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00:02:53As soon as I got back home, after a few months, after I recovered from my malaria and my wounds
00:02:59and everything,
00:03:01the Border Patrol stopped me out in the cotton fields.
00:03:04I said, wait, wait a minute.
00:03:07You know, and they had guns, too bad I didn't have a gun.
00:03:24Don't mind the tears, you see falling from my eyes.
00:03:34It must have been the years, gonna call me by surprise.
00:03:45And if my eyes seem red, oh baby, it's just smoke from the fire rising up.
00:03:56Since you've been there, oh baby, it's just smoke from the fire rising up.
00:03:58Since you've been gone, it's been awful cold.
00:04:01I had to burn the pages from the book of love.
00:04:05And I'm thinking of the pieces of my heart.
00:04:11And I'm moving on.
00:04:13And I just wait to put my back.
00:04:15Yes, I'm thinking of the pieces of my heart.
00:04:21But it hurts so bad.
00:04:33Hi, this is Juana Espinosa again, and this is Barrios Expressions.
00:04:37And we have some young ladies with us today from Union City, Fremont, Hayward area.
00:04:42Can you tell me a little bit about what is Barrios Unidos?
00:04:45Okay, it's a club where we would like to unite all the Chicanos together.
00:04:50Yeah, it sounds like a really good idea, especially with what's going on this weekend as far as a lot
00:04:55of tensions.
00:04:56This is what the system wants us to do is to fight each other so we don't get ahead.
00:05:06The term Chicano, when that word came out, man, it just like, it just like, it went into your soul.
00:05:12You know, this is who I am.
00:05:14You know, I am different.
00:05:16We were different.
00:05:19I don't care what we did, we were different.
00:05:21If we dressed, we did it differently.
00:05:23If we had bikes, our bikes were different.
00:05:26Our cars, we did it different.
00:05:29You know, that's just who we were, because we were different.
00:05:35To me, Holmes, it's like, if you don't know that you're Chicano, then you're not.
00:05:40You dig what I'm saying?
00:05:42It's like, if you're asking yourself that question, maybe try softball or whatever.
00:05:50I don't know.
00:05:53It's art, it's philosophy, it's religion.
00:05:58They are not identifying as Hispanic, right?
00:06:03Not identifying as Latino.
00:06:05They're identifying as Chicano, as a political statement to say, no, we're not with that European vibe, right?
00:06:16We're going to go back to our indigenous, where we come from here on this continent.
00:06:25I just want to say something on behalf of the people that do wear them type of clothes.
00:06:29Don't make no difference.
00:06:31What you wear in this country, you're just judging a person right then and there.
00:06:35There's people behind these clothes that have a good heart.
00:06:38One bad apple can't spoil the whole bunch.
00:06:44I hope it may be said, a hundred years from now, that by working together, we help to make our
00:06:59country more just.
00:07:01First, I believe that at least it will be said that we pride.
00:07:21You know, at that time, being Mexican in this country, it was heavily looked down upon.
00:07:29And so what begins to happen is you have this isolated culture living in this country and feeling very, like,
00:07:37abandoned and very, like, shut out.
00:07:39It was just neighborhood kids.
00:07:41And they were so young and out there pretty much on their own.
00:07:45There wasn't that much work.
00:07:46Their parents worked two, three jobs, you know what I'm saying?
00:07:49And they weren't able to really watch those kids.
00:07:52So there was a lot of kids in the street.
00:07:54And it's funny because I don't think it's a Mexican-style thing.
00:07:57It was the Chicanos creating a third culture.
00:10:36Mexicans are mostly indigenous people.
00:10:38They're not mostly European.
00:10:40You know, now it depends on what part.
00:10:41If you're closer to the northern part, you're more European.
00:10:44Because even some Germans and others, Irish and others have moved in there, you know.
00:10:48But Mexico is more indigenous, you know, but Mexico is more indigenous and it's genome makeup than it is anything
00:10:54else.
00:10:54Any time we're trying to sort of understand Mexican-American history and culture, it's very complicated.
00:11:03The U.S.-Mexico war was the first war that the United States invaded another country.
00:11:10President Polk, who was the president at that time, one of his main goals was to get the land, right,
00:11:17that they wanted for westward expansion.
00:11:19He kept very detailed diaries every day of what he did, and in his journals and in his diary is
00:11:27the plan for initiating war with Mexico since they refused to negotiate and sell that land to them.
00:11:33When Polk sent in the military to that contested terrain, he knew full well that the Mexican army would see
00:11:42that as an attack, would cross over the Rio Grande and initiate, right, a battle with the military.
00:11:52Thousands of people were lynched and shot and murdered and put in prison.
00:11:58The U.S. was described as a go-ahead nation, sort of symbolized by, like, the American railroad.
00:12:04It was all about moving forward, progress, right, sort of civilization.
00:12:12They didn't see Mexicans as having that capability to sort of build cities and towns right in the west.
00:12:30Mexicans learn about this war because they were occupied.
00:12:33They call it the second conquest.
00:12:35That's very telling, right?
00:12:36We don't learn about this war because it mostly happened in another territory.
00:13:18So it really happened in one of our world.
00:13:23I'm just going to learn about this war that time is from the city, right?
00:13:25I'm marketing that time, I'm 확인, really.
00:13:25It's doing my trip.
00:13:26I'm marketing to everything, which is a history of which we can't take after we can.
00:13:33China is taking upon all the attacks, whether to the video against Australia.
00:13:34It really does seem like everything that happens to us on the Teams.
00:13:34I think that there's some bite不到 dementia in one direction which this time
00:13:34turns out to happen in a place in less.
00:13:34Sure man, but it's absolutely necessary.
00:13:51And so when that border is drawn, it divides, right, nations, it divides people, and overnight
00:13:58people where this was their territory, now they become foreigners in their native land.
00:14:05The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo promised that former residents of Mexico who are now living
00:14:12in the American West would be afforded all and full and complete rights as American citizens.
00:14:19Well, that wasn't always honored.
00:14:20It promised respect for Mexicans, their culture, their language, their religion if they stayed
00:14:26in the United States.
00:14:42Today, you know, in the 21st century, we think about the American cowboys, the quintessential
00:14:47American.
00:14:47But if you go back to the 19th century and you read newspapers of the period, they hated cowboys.
00:14:53Because for them, a cowboy was a thief on horseback.
00:15:01The newspapers and the media also are very important in portraying the Mexicans and the
00:15:09Chicanos as bandits and outlaws.
00:15:12So we have that to this day, too, with the media.
00:15:20We better get out of here.
00:15:22No way.
00:15:38Things really began to change because of the revolution in Mexico, and there were a lot
00:15:42of refugees who fled the violence.
00:15:44In fact, there have been some studies about how violent the Mexican Revolution was, and
00:15:49it's considered to be among the most violent of revolutions that occur in world history.
00:15:53And so there were a lot of people, including my grandparents, who fled the violence and
00:15:57they came to the United States, never intending to stay.
00:16:01But they just wanted to wait out the violence.
00:16:04My grandparents, both of them fought in there, and they were actually enemies.
00:16:08And then my mom and dad got together, kind of brought together these two fighting factions.
00:16:13There's a million people killed and a million refugees when Mexico only had 15 million people.
00:16:20That's about the size of Guatemala right now.
00:16:22So it was very impactful.
00:16:24There's a lot of suffering, a lot of death.
00:16:27It wasn't as heavily populated or urban, you know, until maybe post the Mexican Revolution.
