A proclamation commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in Denver and the West High Blowouts.
And for 32, if you're here for one of the public hearings, that won't happen till after recess. And you can go watch on TV and 432 and come on back in when when that is there. Thank you very much. All right. That brings up our next proclamation. Councilman Lopez, will you please read Proclamation 233? Thank you, Mr. President. Proclamation 233 series of 2019 commemorating the 50th anniversary of the National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in Denver and the West. High blow out. Whereas, led by two young Chicanos, Ginny Perez and Priscilla Martinez, students at West High School walked out of class on March 20th, 1969, in protest of discrimination and institutional racism by faculty and administrators. And. Whereas, the students, supported by their families, community members and the Crusade for Justice demonstrated and were met with police batons and tear gas canisters. And. WHEREAS, The Crusade for Justice, founded in 1965 and led by Rodolfo Corky Gonzalez, was a community based organization focused on providing employment, legal defense, education, civil rights, political action , immigration, cultural and recreational services. And. WHEREAS, weeks later, the first National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference was held here in Denver on March 27th through the 30th, that the Crusade for Justice, where students and leaders from across the country gathered to create and plan a spiritual. Aslan and a plan to Santa Barbara, a Chicano plan for higher education, both of which gave rise to the Chicano movement here and throughout the country. And. Whereas, these events helped create a National Movimiento that inspired and gave rise to today's Mexican-American leaders in the arts, business, community, education, government, law, literature and medicine. And. Whereas, nearly one in three persons in Denver and one out of every four children in Colorado is a mexican of Mexican-American descent, still faces discrimination in the classroom, workplace and in public life, resulting in high poverty rates and growing disparities of access in education, health care, income, justice and political representation. And. WHEREAS, the week of March 19 through the 30th, 2019 will mark the 50th anniversary of the West High Blowouts and the National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in Denver. Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver. Section one. At the Council of the City and County of Denver Honors Colorado, Colorado's Mexican roots Chicano history and recognizes the values and rich contributions to science, philosophy, arts and culture to the history of our state. Our city, our state, and our country. Section two that the Council of the City and County of Denver continue to promote equality and justice for all people and opposes discrimination in our city. Section three. At the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall attest and affixed the seal of the city of County of Denver to this proclamation, and that copies be transmitted to the Denver Agency for Human Rights. And Community Partnerships, the Denver logo for Corky Gonzalez Branch Library. Denver West High School. And the Colorado History Museum. Thank you. Councilman Lopez, your motion to adopt. Thank you, Mr. President. I move that proclamation to 33 series of 2019 be adopted. It has been moved and seconded. Comments by members of council. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Mr. President. It gives me quite a feeling of pride to say this in our in our council chambers. And I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm all emotional here, man. Uh huh. My voice cracks because you know how far it's taken us and how long it's getting it's gotten for us, and how long this path has been to come into these chambers with these words and in this with this proclamation. It means so much to me. And there's a lot of folks here in the chambers and in our community and folks who are at home and watching this because for so long. In a land that that that we hope the name. And found. And so the. The the. And for so long that we have not been welcome. And now, especially now in this era, it means it means so much to be able to read these words and talk about this proclamation, especially in this area. Right. There are two events and there are a lot of them. We have a lot of different things that have happened in our history that have helped steer the course of our history in Denver. But there are two young women, Priscilla Martinez and Jeannie Perez, who at West High School were ridiculed. Were all this her or her students? The rest of the students, the rest of the Chicano students at West High School ridiculed for speaking Spanish. They were told it was an inferior language. They mispronounce their names and when they corrected their names to the teacher in this one, Mr. Schafer. He would reiterate. And they would deal with this every single day in class. That's institutional racism. And. With the help of the folks in the community. Now with the crusade for justice and the different movements that were happening throughout our city. They walked out. You were trained through the Freedom School. They protested. Community met them outside. Welcome. Even in the face of batons and gas masks. And being chased down the street away from their school for peacefully demonstrating. I only learned about this. Sadly when I was already in college. Through an organization called Matcha, which I belong to the Chicano Student Movement. Up until then. I had the same kind of experience when I