National Chicano
Moratorium March

Laguna Park, located in East Los Angles, served as the terminus of the 3.7-mile-long route of the National Chicano Moratorium March held on August 29, 1970. The demonstration included 20,000 to 30,000 participants and was intended to raise concerns about the high casualty rate of Latino soldiers in Vietnam, police violence, poor working conditions, and other issues. The peaceful demonstration devolved into chaos as police shot tear gas into the crowd. At the end of the day, dozens of people were injured and three were killed including Mexican American Journalist Ruben Salazar, Angel (José) Diaz, and Lyn Ward. In 1970 the park was renamed to commemorate Salazar.

History

Following World War II there was a dramatic rise in political and social activism in Mexican American communities, particularly on the West Coast of the United States. The Chicano Movement (or El Movimiento) emerged with the aims of challenging institutional racism, securing equal labor and political rights, and engendering cultural unity among its members.

In 1959, as the movement was gaining momentum, Mexican American journalist Ruben Salazar joined The Los Angeles Times, where as a journalist and columnist he became embedded in local and national Latino issues. In early 1961 he reported on the increase in participation by Mexican American residents in the city’s civics and politics and in 1963 published a series of six articles, Spanish Speaking Angelenos, addressing the history and lives of Mexican Americans. In the series’ first article, he questioned what Mexican Americans should call themselves aside from “Spanish-speaking Americans.” Salazar likely influenced others to consider their identity and reclaim the word “Chicano,” which was originally used as a slur.

In March 1968, while Salazar was the Times’ Mexico City Bureau Chief, approximately 15,000 high school students walked out of seven different East Los Angeles schools to protest the inequality of education between Anglo and Mexican Americans. Following the event, Salazar returned to Los Angeles to report on the Chicano community.

Concurrently, anti-Vietnam War sentiment grew in the Chicano community as a disproportionate number of Hispanic draftees were sent abroad and killed in combat. Members of the Brown Berets, an influential Chicano, community-based social justice organization and others demonstrated against the war. In late 1969 Brown Beret cofounder David Sanchez, Rosalio Muñoz, and other activists established the Chicano Moratorium Committee to advocate against the war. The committee intended to raise awareness of war related inequalities, including the disproportionate deaths of Mexican American soldiers, as well as domestic injustices to the Chicano community.

The Chicano Moratorium Committee’s first march (December 20, 1969), led to similar events throughout the Southwest and the second march in Los Angles (February 28, 1970) was attended by tens of thousands of protesters. In anticipation of a third event, organizers communicated and cooperated with law enforcement to ensure a peaceful demonstration. Nonetheless, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the City of Los Angeles Police Department called for officers, armed with riot guns, to erect barricades and position themselves at street corners along the route.

On August 29, 1970, approximately 20,000 to 30,000 protestors, including families and children gathered outside the East Los Angeles Civic Center to participate in what was called the National Chicano Moratorium March. The attendees marched peacefully for 3.7 miles along East Third Street, Atlantic and Whittier Boulevards, terminating at Laguna Park (now Salazar Park), an eight-acre rectilinear park that was established by the county in 1938. Members of the Moratorium Committee accompanied the marchers, acting as monitors and maintaining order. A rally commenced at the park, featuring entertainers and speeches by prominent Chicano leaders, including Rosalio Muñoz and Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. Salazar and his team attended the demonstration, reporting on it for The Los Angeles Times and the Spanish language television station KMEX.

During the rally a dispute broke out at the neighboring Green Mill Liquor Store. The owner called the county sheriffs, who arrived at 2:34 pm. By 3:10 pm deputies with riot guns instructed people to disperse, pushing and following them towards the adjacent park. Moratorium monitors requested that the officers leave the park, who instead declared that the demonstration was illegal and called in reinforcements. Officers indiscriminately fired tear gas to disperse the crowds and boarded buses used by protestors, beating those inside. As civil unrest spread eastward, Salazar and his team documented the events, eventually seeking shelter in the Silver Dollar Café (now Sounds of Music Record Store) along Whittier Boulevard. Shortly after, Los Angeles County Sherriff’s Deputy Thomas Wilson fired two tear gas projectiles into the bar. One of the projectiles hit Salazar, killing him instantly. The day prior his last column appeared in print, titled, The Mexican American NEDA Much Better School System, it was, like many that came before it, an act of civil rights activism as much as it was an act of journalism.

Today, Salazar has become a revered symbol for the movement, memorialized in song, painting, and film. In September 1970 Laguna Park was renamed Ruben Salzar Park and in 2020 was listed as a contributing feature of the “National Chicano Moratorium March August 29, 1970” listed in the National Register of Historic Places.