner 1969). The level of harassment, manhandling of youth, community policing themselves, the dog pound raids, and taking power away by disrespecting our elders tries to cripple a community by criminalizing and controlling a community. If a community is in fear the likelihood of resistance may be minimized.

However, it is these shared interactions at schools, in the community, with law enforcement that begin to give shape to the Mexican youth’s response to racism. Although some

Mexican youth had already begun to respond by defending themselves, others by bringing in their parents to support and advocate for them, still others decided to take matters into their own hand by forming clubs and organizations that could help represent the Mexican community/youth in a positive light. It was however, these first racial interactions in Fallbrook that encouraged youth to search for their identity, a way to understand the discrimination. The

44 first responses were in conversations, amongst the Mexican@ youth about what approaches they

needed to take to help deal with their treatment in Fallbrook.

History of Organizing: M.E.Ch.A, United Pride, Aztlan Creation, and the Zapatistas

As I spoke to the participants, some shared their experiences with the early roots of organizing that started in Fallbrook before the creation of MUDP. These organizations were formed by Mexican@ youth who were dealing with the racism towered the Mexican community.

Furthermore, it was through these emerging organizations and early conversations of how the

Mexican community experienced the various forms of repression that would ultimately help consolidate the groups.

Hector shares his early encounters with MEChA and seeing the work that they were doing out in the community:

My older brother… started going to Palomar College… he joined MEChA and through MEChA I remember participating in … Navidad con el pueblo, Navidad con los niños… the whole Christmas program that Palomar MEChA use to run in the neighborhoods… I remember being about like 800 kids…going to Palomar and… getting a gift and… food and games… I remember MEChA… as an 8- year-old… the political atmosphere I think at that time… was the tail end of the Chicano liberation movement from the sixties and… coming in contact with MEChA and… seeing a little bit of the politics and listening to my brother and some of the other students … I began to understand a little bit more about what… the political atmosphere was in Fallbrook

It was this tail end of the Chican@ movement and Chican@ Power that began to appear in Fallbrook during the late 70s. Hector recalls seeing the older youth tag on the wall, “Chicano

Power,” he didn’t know what it meant, but knew that it meant something. It was this type of awareness and creating a space where Mexican@ youth could express themselves, having been made aware from their early interactions that they were not white, shaped some of the early organizing in Fallbrook. Hector was a senior in high school and along with some of his friends--

45 who had withstood the racism in the schools, in the community and with law enforcement--

began to have discussions of forming a group. It was 1985:

We started this talk… and it led to… forming a club… just with the other homies, the other kids our age at the high school and in the streets… We decided… some of us wanted to organize a Christmas party…. My ideas came back to… what MEChA used to do… you know that would be cool if we come together, that would make our parents proud and the community would see us as… good guys… when we were talking about a name, El Conjeo…said, “hey we should call ourselves United Pride” … it stuck. One of the other homies… made up the two hands joined together… in the Chicano handshake and that became our logo… around that time that’s when we met Panchita... she had been instrumental in the movement in the 60s and 70s… She had been around politics… in her mind the question was racism not colonialism… her thinking was, which [is what] the majority of people… still think to this day… we are fighting against racism, the idea in white people’s head… so we need to prove to them that we are just like them… so we spent our whole time trying to change their minds…to assimilate basically… we went down that path.

United Pride would ultimately grow to 85 members in La Huerta. Their success would soon be coopted by the local Chamber of Commerce. However, it was the earlier racial

interactions outside of the Mexican community that would move United Pride beyond a service

organization. Hector recounts:

We had 85 members… we were pretty big… what was happening slowly… we were beginning to get political consciousness… as these struggles were going on at the school… all this was happening at the same time we are forming United Pride… when I say we were starting to get political consciousness, identity… all this is playing part in the development of United Pride… clearly going from this community service group where we try to change the minds of white people so they would accept us and think that we were nice people…to the point where we were saying fuck we’re exploited here… that’s when we started making that jump.

It was at this juncture and shift in moving away from appeasing whites toward taking a

political stance that United Pride began to splinter off into other organizations. Ulysses had been

trying to make sense of his identity and had yet to come into the consciousness that Hector

discusses. Ulysses recalls his first encounter with United Pride:

46 1989, what happened that year I’ll never forget. I was in a meeting. In the Boys and Girls Club... and it was Guillermo holding a meeting with ex United pride and new members of United Pride and the first thing that came out of Guillermo’s mouth was, “fuck white people”… That’s the first thing I heard… all the organization stuff I didn’t know what he was trying to say but when he said Fuck white people… I turned around to [my brother] and I said, what’s wrong with this guy? [My brother] was turned off too… we walked out of that meeting… we didn’t get that idea why he was saying… you have to remember that we grew up in relative isolation… in the white community so the people we were surrounded by where white people or wannabe white people.

It wasn’t until Ulysses had reached community college and joined MEChA de Palomar

College that he began to understand the Chican@ struggle. Ulysses recalls how he felt when he first found out of the immense history of his people:

It was through these dudes that were talking to me… Alvarez brothers… introduced me to the movement… they’re the ones who made it clear… while Guillermo scared the fuck out of me… I didn’t get it… the Alvarez brothers started breaking down the history of what M.E.Ch.A represented... where the name came from, where it started… the history behind the movement… I sat down and had a Chicano studies lesson that I could have got from Rudy Acuña, I got from the Alvarez brothers… that dude probably saved my life… had the greatest influence on me… I got pissed, all the anger came out… I had been cheated from all this, this understanding, I felt I had been cheated… how the fuck did not somebody tell me about this? how is that someone didn’t sit down and talk to me about this huge movement that has existed for 500 years?… and I never been a part of it… I was pissed… it made me angry.

It was during this time Ulysses began to see the need to organize something within his community. He had taken the lessons that MEChA had taught him and attempted to apply them in Fallbrook. While United Pride was going through some internal changes, Ulysses saw the opportunity to create his own organization:

I formed this organization called the Zapatistas, before the Zapatistas emerged in Mexico. We were doing Easter egg hunts… stuff that had not political meaning behind it, other than… let’s get together and start building something… You have the Zapatistas and you have United Pride on the other side… one day… the elders brought us together and wanted to know how can there be two Mexican organizations… I disbanded the Zapatistas… we all rejoined United Pride. By this time when we joined United Pride, Guillermo left… Hector was slowly trying to develop it into… what he envisioned… more militant than an appeasing organization… in the 90s it was completely much more radical.

47

Ricardo recalled seeing the different forms of organizing that were happening throughout

Fallbrook. It was a time where the various splinters of United Pride and the conversations the

Mexican@ youth were having, in dealing with their immediate conditions that helped create different responses. However, for the most part the groups and individuals all seemed to organize and address a similar concern. Ricardo shares:

I think it was really significant that there was that much grassroots organic social movement happening in this town. Someone like Guillermo, he was a homie we wasn’t a college student … trying to [create Aztlan Creation], or someone who went to college and got you know whatever ideas. Este, but there were college students… people like Hector that went to Mira Costa college and was politicized from there and they were trying to do certain things. Then you had Ulysses start up the Zapatistas and he was trying to do certain things. So, you had these different groups happening, again opening up this immense discussion of community upliftment.

It was the ideals of community uplift that resonated with some Mexican@ youth. It was a

new way of responding to the racism they were already experiencing. Ricardo, shares what he

witnessed and how the organizations framed the ideas behind community uplift:

It was all about… teaching our history because… it was clear that high school didn’t teach anything about our history… it was about addressing racism at that time or trying to understand racism just to even try to understand it … what is it? why are we dealing with it? how do we deal with it?... for the most part you had people saying what I already knew, fight back defend yourself… it made sense, if you’re in a situation and you feel someone is going to attack you, you fight back and I had already learned from my own experiences, yeah you fight back and that will calm fuckers down.