00:16:34Then it started to go bigger, 30s and 40s more coming over.
00:16:37But those were the first values.
00:16:39Once the border patrol gets established, it becomes a little bit more policed, right?
00:16:45So it becomes more difficult.
00:16:47So Mexicans have to make a choice.
00:16:49If I cross over and work here, I might not be able to come back, right?
00:16:55So you actually see the development of Mexican-American communities in places like San Antonio and Tucson,
00:17:01in Los Angeles.
00:17:10So today in the 21st century, we're largely color conscious when we think about race, right?
00:17:18And so when we invoke the terms of race, we think it has everything to do with skin color, right?
00:17:23It has a lot to do with prejudices that already exist about your place of origin, about your accent, about
00:17:30just all these ideas about what it meant to be Irish or to be meant to be Jewish or Italian
00:17:37or I mean, the list goes on and on.
00:17:40They're all thrown together in these segregated neighborhoods.
00:17:43That's what makes things really interesting when you start studying the social dynamics is you have white working class kids
00:17:49living right next to Mexican-Americans and African-Americans as well, because that's that kind of ghettoization is where all
00:17:58the racialized individuals went.
00:18:01And it was again, it was more than just color.
00:18:06We have to understand and accept that it's not like today, whereas today if we see Irish people, we see
00:18:12Italian people, we think of them all as white.
00:18:15This was not the case back in the day, you know, Italians and Irish, Jews, Russians, they also had their
00:18:23little share of discrimination because they were non-Anglo.
00:18:31They were forced to live in these areas, they, they had nothing to do, they couldn't go to the parks,
00:18:35they couldn't go to the movies, they weren't allowed to.
00:18:38You know, Mexicans weren't allowed to go to those places, so they had nothing to do but hang out on
00:18:41the corner.
00:18:42Gangs is a later phenomena, but what happened is these young people would gather and sometimes they would play and
00:18:50they would have clubs.
00:18:52And whenever you get groups of people, they tend to form these little cliques.
00:18:57It could be a varsity football team that likes to go out and beat up another football team, you know.
00:19:01With my neighborhood, it was a football team.
00:19:03And then after that, there's another football team.
00:19:05So one football team starts fighting another, right?
00:19:07And that becomes a fight.
00:19:09And after that, it becomes where, hey, those guys are from here, we're from here, and they become a gang.
00:19:16Our West Coast became a potential combat zone.
00:19:20Living in that zone were more than 100,000 persons of Japanese ancestors, two-thirds of them American citizens, one
00:19:27-third aliens.
00:19:31Well, a pachuco was something, you know, with these Mexican-Americans that liked to be a little rebellious.
00:19:39They wore the zoot suit, which was frowned upon because of, you know, war rationing.
00:19:45They wore more fabric than they needed.
00:19:48El Paso is where it was formulated into an example of a label for Mexicans who dressed differently, who spoke
00:19:58differently.
00:19:59Pachuco actually comes from El Paso because the Mexicans were coming through El Paso more than any place.
00:20:06El Paso was the big opening.
00:20:07So the zoot suitors were an interesting combination of street, urban, Mexican slang and talk.
00:20:14It was a really de calo.
00:20:17They talked a different Spanish.
00:20:18The slang was very elaborate.
00:20:21It took a lot of the boogie-woogie music thing, but they Mexicanized it, and I think that's an important
00:20:26part of it.
00:20:27What pachucos came to represent was anti-American.
00:20:32In a time, in a wartime climate where anything that was perceived as outside of the parameters of what was
00:20:42considered to be American was looked down upon and incriminated.
00:20:49I think with the zoot suit, you know, obviously when you sort of think about what did the zoot suit
00:20:53mean to sort of that Mexican-American generation because, you know, wearing the zoot, you know, represented pride, right, sort
00:21:01of respect.
00:21:01They all came about through being up against the wall.
00:21:04Whatever oppression was going on, it's like, okay, I'm not going to be like the norm.
00:21:08I'm going to stand on my own and do my own thing.
00:21:10For the women, I believe there was even more rebelliousness or more anti-traditional.
00:21:17The people who originally came here from Mexico, you know, they were fighting for freedom, fighting for progress, and fighting
00:21:23for success on some level.
00:21:25And then, you know, generations go by and you have these younger generations of kids who are more modern thinking,
00:21:30and they're like, you know what, Charlie Holmes, like, I'm not going to tone this down.
00:21:35Matter of fact, I'm going to turn it way up.
00:21:38There were plenty of Mexican-American Chicanos that were represented in World War II as soldiers.
00:21:44My great uncle was one of them.
00:21:46He's in his 90s now, you know, and he was, still is, very patriotic.
00:21:52And a lot of the youth were, but there was definitely some in the barrios that did not want to
00:21:59go and fight.
00:22:00It's like other wars, you know, that we can think of.
00:22:02There was a lot of them that either joined or got drafted.
00:22:06Mexican population was pretty much decimated by the war.
00:22:10People were fighting.
00:22:12The ones that stayed were generally the women like the other communities that worked in the industry to help the
00:22:17war effort.
00:22:19LA became the largest manufacturing center of the country during World War II because of the ships.
00:22:24The shipyards was close to the harbor.
00:22:26It had a lot of defense industries.
00:22:29Defense industry is big in California, and LA was the heart of it.
00:22:32The interesting thing is that while the Chicanos were fighting the sailors here in Los Angeles, their brothers were fighting
00:22:44a war for democracy somewhere else, supposedly.
00:22:48So, you know, there's a big contradiction there.
00:22:57It's the biggest contradiction of World War II.
00:23:00While we are fighting oppression abroad, we are oppressing people domestically.
00:23:07During World War II, right, I think it's, again, this, it kind of reveals like we're all fighting.
00:23:13We're all, you know, we're all the good guys.
00:23:15We're spreading democracy in Europe, but the reality is that we're still treated as less than here in the United
00:23:22States.
00:23:24We're all the right.
00:25:51On the night that Jose Diaz was killed, there was a birthday celebration happening at a ranch in rural Los
00:26:00Angeles County.
00:26:02And they had a reservoir. They had a couple reservoirs, but the largest one local kids would use as a
00:26:07swimming pool because, again, because of segregation, you couldn't go down to the local swimming pool and swim.
00:26:13There was a party that night, a birthday party. Some uninvited guests came.
00:26:17There was a group of Russian immigrant kids from Downey that crashed the party, the birthday party. They want beer.
00:26:25They want to join the party. They get thrown out.
00:26:29They're driving down the road to get out of Williams Ranch, and they happen to pass by Sleepy Lagoon, where
00:26:35there's a couple of couples from 38th Street that are there.
00:26:38Words are exchanged, and a fight breaks out between the Downey boys and the young men and women who are
00:26:47parked around the reservoir.
00:26:49The 38th Streeters go back to their neighborhood, come back in a few carloads, and no one's at the Sleepy
00:26:56Lagoon anymore. It's quiet.
00:26:57The Downey boys are now long gone, but they're looking for them. And somebody says, well, maybe they're still at
00:27:03the party up the road.
00:27:05And so that's when 38th Street kids then go up to the party, and a fight broke out. And then
00:27:11the 38th Street kids left immediately.
00:27:13Someone said, the cops are coming, and they all hopped in their car, and they took off.
00:27:17So the party goers at the ranch, the ranch hands, they're picking up after the fight. They're trying to see
00:27:24who's hurt.
00:27:25This is when they find the body of Jose Diaz.