was in first grade. A lot of folks don't realize I had to go through first grade twice. My teacher would put me up in class after I would correct her about a Spanish word Konerko She would call it Conejo. And I said, Don't miss. I think this this name is I think the Rabbit's name in the Southwest. The book that you're reading to us is Conejo. And I was proud to actually know that she got me up in front of the class and told me, Mr. Lopez, only clowns speak Spanish. And you're not a clown, are you? In front of my whole class. That broke my spirit. I did not want to be Mexican. And it wasn't until I started learning about the Chicano movement and learning about who we were and the history in this state and the celebration of one's own culture. And it doesn't require the contempt of another. Right. So which is what Cesar Chavez would say, though? That walkout meant a lot and that walkout was a starting point. The National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference was also another starting point is when our community started becoming organized by students. The L.A. Line really the this the spiritual set of goals and cultural goals for us as a community to start feeling pride in a land that we we are usually not the the of Santa Barbara which talked about Chicanos and higher ed and how we got to go to college and graduate and not be the only ones . And to this day, there are a lot of firsts in our community, and some of us aspire to be the first in a lot of different things. But what these documents with this proclamation really reiterates for us as a community. Is that while it's important to be the first sometimes. It's much more important never to be the last in. And that's what this is about. I know that there are so many distinguished guests here tonight in the council chambers. What I have here to my left is the original Chicano students demands at West High School that I was able to get a hold of through an FBI file that had been released and made public. The other thing that was very interesting to me is that right after the walkouts, I discovered, you know, somebody had alluded to a proclamation that the council took a proclamation. The council took a resolution at that time about the walkouts. And so I started looking and I asked the clerk in recorder's office, as I can, you find these documents and this is the beautiful thing about, about, about that office is that our history is written in our history, saved in that office. Right. This is a proclamation, a resolution in 12 of 1969, recognizing and commending the Denver police and the fire departments and members thereof. Whereas in the past week, civil disorders, disturbances and demons demonstrations have been occurring in the city and basically praising for using the tear gas and the baton and handling the use of force. My how times have changed because when there's a demonstration, when we had all these kids walk out recently, they did not respond that way. So I do this. I thank you, Mr. President. Thank you for the time. Colleagues. This was just this is a very excuse. My my my lengthy discussion here. But it's just it means so much to me in this council chambers and to us as a community to do this. And we'll bring some folks up in a second. But, uh, with that. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Councilman Brooks. Yeah. I just want to I want to say this because this is happening in our community right now and just stand in solidarity with my brother, Councilman Lopez. And and I say this is happened in our community is there is and has been black and brown violence. But the reality is we stand in solidarity as the as we used to always talk about this Councilman Lopez, the African Aztec Alliance, because we've gone through the same struggle as African-Americans in northeast Denver. And so I just want to say that I want to say that publicly and through issues that are happening in our community today , we still and leaders should say this at every outset that we still stand in solidarity and we're we're bigger than the issues that are that we're facing today. So. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Councilman Brooks. Councilman Lopez. Rebeca, I forgot to mention. So, Mr. President, we do have somebody in our in our chambers that may not be up here earlier. But I wanted to also recognize state representative said and Gonzalez Gutierrez said enough. You want a state representative you can stand up represent northwest and. I meant to thing you earlier, but she, in fact, is not just our wonderful state representative, my state representative, but also the granddaughter of Adolfo Corky Gonzalez. Thank you, Councilman Lopez, and welcome, Councilman Lopez, thank you for bringing this forward and thank you for sharing your story and your words. And I think with that, we're ready to take a vote on this. So, Madam Secretary, roll call. Lopez. Si, se puede. Hi. Black Eye Brooks. Hi, Espinosa. Flynn. Hi. Gilmore, i. Herndon, I. Cashman. Hi, New. Testament. Hi, Mr. President. Right. Madam Secretary, please close the voting, announce the results. 