For Morayma and Miguel this early movement and organizing happened when they were

young, they didn’t recount stories of the early organizing but where aware of the long history of

organizing in Fallbrook. Yesenia, who arrived to Fallbrook after MUDP had been established

also shared that she was aware of the immense history that came before MUDP. The formation

of these organizations in Fallbrook attempted to give back to the Mexican community its dignity.

48 Ricardo sums up exactly what it did for him during his high school years and encountering some of the organizers and organizations that formed during that time:

These organizations that were forming were reminding us of that culture… told us to be proud of where we come from told us to be proud of our parents… that no one should make us feel ashamed of who we are…. they were saying exactly what I needed to hear at that time… there was competing messages… but the one that made the most sense was fight back, be proud of yourself, educate yourself and let’s lift up our community. That’s what became deeply ingrained in me through high school.

There were competing messages as to how the Mexican community should respond to racism and repression. On one end, you had these Mexican@ youth and students who wanted to fight back and be proud of their roots, and on the other end you had others that promoted a more anti-political agenda. The history of organizing in Fallbrook explains not only the conclusions the Mexican@ youth had arrived at and the identity that was beginning to take shape, but also the intelligence and courage to organize their own communities. While most of the parents at that time put their heads down and kept working, Mexican@ youth were starting to resist white supremacy and organizing to fight back. While other leaders in the community wanted the

Mexican@ youth groups to “show them” and appease white people, students and organizers had started to move away from this approach because it wasn’t working. Ricardo, shares this understanding:

We had different people saying, no don’t fight back just go to school and show them… that shit made no damn sense because again you’re in that moment what do you do? oh I can read a book, that’s not going to fucking change anything… so we learned just from experience how to deal with these people you know and again it wasn’t out of like oh lets fight back because we hate them it was, lets fight back because we’re under attack… and if you want someone to stop attacking you, you fight back. Show them that basics concept, that power respects power.

Resistance in this rural community takes on different forms, from an appeasing United

Pride who wants the white community to accept them to MEChA and the Chican@ struggle for

49 identity and cultural preservation. The objective was the same, an attempt to give dignity back to

the Mexican community. While most of the parents of these Mexican youth had lived in fear and kept their heads down--this too was a strategy for survival and resistance--the

Mexican@/Chican@ were responding differently and some could no longer keep their heads down. It seems that the more repression and racialization the Mexican@/Chican@ youth faced the more their resistant strategizes shifted. The creation of grassroots organizations composed of homies and students centered around empowerment, education, addressing racism and self- defense is indicative of some Mexican@/Chican@s begging to develop a political consciousness.

The groups would soon have a unifying fight, when one of the most beloved and respected members of United Pride in Fallbrook, known in the community for fighting back, was brutally beaten. It was the beating of Guillermo that brought the groups together to begin looking at the larger issues that were afflicting them equally.

The Beating: “He was brutalized…by cops”

The beating of Guillermo by Fallbrook sheriffs was the unfortunate event that brought the three groups together. All the years of dealing with white supremacy had finally culminated in a brutal beating. Guillermo had been a prominent leader in United Pride, known in the community for being charismatic and fighting back. He had won the trust and admiration of not only the

Mexican@ youth but also the white community. Hector, recalls that, “Guillermo became very popular with the media” his presence was grand in Fallbrook, known for moving the people.

The beating was a moment in Fallbrook history that became the unifying event that consolidated the various Mexican@ youth groups.

Ulysses recounts:

Guillermo leaves [United Pride], which leaves him wide open to attack… police show up to Guillermo’s house, as usual… it’s a little loud, he’s drinking… they

50 beat up Guillermo, Don Rafa and la abuelita… [police] beat Guillermo so badly that he ends up in the hospital… immediately we call everyone together… the ideas was this, we were going to send somebody out so that if Guillermo… was let out of the hospital… we wanted to make sure that no one was going to hurt Guillermo, that there wasn’t going to be an attempt on his life… we thought this was going to happen because Guillermo had been organizing…for a while in the community…because he was a vocal guy and opposed police brutality… so we sent a few people to make sure he would come out okay… and nothing would happen to him.

The Mexican@ youth who had already been organizing were aware of the implications of the beating. This was not only an attack on Guillermo it was an attack on United Pride. The news of the beating was the talk within in the Mexican community and the local media. Morayma who was younger at the time vividly recalls hearing of the beating:

He was brutalized in the community by cops… there was tension… the cops you know beating up the community… I remember being little and all I hear was… they went to Liz’s grandma’s house…in front of Carlos’ house on the side of Silvia’s house… these are people I grew up with… I remember thinking if the cops went in there like screaming and batoning… I remember just thinking how like the handicap person within that family would feel, which was [Chato], because he wasn’t there anymore, you know like how scared could he be and the grandmother…a grandmother has so much love and like just protection of her family like how she would have felt seeing her grandchild… being beaten up by the cops… that was big, that was big.

For the Mexican youth in Fallbrook who grew up with the influences of United Pride and knew Guillermo, this beating began to unfold the many years of repression and resistance in

Fallbrook. The repression that the Mexican community had endured quietly was about to be spoken about loudly. Ricardo recalls what that moment felt like:

Guillermo… was from the neighborhood… he was one of those that fought (laughs) back. He was really respected because he fought back, he had a heavy hand he was known for knocking people out… he was a good guy overall (laughs) he was a homie right… he was someone that you respected…while this is all happening… learning about and dealing with… the racism in the community from the white youth to the racism in the schools that we already seen, to now… the sheriffs had visited his house where his grandparents lived… He ended up getting beaten in front of his grandparents. I guess his grandma or grandfather was pushed, shoved to the ground just complete disrespect right… to hear about this

51 happening it shook the whole Mexican community from the youth to the parents you know because we were a tight community, we know each other, so when we heard this happen, again it struck a nerve in all of us you know.

While the Mexican community talked about the beating and were concerned with the

how Guillermo and his family were brutalized the media started to demonize Guillermo. Hector

recalls “the media went from this great kid… the future of the Hispanic community to … fight…

I’m sure the newspaper said… this is something you can look up…United Pride President: From

Good Guy to Thug… it was all over the place…the Chamber of Commerce turned their back on

us… even some people in the community”.

The white community had turned their backs on the real needs and fears of the Mexican

community and the media who once praised Guillermo had now served to demonize and

criminalize him. The beating was a message to the Mexican community, reminding them of

remaining in their place and if they thought of resisting they would be met with the full force of

the law. It was this beating and the 10 years of organizing that had brought a political awareness

to the organizer for a community response. Hector shares how this moment finally culminated:

This is the kind of humiliation that people had withstood… there was real fear in the community it’s not like perceived fear… they would do these things openly because they knew that by doing it openly it scared the whole community, so you lived under this repression and this fear of acting out of calling for human rights… all that changed all that changed all within this little period of time in a matter of weeks… where one of our members was beaten to the demonstration.

It was the years of organizing that helped frame a need for a different response in

Fallbrook. The early years of organizing had pushed the youth toward attempting to change the

minds of white people, changing internally to gain acceptance from the white community. This

approach had reached its limits, as the Mexican community was still dealing with the realities of white supremacy and violence inflicted on their communities. The blatant racism that existed in

Fallbrook was informing the organizers of a broader cause for these attacks, colonialism. It was

52 in meetings immediately after the beating that would bring forth a unifying response to the years of repression in Fallbrook.