00:27:29So they had dragnets all throughout L.A. County, and they just ran kids through, fingerprinted them, took their pictures,
00:27:36things like that.
00:27:38And eventually, they land on the 38th Street kids who happen to be at the place near the time that
00:27:45Jose Diaz was killed.
00:27:48The Zoot Suit riots happened about a year later around different parts of L.A.,
00:27:54and it spread to different parts of the country, in fact.
00:27:58Pachucos were rounded up, beaten down, had their clothes cut off of them, their hair cut, publicly humiliated, and then
00:28:07arrested.
00:28:08There's no weapon produced ever. There's no eyewitness produced ever. There's no confession that was ever produced.
00:28:14And a lot of it had to do with the media.
00:28:16The media saying that these Mexican gangs were terrorizing neighborhoods, they were robbers, they were rapists, they were murderers.
00:28:22Criminals, they're thieves, they're immoral.
00:28:25And again, I remind you that studies have looked at arrest rates and all these kinds of things,
00:28:29and there is no demonstrable evidence that juvenile delinquency was actually a problem, but people were worried about it.
00:28:35Here you had kids, young people, that were freely engaging and enjoying their First Amendment right to freedom of expression,
00:28:49and they were beaten for it because they were perceived as an anti-American threat.
00:28:56The zoo suitors might have had a more, they had a more communal understanding of the representation of their neighborhood.
00:29:03But when that evolved from Pachuco to Cholo, that all changed, and that became, that's when the gang culture really
00:29:10spawned,
00:29:11and it took on a whole new meaning.
00:29:12So if you put your neighborhood on you, you were going to either live, die, or kill for that tattoo.
00:29:17It was Pachuco, but then it became eventually Cholo.
00:29:21It became a whole different way of doing things that nobody had done before.
00:29:35After World War II, technology had changed.
00:29:39So black folks, they went from doing jazz in swing to doing rock and roll, you know, to doing doo
00:29:46-wop.
00:29:47The reason why black people and Mexicans interacted and started taking from each other was because they lived in the
00:29:53coast.
00:29:54A lot of people argue about the origins of low riding.
00:29:58You know, what we can agree upon is that low riding begins in the Mexican-American experience in the southwestern
00:30:06part of the United States.
00:30:08Now remember, during World War II, Detroit is not making new cars, right?
00:30:13Because Detroit has shifted to wartime production.
00:30:16So after the war, right, returning veterans, they get a little bit of money to buy cars, right?
00:30:24Also, there's a turnover in second-hand cars because people after the war want new cars.
00:30:30So I think what's really interesting about low riding is that you're sort of taking sort of these second-hand
00:30:36cars and turning it into something beautiful.
00:30:40Because older cars, nobody wanted them.
00:30:42Everybody wanted the new cars.
00:30:44So old cars, you could get an old car for like $300.
00:30:47And we would just modify them a little, you know, put rams, lower them down.
00:30:52The hydraulics came because we used to lower these cars because it was cool.
00:30:56And the law was you couldn't have a lowered car.
00:30:59So they would have it so that they would lift them up so they can be legal and then drop
00:31:04them down so they can be partied.
00:31:06You know what I'm saying?
00:31:07There was a surplus of aircraft parts and the hydraulic lifts.
00:31:13So it just took the ingenuity and mechanical know-how to install those on a car in order to be
00:31:20able to raise up to a legal ride height.
00:31:22We're, I think, the only, you know, culture that is identified by our cars.
00:31:30Where you see a car that's a 64 Impala with Virgen del Guadalupe airbrushed on it or the pinstriping on
00:31:37the side and you go, that's Chicano culture on wheels.
00:31:41When you customize a car, the whole goal is for you to assert your individuality.
00:31:48You can have 10 64 Impalas lined up and they're all going to be different.
00:34:48You're tuned to Community Access Television Channel 3, serving San Leandro, San Lorenzo, and Hayward.
00:34:58Hello. Thank you for tuning in to Body Expressions. And tonight we have some information for you.
00:35:07Men are cool with us. They accept us. There's a lot of men that they congratulate us. They're happy for
00:35:12us. They're proud of us. And then there's the men that are quiet. You know, they kind of just like
00:35:18look at us like, you know, they give us the looks.
00:35:21I think what we're thinking about, whether it be hot rods or low riders, is how the car, particularly for
00:35:29men, right, becomes a way to express.
00:35:33To me, you know, the candy paint, the pinstriping, it's all just, you know, it takes time and effort and
00:35:40detail. You mean?
00:35:41Those cars, you can't drive that fast back then, you know, they're on 13-inch rims. The suspension's cut and
00:35:49it has hydraulics. Like, they're swaying all over the place.
00:35:51I think that we've always done things our way. So car customization is just one of the variables in the
00:36:01equation. Low riding is an artistic and linguistic expression. And by default, it's political.
00:36:11If you follow the lifestyle and you're one of us, you are one, man. We don't look at you as
00:36:16color, you know? And we never did see them as color. My homeboy, my black homeboy, or my white homeboy,
00:36:21that was my homeboy regardless, you know? I didn't see them as a color.
00:36:25So we used to have two or three homeboys that were white, that were just homies. We never saw them
00:36:30as white. They talked pachuco, too, cholo. They talked galo. You know, they talked our style.
00:36:35I've seen a lot of car events, low-rider events, where there was a lot of black and brown and
00:36:41everybody had nothing but love for each other.
00:36:44Anytime you key in solely on race, you miss, you know, the big picture. You know, it's a very narrow
00:36:54view.
00:36:55Johnny Marvin is now in the hands of the law. This is the first time he's been caught. But his
00:37:01delinquent tendencies began long before in the conflicts of an unhappy home and in the hangout of the gang, which
00:37:07was his refuge.
00:37:10When I worked in East L.A., I wound up in the gang unit because I love working gangs. So
00:37:14then I went to Compton. I got to work my own neighborhood, Willowbrook.
00:37:18And I got known for being the guy who works gangs. I used to describe what I did as a
00:37:25police officer as being the referee at an incredibly violent hockey game.
00:37:31I came from Compton. I came from a very poor neighborhood. Some of my best friends became gang members. They
00:37:37became prison gang members. That could have been me.
00:37:40If circumstances were different, maybe I could have been one of them.
00:37:58In 1966, after I graduated from high school, I went into the military and the military put me through a
00:38:06battery of tests.
00:38:07It was the military who decided that I should be a military policeman.
00:38:10I came out of Vietnam. I went to Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
00:38:14I was by then a sergeant. And they had a program where you could get out of the military early
00:38:19if you enlisted in the LAPD or L.A. County Sheriff's Department.
00:38:24My mother and father were anti-Pachuco.
00:38:29My father, he was in the military in the 40s.
00:38:33And all my uncles, all my uncles.
00:38:36So this idea that it was a rite of passage and all Latinos, you know, were involved in this, no,
00:38:42no.
00:38:4390% of the Latinos in the communities I know, they joined the army.
00:38:50They got jobs.
00:38:52They went to school, things like that.
00:38:54Some of the young people are doing bad things, but most of them are not.
00:38:57They're just grouping together.
00:38:58But eventually, if the police start messing with you and start detaining you, holding you for little things, eventually you
00:39:04start getting records.
00:39:05And pretty soon, you become in the gang.
00:39:08Chicano culture, it came from youth.
00:39:10We have to understand that those Pachucos, they weren't like grown men and women, you know.
00:39:16They were kids, you know, so it came from kids.
00:39:20If you were there at that time, and you asked my uncles or my father, they're panderos.