11 Eyes. 11 eyes proclamation to 33 has been adopted. We do have 5 minutes allocated for proclamation acceptance. Councilman Lopez, who would you like to bring up? There are two individuals that I wanted to bring of three. I'm sorry. So first. The incomparable Jerry Garcia Gonzalez, the wife of Corky Gonzalez. Dr. Antonio Esquivel. And then in on Gonzalez Gutierrez, our state representative, the honorable. Good evening. I'm Dr. Antonio Scoville. I'm an emeritus professor and former member of the Board of Trustees of Metropolitan State University. I'm also the former chair of La Scala Theater, also the Crusade for Justice, Good of the Service by Gonzalez. I'm also a long time associate and friend of the Gonzalez family at the request of Jerry Gonzalez. I have been asked to say a few words and elected. Just make five real quick points. I want to talk about the crusade for justice. Second, I want to talk briefly about the West High School blowout. I want to talk about the first National Chicano Youth Conference. I want to talk about the influences of those three events. And then I want to talk about the event that you're honoring today, the 50 year tribute to the crusade for justice. You know, Chicano movement of the 1960s and eighties arose in an era when Mexican-Americans vowed to create a better world. They called themselves Chicanos and Chicanos. Terms that reflect the history of conquest and that deprive people of their Mexican and indigenous roots. And characterize Mexicans as inferior. My first topic, The Concern for Justice was founded in Denver in 1965. It was the most active, best known, most controversial of all Chicano organizations, and it garnered the most media attention. Its leader would also Coco Gonzalez was a boxer, poet, playwright, lecturer, politician, activist, community organizer and publisher. The Crusades, a militant activism, generated not only strong support, but strong opposition, especially from law enforcement. The Crusade for Justice is a full blown, comprehensive civil rights and human rights organization. It provided a full array of community services, community services and employment, legal defense, education. Civil rights, political action. Immigration and recreation. The Crusade for Justice Building on 1610 Downing had a bookstore, curio shop, a large lunch room, a boxing gym, a 500 seat auditorium, 24 classrooms, several offices, a lounge, an art studio and a print shop. It housed Bartlett, Chicano, the Athlon and the theater group, and throughout the Pachuco it housed as Collateral, which starred students from preschool to graduate to undergraduate school. It also housed the La Raza Junior Party. My second topic is the worst high school blowout of 1969 and 1969. A social studies teacher at West High School made anti-Mexican remarks in class and this incident that West High School walkout. The teacher reportedly said All Mexicans are stupid because their parents are stupid and their parents before them are stupid. And he said, if you eat Mexican food, you're going to look like a mexican. That's what caused the walkout. You know, this walkout, another walkouts by Chicano students. A number demanded curriculum reforms in schools, primarily the inclusion of history, culture and a key contribution of Chicanos. They also demand an end, mostly for the students who walked out. You know, I guess a lot of people like to a lot of people and it looked like us Mexicans because they eat a lot of Mexican food. That. You know, my third topic is the crusade for Justice is housing those three national Chicano youth conferences in 1969, 1970 and 1971, from their very first conference of one year honor. Today we and which were celebrated this Saturday, was held on March 27th through 30th of 1969, 50 years ago. Out of that came that plan the spiritual the Aslan which set the goals for the Chicano movement. Over 1500 participants participated in the conference. They came from all over the country. So that conference and the West High School walkout, as we call it, the West High School blow out, put the Chicano in Denver and a crusade for justice on the national map. This conference created a renaissance, a revival of Chicano literature, art, music, dance, poetry and theater. It inspired and motivated generation to write, to get themselves involved in improving the condition of us in this country. It inspired and inspired Chicano studies programs on college campuses and student groups. My first topic is this influence that these events had on our community. They inspired today's Chicano and Chicano writers, poets, artists, musicians, dancers, actors, politicians, lawyers and educators. Colorado influential leaders who were influenced by this by these events include Ken Salazar, the former secretary of interior. Federico Pena, the former mayor of Denver. And the lieutenant governor who's now the president of the community college system, Dr. Joe Garcia. The activists of the 1960s and seventies set the stage for the social justice activities of today. Corky Gonzalez influenced a generation of Chicanos and Chicanos to get involved politically, including today's young politicians like Lisa Calderon, who is running for mayor and Cristante Cristante that run the former speaker of the House who is now running for U.S. Congress . So in spite of these events, Chicanos and Latinos of today, Latinos and Chicanos and Latinos of the day are addressing the issues of voter rights, access, criminal justice, economic development, housing, education, energy, environment, human and health services, immigration, and the LGBTQ issues not only with our community, but outside of our community. My fifth topic and I'll end here is that we'd like to invite you to help us celebrate the 50 year tribute to the Crusade for Justice being held this Saturday at 530 at South Rialto on seventh in Santa Fe. There will be food, more presentations and discussions on the topics that I've just barely touched on this this evening. So we hope to see you there. All right. Thank you very much. And thank you, Councilman Lopez, again, for bringing that forward this evening. That concludes our proclamations that are called out. We will have one more going through and consent. But that brings us to the bills for introduction.