The beating represented the many years of repression and fear the Mexican community had endured. While the media attempted to justify the beating and some community members bought it, there were those who framed a direct response to Guillermo’s beating. The many years of organizing had finally reached a moment where a group of Mexican@/Chican@ youth opted for a political response. The focus was no longer changing the minds of whites to accept them it turned to doing something about the brutality they were facing. Again, the repression on behalf of the police served to consolidated the response.

From I to We: “All this struggle… went to form Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo”

After the beating leaders, students, and youth came together to discuss what the beating meant to the Mexican@ community and how they were to respond. It was through these conversations that the formation of MUDP came to life. For those directly involved it was the right approach, to take a political stance against police brutality. Hector who had been organizing in Fallbrook for 10 years by then shares his experience:

All this history all this struggle all these experiences went to form Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa De los Pueblos… that whole history pushed us in that direction…we need to form a political organization… independent of government funding, independent of the church, independent of whatever structure is here already… an organization that is independent and works under the interest of the Mexican working class and I think once we realized that, that’s when we started talking about you know things as you know as workers, as you know colonized peoples, we started talking about umm you know the oppressor and the oppressed

Morayma’s brothers where growing up while these organizations were unfolding in Fallbrook.

Her home became the “hub” for the meetings right after the beating. Morayma recalls all the movement and activity at her home:

53 I remember… we were just sitting outside like in my dad’s… junkyard… just having a meeting there about what just had happened and what were the tactics going forward and what they were gonna to do and how they couldn’t, they just couldn’t sit back and just you know because that was a direct attack because Guillermo was very involved in like United Pride and how they couldn’t sit back and be like, no this is a direct attack on United Pride this is not Guillermo anymore, this is all of us… we have to take action and we have to do something in order for the police to understand that this cannot happen… this was not right… this was a total like police brutality case….. It was serious stuff you know. And there was another meeting and there was another meeting and there’s another meeting… it was all within like a week… two week’s span you know it was crazy. I remember… seeing…from the inside of my house looking out and then there’s like this giant African dude like dressed in like tunic wear kind of like really colorful just like being escorted and everybody going down into the gym cause it was like underground like top secret shit like (laughs) nobody could go under there you know and see like really it was there it was underground and you know that’s why they went under which was amazing now that I think of it”.

It was in these underground meetings that the conversations were cultivating a needed response.

The fear instilled in the community by the presence of white power in Fallbrook was real. It was through dialogue that the Mexican community shared their similar encounters within the schools, the community and with law enforcement. Ulysses shares these moments of realization:

Eventually we started realizing that there was more than one case of dealing with police brutality… United Pride begins to join forces with the Alvarez brothers… Arcela steps in a bit…and different comrades in Fallbrook… they were all there and we were under our basement… There, is where we came together and said... we need to do something about this police brutality… what they did to Guillermo… we knew why they had done it… he had a profound influence on the young… he moves them, he can organize them. We knew it was an attack on Guillermo to calm his ass down… there was an assault on Guillermo… in 1993… we’re going to get together because of this brutality that we are facing it’s not only police… but also with white power… we begin to decide what kind of name we are going to give this organization… but the one that stuck the most was MUDP named by Adrian Alvarez… Mexicanos Unidos en Defensa del Pueblo… because if you’re here to defend yourself you’re a defense organization…we took the name from there.

The formation of MUDP was a community process as Ulysses remembers. It wasn’t only residents of Fallbrook. Hector and Ulysses called onto their allies they had met while attending community college. During the time when United Pride was moving away from an “appeasing”

54 organization, they had started to meet other local organizations in San Diego. Hector shared,

“that time was also when we met Union del Barrio… we also met the Brown Berets of Aztlan

and we met El Chunky.” From all these meetings and coalition building none would become

more important than meeting Omali Yeshitela of the African Peoples Socialist party. Hector

shares how this encounter and the ideological development aided in the formation of MUDP:

We started talking about…the oppressor and the oppressed…with all the studying we were doing at that time we ran into you know Fanon, and we started reading about…the whole question of colonialism and how it just develops inside you, so you yourself are colonized mentally… not so much that they are on top of you anymore but your just colonized mentally…it was [in] 1989, we met…Chairman Omali Yeshitela from the African Peoples Socialist Party…that was leaps and bounds man from everything we had ever heard, all the studying we had done… the first time we heard the Chairman, was like goddamn…his whole theory of Yeshitalism and the…history of Black resistance to colonialism… and just the different facets of colonialism and his analysis of the struggle, his analysis of the people, I mean we just saw so many so many similarities between our movements.

Morayma recalls seeing Omali at her house during those first underground meetings after

Guillermo was beat:

I remember, Omali Yeshitela from the African Peoples Socialist Party and I remember that because there was… there was pamphlets of the African Peoples Socialist Party at my house before that… I kinda knew who he was… my brother was already like in political education classes he was already doing that within the community you know but that’s organic it wasn’t from school…. I think that the group that was there in La Huerta… within my brother’s generation was really strong because they… went to school together they… linked up and then they brought it back to the community, which it’s pretty beautiful… they were really like militant.

The formation of MUDP consolidated the groups in Fallbrook and prepared them for their first

event. They were to organize a march to the Fallbrook Sheriff’s station to denounce police

brutality. This show of resistance on behalf of the Mexican@ community would be the first of its

kind. MUDP had realized, the “thing” they were fighting went beyond racism, it was much

55 deeper than that. They made a call to the Mexican@ community and she responded. Ricardo recalls what that call was and how it resonated with him:

MUDP began to explain why this is happening… just to say that its racism and we have to be nice to people and speak English clearly didn’t work…. That was shit that right away didn’t work, it’s not going to save you from getting your ass kicked…. MUDP… formed and it crystalized… this movement that was already happening and said… there’s a systemic problem, this is a problem of as system…it has a historical basis going back to white supremacy origins to the founding of this country to …the enslavement of Africans to the genocide of native people to the stealing of our lands… What we were confronting and still fighting, defending ourselves from is something that has always been here, since the founding of this country. It gave a historical context to it and it explained why fighting back was the right thing to do.

MUDP was created to defend the community. It was formed to be the vehicle toward liberation, however it wasn’t going to be a single organization that leads people toward liberation as the people would need to arrive at that conclusion. For MUDP it was about creating dual and contending powers that could help them wage struggle against colonialism.

The formation of MUDP was created to organize against the repression in Fallbrook. The many years of organizing in Fallbrook had pushed the founders of MUDP to move beyond the question of race and situate the struggle as works and as colonized people. The need for action was long overdue. The brutality the Mexican@/Chican@ community were facing was not only from the police but from the white power skinheads. This form of resistance was shaped by the outside factors of repression but also by the experience the founders of MUDP had with other organizations, ultimately arriving on a militant approach, calling for a march and realizing that fighting back was the right thing to do.

The March: “My protest sign was my middle finger”

The march on Wednesday May 26, 1993 was called for by MUDP and would be their first event as an organization. This show of resistance to police brutality was years in the making.

56 This counters the narrative that marches are sporadic and spontaneous(cite). The years of

repression in Fallbrook had finally reached its breaking point, the community had endured

enough. The march was organized within a week and the response from the community

confirmed what MUDP had determined, the community was ready to act. Hector shares what the

march symbolized for the Mexican@ community:

The march itself I think, it reflected all those years… and it finally just consolidated politically…it just finally came to a political understanding you know that the fact that we decided… were going to have this march, this public demonstration… about the injustices that are occurring in our community… we didn’t know what kind of response we were going to find.