00:39:26They're, my grandma called them marihuanos.
00:39:31You know, don't hang around with those pieces of trash.
00:39:34By the way, the zoot suit is a, is a, is a open sign of rebellion against the United States.
00:39:41Did everyone walk around, you know, oralece, you know, this kind of, no, they didn't.
00:39:47There's no evidence.
00:39:48As a matter of fact, the play Zoot Suit, which revolves around the 30th Street kids, they didn't speak Kahlo.
00:39:56They didn't speak Spanish.
00:39:58These were Americanized Mexican-Americans.
00:40:07This is the 7.62 machine gun system, known in the Army as the XM6 kit.
00:40:16Good evening, my fellow Americans.
00:40:19I have asked for this television time tonight to report to you on our most difficult and urgent problem, the
00:40:26war in Vietnam.
00:40:27When I was there at Travis Air Base, I was there in the bed watching on August 29, 1970, those
00:40:33riots going on in L.A.
00:40:37Well, you know, being a soldier, and, but my political thinking had changed.
00:40:44I said, oh, I know how to deal with those sheriffs.
00:40:47I know how to deal with them.
00:40:49Yeah, just give me a gun.
00:40:51I changed.
00:40:52The war's at home.
00:40:54Now the war's here, and these people are attacking our people.
00:40:59So it's my duty to attack them.
00:41:01That was what I was thinking as a soldier.
00:41:11One of my friends in the Army, he grew up with me.
00:41:13He went into Ralph J. Bunche Jr. High School with me and all that.
00:41:16He's a lifer in the military, and then one day he came home on leave.
00:41:19And I went to go pick him up at the airport, and when he got in the car, I tell
00:41:24him,
00:41:24Hey, Johnny, I got a 9mm on my side.
00:41:28I got a .45 under my seat, and there's a .380 on my right leg, and there's a .38 in
00:41:36the glove box.
00:41:37And he looks at me and goes, Richard, you're paranoid.
00:41:42I was.
00:41:44Right?
00:41:44I was ready for that fight.
00:41:46If it was going to come, I was going to be ready.
00:41:50I was.
00:42:23Our communities were especially impacted.
00:42:26Poor white as well.
00:42:28Working class people were getting hit, really hit with Vietnam.
00:42:31Vietnam was a war that brought more conscience, I think, to those issues than any other war.
00:42:35You know, to me, especially as a Vietnam veteran, it's difficult for someone to admit that they fought for nothing.
00:42:45They fought for, we fought for nothing, and we lost, and we lost a lot of people, and the Vietnamese
00:42:51lost a lot of people.
00:42:53Three million people.
00:42:54Forget about them.
00:43:18No matter what the streets brought, we won't lose them.
00:43:25on my own
00:43:29Feel the days are getting
00:43:31longer
00:43:34As the anger grows and grows
00:43:41And I'm tired
00:43:46I'm just so damn tired
00:43:51You hear the people
00:43:58The anti-war Chicano movement
00:44:01became a catalyst for other
00:44:03or a rallying point
00:44:05for other causes
00:44:08such as the black civil rights movement
00:44:10the anti-war movement
00:44:12the hippies and all of that
00:44:14the counterculture movement
00:44:16What I disliked was the agitators
00:44:19who would come into the community
00:44:21and agitate the locals
00:44:23and when the time came
00:44:24when confrontation would occur
00:44:26guess where they were
00:44:27They were somewhere else
00:44:28and you know what
00:44:29they usually weren't from
00:44:30our neighborhood, right?
00:44:31They were some rich kid
00:44:33in college
00:44:34you know
00:44:35a privileged guy
00:44:36who was coming down
00:44:38to the neighborhood
00:44:38to create a problem
00:44:39and then leave
00:44:40Some of these guys
00:44:42were backed by
00:44:44red China
00:44:46and Russia
00:44:59So we're building that conference
00:45:01and we're also hoping
00:45:02to invite all of you
00:45:03to come on Sunday
00:45:04at 3 p.m.
00:45:05at the corner of Clifton and Sherman
00:45:06at the George I. Sanchez Center
00:45:08and again I remind you
00:45:10that most of us
00:45:12will have to think
00:45:12about what this means
00:45:14because it is true
00:45:15I feel
00:45:16very much
00:45:17that they do not know
00:45:19the difference
00:45:19they don't see
00:45:20different things
00:45:21when they look at
00:45:21Mexicano or Chicano
00:45:22they see the same thing
00:45:24and these two
00:45:25things are
00:45:26intricately tied together
00:45:28In the 60s and 70s
00:45:31there was a very clear
00:45:33distinction between
00:45:33Mexican-Americans
00:45:34and Chicanos
00:45:36Chicanos were those
00:45:38who self-consciously
00:45:40embraced a politicized
00:45:42agenda and identity
00:45:44and we made a very clear
00:45:46line between us
00:45:47Chicano
00:45:48and those Mexican-Americans
00:45:49I would say Chicano
00:45:51was a term that was used
00:45:52a lot in my household
00:45:53my pops
00:45:55growing up in that era
00:45:57I would say
00:45:57you know being real young
00:45:58in the 60s
00:45:59To me growing up
00:46:02Chicano and Mexicano
00:46:03I didn't even think
00:46:03I didn't even know
00:46:04there was a different
00:46:05there were two different words
00:46:07we used them interchangeably
00:46:11but then it became politicized
00:46:14Chicanos
00:46:14the term was already
00:46:15used in the streets
00:46:16and I know even
00:46:17when I was growing up
00:46:19growing up in Watts
00:46:20and eventually
00:46:20the east side
00:46:22the San Gabriel Valley
00:46:24before the Chicano movement
00:46:25we were calling each other
00:46:26Chicanos
00:46:27for me
00:46:28Chicano growing up
00:46:30meant being two things
00:46:31at the same time
00:46:32and not enough
00:46:33of either one
00:46:34born in America
00:46:35with Mexican parts
00:46:37right
00:46:38so
00:46:38we're trying to be
00:46:39American
00:46:40but we have this
00:46:41big influence
00:46:43of Mexico
00:46:45and our
00:46:45our heritage
00:46:47our relatives
00:46:47trying to combine
00:46:49the two
00:46:50I think now
00:46:51that we have social media
00:46:52is now you see
00:46:54how many homies
00:46:55really aren't Mexican
00:46:57when I met my wife
00:46:58she didn't know
00:46:59I was from Central America
00:47:00I think she found out
00:47:00after we got married
00:47:02or she found out
00:47:03maybe a few years
00:47:03after we actually
00:47:04were together
00:47:05I consider myself
00:47:06Chicano
00:47:07and there's nobody
00:47:08going to tell me different
00:47:08if I would have never
00:47:09came out and said
00:47:10hey I'm from Honduras
00:47:12you would assume
00:47:12yeah Gil's Mexican
00:47:13there's a lot of us out there
00:47:14but it's not that I'm
00:47:15trying to be Mexican
00:47:16it's not that I'm
00:47:17trying to be anything else