The response would soon become evident. The San Diego Union Tribune reported about 200 community members showed up for that march (Moran 1993). Ulysses remembers how the march was well organized and executed:

We started quickly organizing the march. The march was to… start down by the police station and we were going to march to McDonalds and back… it was amazing because the police were out in force that day, I mean the police they were out having pancakes and shit out there on the street because they knew… they thought they were going to get into a confrontation with the community. So, they were up in arms, the police was… we had our march… we had Hector throw out his rap about police brutality and from then on out it was MUDP… This was a highly organized march… we were not allowed to talk to anyone there was only one person that was allowed to talk… no one could talk to the press… if there were provocateurs… we would immediately take… their literature from them and rip it up… because they were a few guys from the RCP… Revolutionist Communist Party… We moved up and down the march making sure there was no provocateurs… that’s the way it was done, it was highly organized.

In this story Ulysses shares, how the members of MUDP organized themselves to protect their community and the integrity of the organization. It is from this shared collective understanding that MUDP organized this event and no one would coopt their struggle. This walking up and down was also to help protect the Mexican@ community who were marching, from provocateurs and the police. Ricardo recalls joining the march and feeling a sense of empowerment:

57

I joined, I went to the march. I remember we met up over here, it used to be Builders Emporium It’s now where Fresh & Easy is on Main St. right across from where McDonalds used to be. I remember that’s where we started I remember Metzger driving by with a video camera you know, trucks with confederate flags out their windows again this was… 93 so this was still at a time when the Skinhead movement was still at its peak…this was the first time the Mexican community here in Fallbrook had taken an open political stance, first time they marched protested anything, in the face of the skinheads….but now dealing with a broader problem of police brutality……We marched down the street we marched down to Alvarado…. where the police station used to be … I remember we were just marching around the pig station and for the first time, my protest sign was my middle finger, the first-time I... showed some open resistance to cops… It was the right thing to do. It felt empowering... I remember they had their cameras on us and… when I lifted my finger I saw the cop look at me point his camera to me, I lifted it higher…fuck you...you know. It was just shit that you got to respond to, for whatever reason if we’re not being respected up to this point.

The empowerment that Ricardo felt came from all the community members who joined the march. They had finally had the courage, facilitated through MUDP to fight back. It was not only about Guillermo’s beating but about the beating the community had endured all those years. The cultivation of community gave them strength. Morayma was also present at the march and she recalls how she felt:

They took the streets and I remember them like boom just everybody… I remember exactly where I stood… right in front of the Do It Center… across the street from McDonald’s…I remember just seeing everything… and there’s so many people and then I remember like being so self-conscious like I wonder what they’re going to think of me… for standing out here, like my classmates you know… I wonder if they’re going to question… if I knew this person that was brutalized within our community…Guillermo like if I even had anything to do with him… I remember also just being there just feeling like that antagonism against the police department I felt that a lot… I know that the cops are bad…they have to be bad what they stand for what they just did to a family friend…my friends like brother like that’s not right there’s something really wrong… just feeling this antagonism and how they [police] weren’t there for us but we were there for each other. That’s what I felt.

58 It’s in Morayma’s story that we can see how MUDP lived up to its name to defend the

Mexican@ community. No one was there for the Mexican@ community but themselves. It is in

this moment of community and solidarity that gave them strength to march and take a stance

against police brutality.

When the masses arrived to the sheriff’s station the years of repression finally came out,

Hector recalls:

We march[ed] to the police station, the sheriff station and surrounded it… and people just yelling you know their feelings… people just giving testimony on the spot about who they themselves were beaten or their brother or sister or a family member or somebody they knew was taken out to one of the groves and beaten and left out there or taken down to De Luz you know and beaten up by the police and left out there… people just came out and gave testimony and I think… the police themselves I think they didn’t think it was going to be anything that the people were going to support… they were kinda caught off guard.

For those Mexican@/Chican@s who participated in the march the feeling of unity gave them one power, one voice. The call for the march and the response proved that the community was ready to act and had found the courage in each other. The testimonials also consolidated the struggle, it was not an isolated incident. Although the police and the white power skinheads were out in force, the march persisted. The fear was gone and the resistance strategy proved effective, fighting fear with courage. It is through these tactics of protest that begin to give shape to a political understanding and pushes some individuals toward conzientizacion (Freire 1970).

The march changed the course of history for the Mexican@ community in Fallbrook.

They were no longer scared. The message was clear: the Mexican community would no longer stand for injustices. They saw their power and what they could do as a community. It’s not clear from my participants’ interviews on the outcome of the beating or if the officer where held accountable, however, one thing was clear, MUDP had crystalized as a political organization.

The framing for a need to respond politically and the call for an independent grassroots

59 organization cemented its path to continue struggling for the Mexican@ community in Fallbrook

and North county.

The Struggle for Bilingual Education: “La Escuela Popular Rogelio Favela”

In 1998 with the passing of Prop 227 and the elimination of bilingual education, opened a

front of struggle that directly attacked the Education of Spanish speakers in Fallbrook. MUDP

organized a response and created La Escuela Popular Rogelio Favela (EPRF) to combat this

proposition. MUDP denounced Prop 227 and announced a program built independently and

controlled by the community.

Ulysses recalls how the EPRF materialized:

The Escuela Popular Rogelio Favela was our first effort which was part of our three-prong campaign…. Un pueblo sano, libre Y combatiente… EPRF was part of la libre aspect of the three-prong campaign…. We understood that in order to be free we have to decolonize our minds… in order to create cadres to join MUDP we needed to politicize the community… we needed to create an independent institution that could politicize the young comrades in town.

The awareness MUDP members had reached from the years of organizing in Fallbrook and the studying and theorizing they had undergone had allowed them to become politicized. Ulysses story allows us to see how MUDP wanted to give that understanding and awareness back to the

Mexican@ community in Fallbrook and attempt to decolonize.

Ricardo shares how MUDP looked at education:

The question of education has been real important to us... what do they say, the most dangerous weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed… Just understanding how much of a grip the educational system has on our people... we said why not build or own schools. Why not build our own educational programs? So, on the one hand we had a campaign to defend bilingual education in Oceanside, but at the same time we had a program in Fallbrook that we called the Escuela Popular Rogelio Favela…It started off as an ESL class and a tutoring class… and it was based on Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed...liberating education… trying to undo what schools had done…instead of producing capitalistic values instead of producing individual values instead of…. only teaching a Eurocentric history… all the things that we

60 identified as what’s hurting our community, the development our community we said we’re going to do the complete opposite… it’s going to be community controlled program.

Like Ulysses, Ricardo shared the same ideology behind creating an independent school, to combat and decolonize from the Eurocentric ideology that is ingrained in the U.S school systems. Not only was the EPRF an independent institution, but it also had a methodology of teaching, utilizing Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy. This meant that the community was going to learn from each other, rather than relying on MUDP members to deposit all the information.

Morayma also remembers the EPRF was created and how she got involved:

“Prop 227 came up and right away and MUDP, they took a stand on it… You can’t take bilingual education away at schools because it’s our students, it’s our hijos... they need to have a place at school where they feel safe, where they learn, they continue learning… all I can think of in my brain was, sink or swim… because they’re going to sink if they can’t speak their language… it was made on purpose for them to fail…That’s when they started creating EPRF… it was named after Enrique… whose son... drowned… at his mom’s house. Which was really sad but they named it after him because he was kinda in the struggle too…To be honest with you I needed to start getting involved somehow because I needed community service hours for school… orale so I was like I’m start going to this because that’s community service… I knew that I needed to go to college and I knew who Ricardo was… that’s how I got involved… as a Mexicana I knew what my role was as a Chicana… that gave me… my blueprint for my life on what I had to do… I had the example, all these guys around me they went to universities and they came back… that’s when I started getting involved… it was amazing…Once you figure out what’s happening within your community and what people are doing... unfairly or unjustly and there’s not… resources spread out for your community adequately… you become like pissed off… honestly you become militant naturally, you do. And… like you’re young and your just no that shit’s not right... for me… going to those trailer parks, I knew it was important because what I thought was like okay… it’s not going to be taught in schools, the parents don’t understand the language we gotta be a liaison between there and if they’re not going to do it, we have to do it… there’s no question about it… in every single case of those students that I looked at in that trailer park if there’s one little kid it was beautiful because… you represent somebody that we stand up for, not only you but everybody else and we stand up for you and your going to get adequate services here with us. If the schools aren’t going to give them to you we are, why? Because I’m capable, because I’m going to high school, I’m in college preparatory classes I can help you, I’m going to help you, we’re going to help each other. That’s what you do, you go back, that’s your community that’s

61 just the love you have for your community… that’s what I started doing… I started tutoring and then I became more involved.

Morayma’s narrative helps us look at the ways in which MUDP was able to reach out to the

community. Not only was MUDP promoting education some of the members had gone to universities, some were attending college and others where high school students who were back in their communities organizing and giving back their knowledge. It’s in the interactions with the students at the mobile home park that helps frame a need for community empowerment and self- determination. Yesenia was a college student at the time she remembers how she came across the

EPRF and her experience:

When I learned about that Escuelita, I know that Ricardo and Ulysses they were doing a book drive and we were doing a fundraiser for Ballet Folklorico in M.E.Ch.A and they had a table right next to us and they were doing a book drive they were collecting books for the Escuelita… I asked you know how can I help out…I think for me it was just volunteering I think at first it was just going a couple of days and just do volunteering with the tutoring…I think at one point we wanted to do some Ballet Folklorico as well in the trailer parks and then we wanted to focus more with the moms doing some physical education classes or you know dance classes for the moms… I don’t think I had a specific or major role at the beginning I think it was more like on a volunteering basis… it was very rewarding… thinking back for me it was more because of the challenges that I faced with education… being in college you learn a lot of things …I was feeling more empowered than versus how I was feeling in high school I think when I was going through high school because I was an immigrant myself I was trying to learn English, there was a lot of shame associated with being who I was because I had an accent and I didn’t know the language completely but when I got to college I felt more like empowered… want[ing] to be able to make a difference in the community I started getting involved with Ballet Folklorico and then I learned about M.E.Ch.A and then l learned about MUDP and so when I came to Fallbrook I felt…there’s something I can do to… help out the community that I was able to identify myself with and I think I associated myself a lot with the kids in the trailer park trying to better themselves and that’s what I was doing myself.

Like Morayma, for Yesenia the EPRF resonated with her experiences growing up. It was the ideals of basic rights to education and that no child should be deprived from learning that enticed them to continue volunteering in the program. Because of their experiences with

62 bilingual education in the school system they both shared this understanding and both felt

empowered to be able to go into that community and be of support. The struggle for education

and community building within this community would eventually open a different struggle.

The struggle for the EPRF moved from one mobile home park to another. MUPD had created the EPRF in the Alturas mobile home park and the work that they were conducting, because it was based on critical pedagogy, the owner of the mobile park eventually kicked them out. They moved to another mobile home park where the community accepted them. Ricardo recounts the story:

They opened up their club house to us and we started doing basically the same thing… ESL classes tutoring for the kids and we even added some health and fitness classes. In the summertime, we ran a full summer school. Hector… volunteered to run that and we had a class there in the summer right. It got to the point where the families there sent their kids to our program instead of the public school… it was a legit program. In terms of, a certified teacher… that’s what it takes no? That’s how we were fulfilling that objective of self-determination… of creating our own institutions and we showed the community that we could do it ourselves, if we organized ourselves with little to no resources and just with the will to do it and we were able to begin these educational programs… because those programs were based on pedagogy of the oppressed, because they were based on…. Problem posing education... that program eventually opened up another front of struggle there… It went beyond education itself it became a… residents campaign for control of their living situating… so that turned into another struggle… it opened up a whole new experience for us.

MUDP and the creation of the EPRF in the mobile home park was proof of their commitment to the Mexican communities’ needs. The creation of the EPRF had another broader implication, it allowed for the community at the mobile home park to participate and do for themselves. It was the Freire (2000) type of education and methodology that situated the people’s experiences and needs at the forefront. The EPRF was meeting the needs of this community and the community responded by choosing to send their children to the EPRF.

MUDP had worked alongside the community and now the community had shared their ongoing

63 battle within in their living situation at the mobile home park. Because MUDP is a grassroots organization they had to make a choice, keep the EPRF going and pour all their resources into the educational program or take on the housing struggle.

It is in this type of popular education rooted in critical pedagogy that promotes action/praxis to influence a level of reflection that allows participants to reach conscientization

(Freire 1967) The daily practical work in the EPRF allows for participants to dialogue with students and together make sense of their world. This togetherness promotes a collective action for decolonizing. Furthermore, it allows participants the ability to transform their shame to empowerment where everyone has the means to make a difference. The EPRF embodied self- determination and cultivated a place where the community was able to interact with their immediate surroundings and begin to question their own living situation. The level of conscientization reached allowed for others in the trailer park to wage resistance.

The trailer park struggle: “We have the right to determine our own housing situation”

The housing struggle came about from the time MUDP organizers and volunteers spent in the mobile home park. The objective of MUDP was to decolonize the minds of the Mexican community, although education was an important struggle it wasn’t the primary objective for

MUDP. From the objective set forth by MUDP the organization wanted to end the relationship of exploitation. This relationship had emerged in the housing struggle of the mobile home park.

Ricardo one of the coordinators of the EPRF recalls how this struggle unfolded:

Right here in this community of fifty families…the colonial fucking contradictions are sharp as hell… we don’t have to go out and look for it…in the relationships we have with each other right here as Mexican workers and white settlers… so called white workers, and this one white worker had all the power of the state behind him… that’s how colonialism works… it’s the vigilante tendency, is nothing but white people taking the role of the state. All the power of colonialism… this white man walked around with it and he knew it, in terms of just the attitude him and his wife and the 3 or 4 other white people that were on

64 that board…they would go to their lawyers…and their management company they all united around… let’s keep these Mexicans in line… [the Mexican residents] were asking for meetings to be in Spanish or translated, no you got 2 minutes to talk, you have to write your questions… the way they do things to actually keep people, to keep democracy from actually happening… we saw all of that right and not just us, this was the people telling us what they saw… they told us well, they saw it as them being racist or being discriminatory, we’re saying no that’s colonialism… we told the people there, you’ve identified the problem you told us many different ways how they are mistreating the Mexican residents here, who’s willing to run for the board and… overturn this… we talked about you know we have the right to determine our own destiny… we have the right to determine our own housing situation, right… a basic concept no, that in this Mobil home park all residents are owners everyone is equal, right, and if we are all owners than we have equal say in the meetings, and if we want to raise a question in Spanish we can speak in Spanish… this is where we live, how are we not going to be aloud speaking Spanish in an area where we live… or have a meeting that’s about us in our own language… this was all pretty clear to people there what was happening… but we sharpened, we helped sharpen that understanding to say, If you want to change this you got to run for the board and got to take some power in your own community.