00:47:18I'm a guy from
00:47:19North Hollywood
00:47:19that yeah
00:47:20considers yourself Chicano
00:47:21because that's what I am
00:47:22what do you think
00:47:22about the police
00:47:23who say that
00:47:24if you wear tattoos
00:47:25that you're a potential
00:47:26gang member
00:47:27false
00:47:29false
00:47:30because
00:47:31a lot of people
00:47:32that have tattoos
00:47:33don't belong to no gang
00:47:35I don't think
00:47:36I don't think
00:47:37you should be like
00:47:37you put in
00:47:38put in a different
00:47:39like group
00:47:41because you got tattoos
00:47:44you know
00:47:44there's a lot of people
00:47:46that have tattoos
00:47:47my father has tattoos
00:47:49you know
00:47:49he's 50 years old
00:47:50does that make him
00:47:51a gang member
00:47:52no
00:47:52this one's on
00:47:53I think that that was like
00:47:55one of the strongest ways
00:47:56that they could say
00:47:57no look at me
00:47:58you know
00:47:59and I'm not gonna go
00:48:00and hide
00:48:00and I'm
00:48:01I am proud of
00:48:02because I remember
00:48:03getting my last name
00:48:04on my back
00:48:04when I was a kid
00:48:05that was the first
00:48:05tat I got
00:48:07and I went to school
00:48:08the next day
00:48:08and I wore a slingshot
00:48:10I wouldn't even wear
00:48:10a t-shirt
00:48:11because I wanted
00:48:11everybody to see
00:48:12that tat homes
00:48:14and
00:48:14you know
00:48:15the homeboys
00:48:15are like
00:48:16you know
00:48:17you got tat at home
00:48:18that's firme
00:48:19but
00:48:19I saw teachers
00:48:20and other people
00:48:21and they looked down
00:48:22their nose
00:48:22at that marking
00:48:23on my back
00:48:24that meant so much
00:48:25to me
00:48:27and I just remember
00:48:29thinking
00:48:29you know what
00:48:30I don't care man
00:48:32like this
00:48:32this emblem
00:48:33this badge of armor
00:48:34that I'm wearing
00:48:35right now
00:48:36it's way way way
00:48:37more magnetic
00:48:38and powerful
00:48:39to me
00:48:40than their opinion
00:48:40of what they think
00:48:42I am
00:48:42I was brought up
00:48:43as a catholic
00:48:44because of
00:48:45my grandmother
00:48:46you know
00:48:46as a child
00:48:47so that's always
00:48:49has a meaning
00:48:50to me
00:48:50where religion
00:48:51is who I am
00:48:53you know
00:48:53and culture
00:48:55and I guess
00:48:56family
00:48:57I mean
00:48:57that's who you love
00:48:59you know
00:48:59that's the closest
00:49:00thing to you
00:49:01your ethnicity
00:49:02your family
00:49:03you know
00:49:04or your culture
00:49:05and these are the things
00:49:06that will never change
00:49:07and these are like
00:49:08the core of our
00:49:08of our representation
00:49:10when it comes to tattooing
00:49:11if you look at
00:49:12any true vato
00:49:13from that lifestyle
00:49:14look at the image
00:49:15they wear
00:49:15they're all similar
00:49:43I think that going back
00:49:45to the 70s
00:49:48and certainly
00:49:51the presence
00:49:52of Good Time Charlie's
00:49:55tattoo shop
00:49:56on Whittier Boulevard
00:49:57that Chicano style
00:49:59black and gray tattooing
00:50:01moves to the shop
00:50:04where historically
00:50:06it was
00:50:07a prison experience
00:50:10the plaquiasos
00:50:11you know
00:50:12the graffiti
00:50:12you know
00:50:13Chicanos have a very
00:50:14distinct style
00:50:16of graffiti
00:50:17it wasn't just tagging
00:50:18the Chicanos
00:50:20were creating
00:50:20these really large
00:50:21elaborate pieces
00:50:22a lot of it came
00:50:24from
00:50:24from the YAs
00:50:26you know
00:50:27the YAs system
00:50:28you know
00:50:28this is where
00:50:28Freddy Negretti
00:50:29and all these people
00:50:30come in
00:50:30is because
00:50:31they started in there
00:50:33and I know the people
00:50:34that were in there
00:50:34with him
00:50:35and they would do it
00:50:37for the guys
00:50:38wouldn't
00:50:38you know
00:50:38start any fights
00:50:40or violence
00:50:40they would let them
00:50:41okay you guys
00:50:42can tag to each other
00:50:43or whatever
00:50:43you know
00:50:44just stay out of trouble
00:50:45you know
00:50:45so they would start
00:50:46practicing it
00:50:47on each other
00:50:48and those patterns
00:50:49start turning into
00:50:50collages
00:50:51and stuff
00:50:59you know
00:50:59I'll never live this
00:51:00down
00:51:01my peers
00:51:01are going to kill me
00:51:04okay working in a
00:51:06prison is
00:51:06okay
00:51:11working in a prison
00:51:12is not always
00:51:13what people think
00:51:14or what the
00:51:15community thinks
00:51:16we like to have
00:51:17the community come
00:51:18and tour the prison
00:51:19so they don't have
00:51:20the idea that we are
00:51:21the old stereotype
00:51:23James Cagney type
00:51:24prison guards
00:51:25we're professionals
00:51:26well all the
00:51:27traditional gang
00:51:30dress
00:51:31from the 60s
00:51:33and 70s
00:51:33all came out of prison
00:51:35so like you said
00:51:37the shirt
00:51:37folded neatly
00:51:38over the arm
00:51:39the white t-shirt
00:51:40the khakis
00:51:41the white tennis shoes
00:51:42all that stuff
00:51:43was county issue
00:51:46or state issue
00:51:47so guy walking
00:51:49down the street
00:51:50who deliberately
00:51:50was dressing in that
00:51:52way
00:51:52was telling everybody
00:51:54hey
00:51:55I just got out
00:51:56of the jail
00:51:57you know
00:51:57or I got out
00:51:58of the joint
00:52:08it was completely
00:52:10different
00:52:10and there was
00:52:12a big awe
00:52:13it was like
00:52:14I don't even know
00:52:15how to describe it
00:52:16and I just knew
00:52:17when I was in
00:52:18kindergarten
00:52:18when I was in
00:52:19first grade
00:52:20all I wanted to do
00:52:21was be a cholo
00:52:22you know what I mean
00:52:22the cholo style
00:52:24became very khaki
00:52:25iron
00:52:26certain shoes
00:52:27that can allow you
00:52:27to run
00:52:28but also be cool
00:52:29the baggy pants
00:52:30the Nike Cortez
00:52:32dark lipstick
00:52:33the sharpie eyebrows
00:52:35pants were
00:52:36perfectly creased
00:52:37and you couldn't
00:52:38have a wrinkle
00:52:39on your shirt
00:52:40you know
00:52:40you couldn't have
00:52:41a hole on your jeans
00:52:42you couldn't have
00:52:42a scuff
00:52:42on your shoes
00:52:43the white t's
00:52:44eventually became
00:52:45the thing that
00:52:45Chicano made big
00:52:46you know
00:52:47the wool caps
00:52:49and then pendletons
00:52:50you know
00:52:50and then keeping
00:52:52buttoned
00:52:53too
00:52:53because it actually
00:52:54flared out
00:52:54a certain way
00:52:55if you had
00:52:55two buttons
00:52:56a beard
00:53:00they started
00:53:01stylizing
00:53:02everything
00:53:02just like
00:53:03the Pachucos did
00:53:04they were still
00:53:05wearing their