It is in this type of relationship and style of organizing, from a grassroots perspective that allowed for MUDP to not go into a community to save anyone. The community themselves had to be active participants in their struggle. The Mexican@ residents in this community were emphasizing that what was happening with their living situation wasn’t right. MUDP helped move the conversation forward and utilized Freire’s problem posing education, where the residents started to slowly create dialogue and solutions for themselves. Yesenia recalls her role in the trailer park:

I think later on it generated to… working with the… adults and educating them about their rights and then on how to run a trailer park… I know that a couple of times we had different trainings that were related to bilingual education and then education in general and also later on working with them and providing trainings on how to run meetings… things that would help them… for election time for them to take more participation within the board inside the trailer park. Because there was one point when it was just primarily run by white people when we knew that the majority of the residents in the trailer park were… raza, were immigrant… we wanted to change that but I think that we had to work in a way that we had to give people first… the feeling that they were capable of being able

65 to run those meetings themselves and for them to be able to have the confidence to say I’m an owner, therefore, I have the right and therefore I need to… learn how to go about it and so that I can feel more confident in being able to take on those positions and be able to create some change…we won some battles and we lost some other battles but you know it was just work that kept happening.

I asked Yesenia how MUDP was able to give the residents in the mobile home park the confidence to run for the board and to feel capable of taking some leadership roles. Yesenia shares:

I think it was from different things… we would have… constant meetings there were meetings that we would have with the board and I think for some of us to be able to be present to question things or to advocate and for them to feel that there’s somebody else advocating or they’re looking out for my interest and then working with them in separate meetings to teach them… how to run meetings you know how to be able to read the minutes or the agendas when they were coming up. How to understand the budget… the budget was a critical thing you know, where is the money coming from? Where are, we spending it? How can they go about making decisions?... I think at one point we started doing work... for them to be able to take more ownership of their trailer park. We did some weekends where we would go out and clean the trailer park and start bringing up ideas of how they can improve their way of living how can we improve the club house how can we improve the area where the kids play and the pool to make it more… enjoyable and living environment for everyone…. I think it took some time for people to build the trust… at the beginning… I don’t think the trust was there but I think little by little knowing that there was somebody there consistently… I think it changed a lot when me and Ricardo became residents of the trailer park. I think that also made a big impact for us because we became owners at that time as well and for them to be able to see the type of commitment that we had… to work with them more than anything you know.

Yesenia’s work can help us understand the level of commitment embodied. Her presence in the trailer park and her narrative on the work she carried out shows us how women in the movement are integral to grassroots struggles. Yesenia’s hours of volunteering, working with the community helped move the resident’s goals forward, controlling their own living situation. The struggle in the mobile home park was a 10-year struggle, long and arduous: this wasn’t something that happened overnight. Miguel recalls seeing the end of this struggle:

66 I was around to… see the end of the struggle that was going on in the trailer park… where you had like what was it like 90% of Mexican families and this trailer park association that was supposed to be owned by everybody and… only like 5 or 4 white people that lived in the trailer park…ran the board and made all the big decisions for… everybody… I got to see that transition in power it was all about that… giving power back to the community.

Yesenia, who was directly involved in the day-to-day practice, recalls what this change in power looked like:

At the beginning, there wasn’t much interest… in the trailer park for them it was I have my own place and that’s it and to later thinking about… I’m not only going to think about my own little space but I’m going to think about the whole park in general you know what can we do to be able to bring other types of services that are going to benefit us as a community, not so much as only me and my own space but overall bringing in a new management company, bringing new board members that could speak my language that I could identity myself with… because it would allow me… to also run in the future you know if I saw Don Jose or somebody… if he can do it than I can do it… looking at it overall in terms of what decisions we need to make to make this place look better for us as a community you know and that’s why we started looking into… remodeling the club house…we brought in a new playground… we bought new furniture for the pool. I think residents felt more comfortable in making those decisions about spending money... Where in the past they were thinking….those expenses were going to be serving the management company or somebody … they saw that…it was going to benefit them overall and that they were part of making those decisions and not somebody else making the decisions for them…it changed to the point where people were coming to meetings they were more interested. We started having more… community events, we had…Las posadas and… the board decided to… buy gifts for the families and the kids during the Christmas party …they felt more comfortable about making those decisions…to contribute to the community in general and to use some of those resources for themselves.

The residents of the mobile home park were victorious in their struggle to control their housing situation. They had stood up to the board, the management, and the lawyers. The struggle was waged side by side, working with each other, educating each other, and finding the courage within each other to run for the board, question the board and ultimately fire and hire a management company that would represent the residents adequately. This was another learned experience for MUDP in their struggle for self-determination. The grassroots approach, being

67 transparent and committed to the residents, to the people, proved effective. It is in this mobile

home park along with other struggles that begins to shape the framework of MUDP.

The struggle for housing is another glimpse at the process of conscientization for the

participants. It is in the practical work and the daily interactions of running for the board,

convincing the residents to take ownership, and teaching residents how to run meetings that empowers the residents to act. This daily work gave residents a sense that they had the

capabilities to take control of their housing situation. MUDP through their collective goal

modeled courage and gave people hope. The transparency and commitment to join the housing

struggle was fortified when MUDP moved two of its members into the trailer park. The housing

struggle became a “we” fight, where it was about working and struggling for the community.

Back to Theory: Making Sense of Narratives

The founders, members and ex-members of MUDP through their shared narratives

understand that we share a collective identity; this awareness and solidarity cultivates resistant

strategies against colonialism and the racism experienced in Fallbrook. The narrative revealed

here captures the stories from the participants as they experience racism that existed in

Fallbrook. It is through these shared narratives that participants begin to understand their

individual experiences as collective and find ways to resist their colonization. Bringing back

Alfredo Mirandé’s (1982) theory of internal colonialism we can infer that the participants in this

research, through their immediate experience with racism and facilitated through organizing,

gained an awareness of the historical roots of colonialism in the U.S. This awareness was key to

understanding the colonial conditions they faced. It is though the participants’ violent encounters

and the institutional racism that we see Robert Blauner’s (1969) four concepts of the colonized

complex.

68 The years of youth organizing in a repressive community, searching for their identity and finding ways to deal with racism, slowly moved the some Mexican@/Chican@ toward a more radical position. This move was facilitated through the repression faces, their experiences working within the white community and their Mexican communities. Simultaneously, meeting other organizers and organizations like MEChA, Union de Barrio and the African Peoples

Socialist Party helped frame their own struggle and what was needed in Fallbrook.

For the participants involved with MUDP the false notion of integrating, assimilating/acculturating into the dominant culture crumbled under the contradictions of colonialism and racism present in Fallbrook. The power imbalances, violent racist encounters and institutionalized oppression began to unearth the historical resistance within the colonized masses. In Fallbrook, it was a combination of the forms of racism that slowly began to unearth the colonizers’ contradiction. In Ulysses’ experience his seclusion from the Mexican@ community allowed for him to remove himself from his Mexican identity, however, the presence of racism in Fallbrook reminded him of his subordinate position. It was through his interaction with MEChA and the consciousness of his culture and history that he learned of a history of resistance and struggle. This allowed Ulysses to theorize about his Mexicanidad within Fallbrook and that the racism that he was experiencing had roots in colonialism.

In a rural community like Fallbrook the racial repression that was inflicted on the

Mexican@ community allowed for Mexican@/Chican@s to frame a need for self-determination and community control. The beating of Guillermo signaled the brutality that the community had been enduring. The beating served to consolidate a unified response, MUDP became a defense organization that proposed to create dual and contending powers. The history of resistance in this

69 rural community can allow us to infer that the historical roots of conquest are sharp, colonialism

is still very present in the daily lives of Mexican@/Chican@’s in the southwest.

Conclusion: La Lucha Sigue

It’s not clear why some Mexican@/Chican@s decide to organize and resist white

supremacy in a rural community while others don’t. However, in Fallbrook the participants who

did organize and resist lend a narrative that captures some common threads as to why they did.

Having an awareness of your identity was not a precursor to resisting, since identify shifts as

people encounter movements and organizations. The racism present in Fallbrook racialized the

brown bodies and pushed some of these youths to understand that they indeed weren’t white.

This awareness is what moved some of the early organizing in Fallbrook, a search to reconcile with the racism they experienced. The level of repression in a community pushes some to begin

finding tactics for resisting. The more brutal the repression the more militant the responses,

ultimately it’s about self-defense. Some participants had examples from family members and

friends who had already brought a level of awareness into organizing. It is notable that all the members of MUDP were brought into the movement by a family member, friend, or loved one.

Being brought into the struggle in this manner kept the members connected to the movement.

However, it is the practical work in the community, the EPRF and the trailer-park housing struggle that started to give a rise in conscientization. In fact, the pragmatic work comes first, the learning comes later. It is action/praxis and reflection that shape the awareness for action and resistance (Freire 1967). The final ingredient is the love for the people. There must be a genuine love for the people you work with and for yourself, a belief that you are in the struggle for liberation to regain our humanity as a collective process. This process happens differently for all participants.

70 The multiple years of struggle in Fallbrook have shaped the organizers and MUDP to build an organization where their ideals of, transparency, education, self-determination, and liberation have no waivered. The narrative of each organizer has allowed me to understand the deep roots of resistance within each member. MUDP has served as a vehicle for self- determination, transformation, and decolonization. The conviction in their narratives, eyes, tone and demeanor has validated this observation. The process of transformation is a long and arduous path. The organizers in Fallbrook continue to wage struggle. MUDP has been instrumental in many recent struggle in San Diego county. I have not gone nor will I go into detail each struggle MUDP membership has led or been in solidarity with, however, they deserve mentioning:

Struggle against Prop 227- fight for bilingual education in Oceanside CA Five killings in a week in Vista CA Coalition for Justice Peace and Dignity in Vista, CA May 1st manifestation in Vista CA Struggle against Minutemen in Fallbrook Otra en el Otro Lado, Los Angeles CA Struggle for Clemmons Ln Park, Fallbrook, CA Fallbrook Human Rights committee challenged proposed Gang injunction in Fallbrook CA

The shared narratives of MUDP members gives us a closer look at how MUDP mobilized their membership and community to seek for decolonizing methodologies that overturned power imbalances. The long battle for social justice continues. It has not nor will not end until people have their lives in their own hands and control their own destiny. Although there are many forms of resistance, this is one example of how a Mexican@/Chican@ community through grassroots organizing resisted white supremacy in Fallbrook, California. This his/herstory of resistance captures the struggle of a people existing and taking their destiny into their own hands. The resistance waged belongs in the narrative of Fallbrook. I hope I have given the

71 Mexican@/Chican@s in Fallbrook its place in history. Not a single day has passed that colonized people have not stopped resisting. La lucha sigue.

72

Appendix

College of Humanities, Arts, Behavioral and Social Sciences

CHABSS

Informed Consent Form

Resistir para Existir

Research Procedures

This research is being conducted to understand how Mexican@s/Chican@s create resistance movements and organizations despite their location in a repressive rural community with a history of white domination and racism.

Requirements of Participation

If you agree to participate, you should plan to spend anywhere between one and three hours engaged in filming a conversation about your experience with MUDP. It is possible that this would occur over more than one session, but all sessions will be scheduled with your convenience and availability in mind.

Your participation is voluntary, and you may withdraw from the study at any time and for any reason.

Confidentiality

Given your prominence in the community as known identity as a founding member of MUDP, there is no assurance given of confidentiality.

Risks of Participation

Your participation may bring up feelings of distress.

Sharing your image and words about MUDP may bring further attention to you as you have experienced in the past.

Safeguards

Your participation is voluntary and you may withdraw from the interview at any time and for any reason.

If you decide to participate or if you withdraw you will be given the opportunity to view the film before final editing so that you may decline to have any part of what you shared published as part of the final film.

Benefits Participants may enjoy a renewed sense of pride based on their success in creating and leading a resistant

The California State University

73 Bakersfield |Channel Islands |Chico|Domínguez Hills|East Bay|Fresno |Fullerton |Humboldt |Long Beach |Los Ángeles |Maritime Academy Monterey Bay |Northridge |Pomona |Sacramento |San Bernardino |San Diego |San Francisco |San José |San Luis Obispo |San Marcos |Sonoma |Stanislaus organization in their community. Contact

This research is being conducted by Mr. Luis Higinio, a student in the M.A. in Sociological Practice Program, who is supervised by Dr. Sharon Elise, Professor and Chair of Sociology at CSU San Marcos. You may reach Luis Higinio at 7607666750 or [email protected] and Dr. Elise may be reached at 7606854037 or [email protected] for any questions you may have or to report a research-related problem.

You may contact the California State University, San Marcos Institutional Review Board at 760-750-4029 if you have questions or comments regarding your rights as a participant in the research.

This research has been reviewed according to California State University, San Marcos procedures governing your participation in this research.

Consent

I hereby consent that you, __Luis Higinio______, may use all or part of the videotaped interview of me for your project titled, “Resistir Para Existir: "Giving Power Back to the Community.”

The rights granted are perpetual, worldwide, and include the use of this interview in any medium (all or part of the program may be shown), including broadcast and cable television, videocassettes, internet, book, DVD, streaming media, or publication excerpt related to this project.

You are not obliged to make any use of this interview or exercise any of the rights granted you by this release.

I have read and understand the meaning of this release and I agree to participate and be videotaped in the study. audiotaped in the study.

______Signature Date

______Print Name Phone

74 References

Acuna, Rodolfo. 2000. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. New York: Longman.

Baca Z. Maxine. 1975. “Political Familism: Toward Sex Role Equality in Chicano Families.” Aztlan 6: 13–36.

Bartolome, Lilia I. 2006. "The Struggle for Language Rights: Naming and Interrogating the Colonial Legacy of "English Only"." Human Architecture: Journal of the Sociology of Self-Knowledge 4:25-32.

Bauman, Robert. 2007. “The Black Power and Chicano Movements in the Poverty Wars in Los Angeles.” Journal of Urban History 33(2):277-295.

Beltran, Cristina. 2005. “Patrolling Boarders: Hybrids, Hierarchies and Challenges of Meztizaje.” Political Research Quarterly 57(4):595-607.

Benford, R. and D.A. Snow. 2000. “Framing Processes and Social Movements: An Overview and Assessment.” Annual Review of Sociology 26: 611–639.

Bickel, Christopher. 2001. "Reasons to Resist: Coalition Building at Indiana University." Pp. 207-219.

Blauner, R. (1969). “Internal colonialism and ghetto revolt.” Social Problems, 16(4), 398-408.

Bloemraad, Irene and Christine Trost. 2008. "It's a Family Affair: Intergenerational Mobilization in the Spring 2006 Protests." American Behavioral Scientist52(4):507-532.

Cilwick, Ted. 1991. “Verdict Against White Supremacist: Legal blunders by hate-group chief lead to $12.5 million judgement.” ABA Journal 77(1):22.

Correa, Jennifer G. 2010. “The Targeting of the East Los Angeles Brown Berets by a Racial Patriarchal Capitalist State: Merging Intersectionality and Social Movement Research.” Critical Sociology 37(1):83-101.

Dees, Morris and Steve Fiffer. 1993. Hate on Trial: The Case Against America’s Most Dangerous Neo-Nazi. New York: Random House, Inc.