00:53:06pants
00:53:06like they did
00:53:08with the
00:53:08zoot suits
00:53:10except they were
00:53:11replaced more so
00:53:12by clothing
00:53:13that reflected
00:53:14their social
00:53:15conditions
00:53:15so I would say
00:53:16three different
00:53:16things
00:53:17one is the
00:53:18military
00:53:18two is labor
00:53:20and then three
00:53:22is the pinta
00:53:40I ran a teen
00:53:42center program
00:53:43in Willowbrook
00:53:43for troubled
00:53:44kids
00:53:45under the
00:53:45catholic youth
00:53:46organization
00:53:47in the war
00:53:47on poverty
00:53:48so if you
00:53:48saw me then
00:53:50you would say
00:53:50he's an activist
00:53:51a liberal
00:53:52a Chicano
00:53:52right
00:53:53that's what
00:53:54I was
00:53:55but when
00:53:56you become
00:53:56a policeman
00:53:57you get
00:53:58to see
00:53:58things
00:53:58from the
00:53:59other side
00:54:04I got
00:54:05committed
00:54:05in
00:54:0691
00:54:07for shooting
00:54:07at some
00:54:08cops
00:54:08so obviously
00:54:09I didn't like
00:54:09the cops
00:54:10for a certain
00:54:10point in my
00:54:11life
00:54:11right
00:54:12when you
00:54:13become a
00:54:13gang member
00:54:14a lot of
00:54:14people believe
00:54:14that off the
00:54:15bat
00:54:15they're just
00:54:16killers
00:54:17and you know
00:54:18they're just
00:54:19they're cold
00:54:19blooded
00:54:20individuals
00:54:20and that can
00:54:21be the
00:54:21farthest
00:54:21thing
00:54:21from the
00:54:21truth
00:54:25it has
00:54:26a lot
00:54:26to do
00:54:26with prison
00:54:27prison
00:54:28has had
00:54:28a huge
00:54:29influence
00:54:30over us
00:54:31in a
00:54:32negative way
00:54:32it's made
00:54:33us believe
00:54:34that
00:54:34that's
00:54:35where we
00:54:36want to
00:54:36go
00:54:41I think
00:54:41we're the
00:54:42only
00:54:43culture
00:54:44that
00:54:46strives
00:54:47to go
00:54:47to prison
00:54:48African
00:54:49Americans
00:54:49don't do
00:54:49it
00:54:50Irish
00:54:50never did
00:54:51it
00:54:51Italians
00:54:52never
00:54:52did it
00:54:52no other
00:54:53race
00:54:54has ever
00:54:54said
00:54:55I want
00:54:55to go
00:54:55to the
00:54:55joint
00:54:56us
00:54:57as kids
00:54:57even now
00:54:58I want
00:54:59to go
00:54:59to the
00:54:59joint
00:54:59because we
00:55:00glamorize
00:55:01the hell
00:55:01out of it
00:55:12I want
00:55:12why do
00:55:12why do you think
00:55:13the cops
00:55:13are doing
00:55:14this
00:55:15basically I don't
00:55:15think they like
00:55:16too many
00:55:16Chicanos crowded
00:55:17around at one
00:55:18time
00:55:19so they see that
00:55:21and then they get
00:55:21they get afraid
00:55:22they get afraid
00:55:23they're afraid
00:55:23that we're all
00:55:23congregating
00:55:24in one
00:55:27see we don't have
00:55:28adequate facilities
00:55:28down here for the
00:55:29youth around this
00:55:30neighborhood
00:55:30I think it would be
00:55:31a good idea if they
00:55:32can get some money
00:55:33together to provide
00:55:34for them
00:55:34to have some place
00:55:35to go
00:55:35so they will stay
00:55:36off the streets
00:55:37like a little
00:55:38clubhouse
00:55:38there's plenty of
00:55:39vacant buildings
00:55:40around here
00:55:40which can be
00:55:41leased out
00:55:42you know
00:55:42on the government
00:55:43funds or what have
00:55:44you put the money
00:55:45to use
00:55:45you know
00:55:45rather than take it
00:55:46from us
00:55:46and not use it
00:55:47for nuclear weapons
00:55:48or what have
00:55:49they you know
00:55:49use it for the
00:55:50community
00:55:51you know
00:55:51use it for the
00:55:51kids so they can
00:55:52have some place
00:55:52to go
00:55:53so they don't
00:55:54hang around
00:55:54like they always
00:55:55are and then
00:55:55they won't be
00:56:06harassed
00:56:08they don't have
00:56:08no right
00:56:09talking about
00:56:09the way you dress
00:56:11you know
00:56:11the police think
00:56:12that La Raza
00:56:13is a big game
00:56:14you know
00:56:14we just come
00:56:15to have fun
00:56:16meet new people
00:56:17everything like that
00:56:18you know
00:56:18we're in the game
00:56:20we just people
00:56:21like to have fun
00:56:35Nicholas Rosenberg
00:56:36here
00:56:36punching back
00:56:39I'm a private
00:56:40criminal defense
00:56:41attorney
00:56:41in the Los Angeles
00:56:43and Southern
00:56:43California area
00:56:44I'm considered
00:56:45to be a certified
00:56:46specialist
00:56:47in criminal law
00:56:48and I tend
00:56:49to do
00:56:50a lot of
00:56:51cases with
00:56:52gang allegations
00:56:53and serious
00:56:54and violent
00:56:55felonies
00:56:56there's a lot
00:56:57of racial profiling
00:56:58that happens
00:56:59around the gangs
00:57:00and if you see
00:57:01somebody
00:57:02you know
00:57:035'8
00:57:0520s
00:57:0520 year old
00:57:06HMA
00:57:07bald head
00:57:08big white
00:57:09t-shirt
00:57:09baggy pants
00:57:11then someone's
00:57:12going to say
00:57:12hey
00:57:12I think
00:57:13that guy
00:57:13might be
00:57:14a gangster
00:57:15so law
00:57:16enforcement
00:57:16can initiate
00:57:17contact
00:57:18with that
00:57:18person
00:57:19well
00:57:21you know
00:57:22everybody
00:57:22profiles
00:57:23we see a car
00:57:24it's driving
00:57:25erratically
00:57:26it's got a
00:57:26busted
00:57:27taillight
00:57:27you know
00:57:28and we pull
00:57:29the car over
00:57:29but we didn't
00:57:30profile whether
00:57:31he was black
00:57:32or white
00:57:33or Hispanic
00:57:34we profiled
00:57:36the car
00:57:37and the way
00:57:38it acted
00:57:39to just blame
00:57:41police officers
00:57:42for all our
00:57:42issues
00:57:43no
00:57:43at this point
00:57:44in time
00:57:45we already know
00:57:46you're gonna sell
00:57:46drugs
00:57:47you're gonna go
00:57:47to jail
00:57:48homie
00:57:48you're gonna
00:57:49carry a gun
00:57:49you're gonna
00:57:50go to jail
00:57:50homie
00:57:51you're gonna
00:57:51shoot and
00:57:51kill somebody
00:57:52you're gonna
00:57:53go to jail
00:57:53homie
00:57:54you're gonna
00:57:54try to pull
00:57:55a gun
00:57:55on a cop
00:57:56you're gonna
00:57:56get shot
00:57:57it's like
00:57:58these are
00:57:58basic
00:57:59gang banging
00:58:00one on one
00:58:01rules
00:58:01homie
00:58:02you're gonna
00:58:02do this stupid
00:58:02shit
00:58:03stupid shit
00:58:04it's gonna
00:58:04happen to you
00:58:04but it seems
00:58:05like society
00:58:05is so woke
00:58:07streets ain't
00:58:08woke
00:58:09you're gonna
00:58:09get shot
00:58:10and killed
00:58:10when they first
00:58:11started those
00:58:11gang injunctions
00:58:12I said no
00:58:14that's not good
00:58:15that's not a
00:58:16good thing
00:58:17everybody got
00:58:18mad at me
00:58:18and they said
00:58:19well these
00:58:19injunctions are
00:58:20working
00:58:22I said if you
00:58:22tell a gang
00:58:23member that he
00:58:24can't associate
00:58:25with other gang
00:58:25members
00:58:26who's he gonna
00:58:26associate with
00:58:28rival gang
00:58:29members
00:58:30if he can't
00:58:31hang out with
00:58:32his cousin
00:58:32if he can't
00:58:34make a phone
00:58:34call
00:58:35if he can't
00:58:36live in his
00:58:36own neighborhood
00:58:38a gang injunction
00:58:39is basically a
00:58:40civil public
00:58:41nuisance
00:58:42order
00:58:42and it's
00:58:44designed to
00:58:44prevent them
00:58:45from associating
00:58:46together
00:58:46it can prevent
00:58:47them from
00:58:48wearing clothes
00:58:49for example
00:58:49Dallas cowboy
00:58:51jersey
00:58:51it can impose
00:58:52a curfew
00:58:53on quote
00:58:54known gang
00:58:54members
00:58:55and it really
00:58:56can be disruptive
00:58:57to the community
00:58:58because you
00:58:59might have a
00:59:00cousin or a
00:59:00family member
00:59:01who's also
00:59:02served the
00:59:03gang injunction
00:59:03and now you
00:59:04can't associate
00:59:06with that
00:59:07person
00:59:07once that
00:59:08gang injunction
00:59:09went into
00:59:09place you
00:59:10can kind of
00:59:10kind of tell
00:59:11it became
00:59:12more like a
00:59:13like a
00:59:14patrolled
00:59:14state environment
00:59:15I mean a lot
00:59:17of homies
00:59:17started dwindling
00:59:18down they were
00:59:19getting incarcerated
00:59:19for hanging out
00:59:20with each other
00:59:21and you got
00:59:22I'm talking
00:59:22about cousins
00:59:23and brothers
00:59:23and siblings
00:59:24family
00:59:24another thing
00:59:25I didn't like
00:59:26that we were
00:59:26doing
00:59:27was called
00:59:28gang sweeps
00:59:30you know
00:59:30you go into
00:59:31a neighborhood
00:59:31and you find
00:59:32out everybody
00:59:32that has a
00:59:33warrant
00:59:33or a suspect
00:59:36in something
00:59:36and then you
00:59:37arrest 200
00:59:38gang members
00:59:39and you seize
00:59:40500 guns
00:59:41those things
00:59:42are not effective
00:59:44that's a
00:59:45band-aid
00:59:45that's a
00:59:46force show
00:59:47for the
00:59:47five o'clock
00:59:48news
00:59:48but that doesn't
00:59:49really affect
00:59:50a gang member
00:59:51what affects
00:59:51the gang members
00:59:52is when you
00:59:53catch the guy
00:59:54who actually
00:59:54did the shooting
00:59:56you bring him
00:59:56before the court
00:59:57and he gets
00:59:58sentenced
00:59:58and goes to jail
00:59:59then the neighborhood
01:00:00knows they're not
01:00:01just picking on us
01:00:02because we're Hispanic
01:00:03I think I went to prison
01:00:05at a time when
01:00:07even a lot of
01:00:08prisoners
01:00:09that you know
01:00:09that's their home
01:00:10at the end of the day
01:00:10you know
01:00:11they've been in there
01:00:11for a long time
01:00:12some of the OGs
01:00:13and I think I
01:00:14went to prison
01:00:15during a time
01:00:15when a lot of
01:00:17Chicanos inside prison
01:00:18were becoming
01:00:19political conscious
01:00:20or at least it was
01:00:20being broadcasted
01:00:21to the public
01:00:22that we're no longer
01:00:23you're just going
01:00:24to sit back
01:00:25and accept
01:00:26the state's
01:00:27what the state
01:00:28called rehabilitation
01:00:29because there is
01:00:30no rehabilitation
01:00:31in there
01:00:31if anybody's giving
01:00:32us rehabilitation
01:00:33it's going to be
01:00:33ourselves
01:00:34when it came
01:00:35to getting released
01:00:36and I would go
01:00:37to court
01:00:37I would tell the judge
01:00:38I didn't want to go
01:00:39home
01:00:39I wanted to stay
01:00:40in there
01:00:41you know
01:00:42and they were
01:00:42looking at me
01:00:42like this guy
01:00:43wants to stay here
01:00:44I go
01:00:44I actually did
01:00:45because they were
01:00:46like my
01:00:47those were like
01:00:48my brothers there
01:00:49now
01:00:49you know
01:00:49I mean
01:00:50I had a bond
01:00:51with these guys
01:00:52you know
01:00:52typically when
01:00:53somebody's incarcerated
01:00:55in a prison environment
01:00:56where everyone else
01:00:57is already convicted
01:00:58if they're offered
01:01:00the opportunity
01:01:01for rehabilitation
01:01:03then their chances
01:01:04their likelihood
01:01:05of reoffending
01:01:05goes down
01:01:06what are they going
01:01:08to do when they're
01:01:08out of prison
01:01:09how are you going
01:01:09to help them
01:01:10how are you going
01:01:10to give them
01:01:11the knowledge
01:01:11and the skills
01:01:12and whatever
01:01:13they need
01:01:13to make it
01:01:14I think most
01:01:15of these guys
01:01:15and I've talked
01:01:16to a lot
01:01:16of them
01:01:16thousands
01:01:17and thousands
01:01:17of guys
01:01:18in prison
01:01:18want help
01:01:21they just
01:01:21can't get it
01:01:25I'm sitting
01:01:26on the beach
01:01:26in Corona Del Mar
01:01:29Beach
01:01:29my favorite one
01:01:30in between Laguna
01:01:32and Newport Beach
01:01:34I have my little
01:01:35cooler
01:01:35with my
01:01:36Chardonnay
01:01:37I have my
01:01:39New York
01:01:39review of books
01:01:40to read
01:01:42and I saw
01:01:43these three
01:01:44or four
01:01:45white dudes
01:01:45that looked
01:01:46like teachers
01:01:47or coaches
01:01:49and they
01:01:50come down
01:01:50to the beach
01:01:51from the
01:01:52there's a little
01:01:53hill you have
01:01:54to walk down
01:01:54they come down
01:01:55to the beach
01:01:56with about
01:01:5740 or 50
01:01:58kids in shorts
01:02:01most of them
01:02:02were Mexican
01:02:04and I found
01:02:05out
01:02:05I found out
01:02:07they were part
01:02:08of a juvenile
01:02:09group
01:02:10these guys
01:02:10were kept
01:02:11in the house
01:02:12separate from
01:02:13the jail
01:02:13and were training
01:02:14them and teaching
01:02:15them
01:02:15and I started
01:02:17crying
01:02:17I started
01:02:18crying
01:02:19because I said
01:02:20that's all
01:02:21our kids need
01:02:22man
01:02:22just get them
01:02:23if they want
01:02:24to act bad
01:02:25come on
01:02:25we'll get you
01:02:26in an organization
01:02:27we'll supervise you
01:02:29we'll feed you
01:02:30act bad
01:02:31that way
01:02:32you know
01:02:32learn
01:02:33ways of acting
01:02:34that you're not
01:02:35going to kill
01:02:35yourself
01:02:35with drugs
01:02:37or alcohol
01:02:38or kill
01:02:39somebody else
01:02:39some innocent
01:02:40person
01:02:40sometimes
01:02:41I think
01:02:42as Chicanos
01:02:43I think
01:02:44what destroyed
01:02:45a lot of us
01:02:45is sometimes
01:02:46when you have
01:02:47too much pride
01:02:49pride destroys
01:02:50and you start
01:02:51killing each other
01:02:52you know
01:02:53too much pride
01:02:54is bad
01:02:55to be
01:03:45Hip-hop, by the way, was always black and brown.