Dicochea, Perlita R. 2004. “Chicana Critical Rhetoric: Recrafting La Causa in Chicana Movement Discourse, 1970-1979”. Frontiers: Sociological Abstracts 25(1):77-89.

Escobar, Edward J. 1993. “The Dialectics of Repression: The Los Angeles Police Department and the Chicano Movement, 1968-1971.” The Journal of American History 79 (4):1483- 1514.

75 Estrada, F. Leobardo, Chris, F. Garcia, Reynaldo F. Macías, and Lionel Maldonado. (1981). “Chicanos in the United States: A History of Exploitation and Resistance.” American Academy of Arts & Sciences. 110(2):103-131.

Emerson, Robert M., Rachel I. Fretz, and Linda L. Shaw. 2011. Writing Ethnographic Fieldnotes. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Fanon, Frantz. 1967. Toward the African Revolution: Political Essays. New York, NY: Grover Press.

Fanon, Frantz. 2008. Black Skin, White Masks. New York, NY: Grover Press.

Freire, Paulo. 2000. Pedagogy of the Oppressed: 30th Anniversary Edition. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group.

Freire, Paulo. 1970. Cultural Action for Freedom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Review.

Gibbs, J.T. 2001. “The Sleeping Giant of Latino Political Activism Awakes.” San Francisco Chronicle: 12 April.

Go, Julian. 2016. Postcolonial Thought and Social Theory. Oxford: University Press.

Garcia, Richard A. 1995. “The Origins of Chicano Cultural Thought: Visions and Paradigms: Romano’s Culturalism, Alurista’s Aesthetics, and Acuña’s Communalism. California History 74(3):290-305.

Getrich, Christina M. 2008. "Negotiating Boundaries of Social Belonging: Second-Generation Mexican Youth and the Immigrant Rights Protests of 2006." American Behavioral Scientist 52(4):533-556.

Gómez, Alan Eladio. 2008. “Nuestras Vidas Corren Casi Paralelas” : Chicanos, Independentistas, and The prison Rebellion in Leavenworith, 1969-1972.” Latino Studies 6:64-96.

Gutierrez, Leticia A. 2014. "Youth Social Justice Engagement in the Face of Anti-Latina/o Immigrant Illegitimacy." The Urban Review 46(2):307-323.

Hennessey, Gregg. 2000. “San Diego’s Ku Klux Klan 1920-1980.” The Journal of San Diego History 46(2&3):1-20.

Jacob, Michelle M. 2013. Yakama Rising: Indigenous Culture Revitalization, Activism, and Healing. Tucson: The University of Arizona Press.

Johnston, Hank. 2010. Mobilization, Social Movements, and the State: Protest and Social Movements in the Modern State. San Diego, CA: Mobilization, San Diego State University.

76 Johnston, Hank. 2002. “Verification and Proof in Frame and Discourse Analysis.” Social Movements, Protest, and Contention 16:62-88.

Kingdon, J.W. 2003. Agendas, Alternatives, and Public Policies. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.

Klandermans, B. 1984. “Mobilization and Participation: Social Psychological Expansions of Resource Mobilization Theory.” American Sociological Review 49: 582–600.

Lopez, Ian F. H. 2001. "Protest, Repression, and Race: Legal Violence and the Chicano Movement." University of Pennsylvania Law Review 150(1):205-244.

Mariscal, J. 2006. The “Sleeping Giant” Awakens (Again). The San Diego Union-Tribune: 31 March

Marquis, Harold H. 1977 Fallbrook Yesterday and Today 1869-1977. Fallbrook Historical Society. Martinez, M. Lisa. 2008. “Flowers from the Same Soil: Latino Solidarity in the Wake of the 2006 Immigrant Mobilizations.” American Behavioral Scientist 52(4):557-579.

Martinez, M. Lisa. 2010. “Politicizing the Family: How Grassroots organizations mobilize Latinos for Political Action in Colorado”. Latino Studies 8(4):463-484.

McCaughan, Edward J. 1999. "Social Movements, Globalization, and the Reconfiguration of Mexican/Chicano Nationalism." Social Justice 26(3):59.

McKim, Judith L., Victoria F. Davison and Lyle W. Shannon. 1977. "Some Effects of the Community on Cultural Integration." The Sociological Quarterly 18(4):518-535.

Mirandé, Alfredo. 1982. “Chicano Sociology: A Critique and Evaluation of Prevailing Theoretical Perspectives.” Humboldt Journal of Social Relations 10(1):204-223

Molina, Natalia. 2010. "Constructing Mexicans as Deportable Immigrants: Race, Disease, and the Meaning of "Public Charge"." Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power 17(6):641-666. Monforti, Jessica L. and Adam J. McGlynn. 2015. "The Awakening of the Sleeping Giant? an Examination of the Role of Ethnicity in the 2006 Immigrant Rights Protests." The Social Science Journal 52(4):550-560.

Morales, Maria C., Aurelia L. Murga and Marisa E. Sanchez. 2013. "The Latina/o Racial and Citizenship Divide on Perceptions of the Influence of Immigrant Mobilizations." Sociological Inquiry 83(1):32-54.

Ochoa, Gilda L. 2000. "Activism and Change in Mexican American Communities." Journal of American Ethnic History 19(4):79-81.

77 Pena Delgado, Grace and Grace Pena Delgado. 2010. "Viva La Raza: A History of Chicano Identity and Resistance." Journal of American Ethnic History 29(3):123-124.

Pantoja, D. Adriana., Cecilia Menjívar and Lisa Magañ. 2008. “The Spring Marches of 2006: Latinos, Immigration, and Political Mobilization in the 21st Century.” American Behavioral Scientist 52(4):499-506.

Ponce, Albert. 2012. “Racialization, Resistance, and the Migrant Rights Movement: A Historical Analysis. Critical Sociology 40(1):9-27.

Rodriguez, Dylan. (2007). The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press.

Romero, Yolanda G. 1997. "Discovering Tejano History." Journal of American Ethnic History 16(3):128-132.

Rosen, Martin D. and Fisher, James. “Chicano Park and the Chicano Park Murals: Barrio Logan, City of San Diego, California.” The Public Historian 23(4):91-111.

Saldaña, Johnny. 2013. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.

Segura, Denise A. 2001. "Challenging the Chicano Text: Toward a More Inclusive Contemporary Causa." Signs 26(2):541-550.

Seidman, Irving. 2013. Interviewing as Qualitative Research: A Guide for Researchers in Education & the Social Sciences. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.

Smith, L.T. (1999). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Zed Books.

Spade, Dean. 2015. Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of the Law. Durham. Duke University Press.

Solorzano, Daniel G. and Bernal, Dolores D. 2001. “Examining Transformational Resistance Through a Critical Race and LatCrit Theory Framework: Chicana and Chicano Students in an Urban Context”. Urban Education 36(3):308-342.

Staeheli, Lynn A. 2008. "Political Geography: Difference, Recognition, and the Contested Terrains of Political Claims-Making." Progress in Human Geography 32(4):561-570.

Suárez-Orozco, Carola and Marcelo. 1995. Trans-Formations: Migration, Family Life, and Achievement Motivation Among Latino Adolescents. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.

Torres-Saillant, Silvio. 2006. "Political Roots of Chicano Discourse." Latino Studies 4(4):452- 464.

78

Velia, Garcia-Hancock. 1975. “American Justice and La Raza Communities.” Social Justice/Global Options (3):52-59.

Vigil, Ernesto B. 1999. The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Governments War on Dissent. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. Villenas, Sofia. 1996. “The Colonizer/Colonized Chicana Ethnographer: Identity, Marginalization, and Co-optation in the Field.” Harvard Educational Review 66(4):711- 731.

79