01:03:49It was the Puerto Ricans that helped create hip-hop.
01:03:51All five aspects of it, and then the Mexicans right away got into it.
01:03:56We started getting wind of punk rock and hip-hop.
01:04:01And at that time, the skateboarding, breakdancing, that whole scene was real big.
01:04:06I remember in the late 70s and early 80s, when Mexicans were already doing breakdancing.
01:04:12Before anybody saw it, nobody did breakdancing in L.A. except Mexicans.
01:04:17It wasn't even black people.
01:04:23One of my earliest memories as a person, not even as a lowrider, but one of my earliest childhood memories
01:04:31was seeing the Gypsy Rose come across the screen on TV in the opening Chico and the Man credits.
01:04:47When it came on, Chico and the Man, we're on TV.
01:04:51It was like that car was representing us, all of us.
01:04:54When I seen that thing, it was like, you got goosebumps.
01:04:57Like, man, we're on TV, you know?
01:04:59And I think that's what made that car so famous, is because it was the first car to break that
01:05:05barrier.
01:05:06At that point, I realized that lowriding was much bigger than what I knew it to be on the street
01:05:15or in the park.
01:05:19Lowrider magazine was such an important sort of product that really visualized lowrider culture around the world, right?
01:05:30And it played a very big role in sort of the marketing and dissemination of lowrider culture.
01:05:46You know, they took something that was there and they innovated and they looked at it with a different perspective.
01:05:53And so Sonny Madrid had started Lowrider magazine.
01:05:56He's originally from San Juan.
01:05:58But I think it's also important to know that he was also an activist, so he was heavily involved with
01:06:04the Chicano movement.
01:06:06When it started, you know, in 1977, it was a magazine by Sonny Madrid, Ryan Larry Gonzalez.
01:06:12It was a magazine for Chicanos by Chicanos.
01:06:14And it was for the Chicano community.
01:06:17And that just created a big old explosion because this is the first time you could open a book, a
01:06:22magazine.
01:06:22You could see our people as we are in our neighborhoods and communities, you know?
01:06:37The onset of gangsta rap in the 90s, you know, and that's where we really see, like, the global exposure
01:06:45to lowriding was through the channels of the early 90s gangsta rap videos.
01:06:54You see it in hip-hop, right?
01:06:56I see it with lowriding Chicano culture, where, like, because of globalization and because of the Internet, people are learning
01:07:05about our culture through the screen.
01:07:18I tell you, when I was in Japan, and, you know, there's a big cholo, lowriding culture there, it's a
01:07:26subculture.
01:07:27I was very amazed how respect for the Japanese were, because part of me was saying, oh, they're appropriating our
01:07:33culture.
01:07:33You know, part of me is, like, hey, some of them, you know, they're using us.
01:07:37I didn't get that.
01:07:38They totally love the culture, and they give it props.
01:07:42They say, this is Chicano.
01:07:43A lot of people take the culture and don't say that.
01:07:46And so they said this, and they really emulate it so good.
01:07:49They followed it.
01:07:50And so I began to respect them for respecting us.
01:07:58Yeah, like, Japan does everything incredible.
01:08:02Like, anything, like, artistically or technically, you know, they're like masters.
01:08:10When they jump into a culture, they go 100% in.
01:08:14Does one sole group have ownership over lowriding?
01:08:18That, in and of itself, is debatable.
01:08:20Right?
01:08:21So, you know, it's like when I talk about lowriding in Japan, and people that don't know any better go,
01:08:27lowriding in Japan, that's crazy.
01:08:29I'm like, is it?
01:08:32What about a little white kid in suburban America who's taking karate lessons, who's counting in Japanese?
01:08:40Is that crazy?
01:08:42But one thing I noticed, they were all into the culture of beautiful tattoos and everything, but they're not gangster.
01:08:49They're not killing each other.
01:08:51And I'm saying, they kind of picked up the beauty of it, and not picked up the ugniness.
01:08:57So, if you have any questions about body of warfare, about the conference that's going to be taking place this
01:09:03Saturday at Mission High School in San Francisco, feel free to give us a call at 754917.
01:09:08The thing that worries me, though, is the Mario warfare.
01:09:15You know, like, I'm a gringo, and it kind of worries me, because I'm in the south end of Hayward.
01:09:21And I know you're help, but what about all the other dudes that's riding around, you know, looking for some
01:09:27happenings, you know, some action?
01:09:31Okay, before anybody keeps calling, I want to make some points clear.
01:09:35There's a lot of youths, there's a lot of raza that are being murdered.
01:09:39We got to stop.
01:09:40We got to stop and realize that those persons, regardless of their color, regardless of their race, are human beings.
01:09:51There still are a lot of us who live that lifestyle, and I've seen my share of war, and I'm
01:09:56over it.
01:09:57I've been over it, Holmes.
01:09:58Aggression, anger, and violence on any level.
01:10:01Hey, Holmes, I am a retired tough guy, for reals, you know what I mean?
01:10:05I did all that.
01:10:07But to me, the strongest gesture I can make in this point in my life is to totally move in
01:10:14a different direction, because it solves nothing.
01:10:16It never did and never will.
01:10:20Unless you want to change, you're never going to change.
01:10:23It all comes from you, man.
01:10:25You've got to want to change, you know.
01:10:26Once you change yourself, things will change with you, man.
01:10:32Hey, homie, I was wrong.
01:10:34I'm still on my hood, but now when I see the homies, instead of, you know, trying to give them
01:10:37a strap, I try to give them, you know, some advice, work, get a holly, do this.
01:10:41This is gangster, homie.
01:10:42People get upset at me sometimes.
01:10:43That's just being a man.
01:10:44That's maybe to you.
01:10:45But I'm trying to change the narrative.
01:10:46Being a gangster now is going to work, taking care of your family, putting food on the plate, man, putting
01:10:50a roof on top of the kid's head.
01:10:51We have a beautiful culture, Spanish, Indian, you know, it's a beautiful culture.
01:11:02But they didn't want us to be gangsters.
01:11:06That's not what they wanted, right?
01:11:09They built Los Angeles.
01:11:12Anybody can go down to the Placita and look under that big tree at the plaque of the founding families
01:11:19that founded Los Angeles.
01:11:21There they are.
01:11:22Their names are there.
01:11:24That's the kind of people we want to be, making life better.
01:11:29And they were mestizos.
01:11:31You know, they were Spaniards.
01:11:32They were Indians, mulattos, whatever they were.
01:11:36But they all worked together.
01:11:38And we founded Los Angeles and it became a great city.
01:11:42We need that.
01:11:43We need that again.
01:11:44We need that again.
01:12:14We need that again.
01:12:46We need that again.
01:13:15We need that again.
01:13:19We need that again.
01:17:14of times you know like they're they made cool stories now you know as much as i don't think
01:17:21pachucos were a good thing you gotta admit it was cool
01:17:48so
01:17:56so
01:17:58so
01:17:58so
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