During the Vietnam War, the Mexican-American (Chicano) community, realizing that so many youth from that community were being used as canon fodder and were dying at a rate of 3 to 1 Anglo deaths, rose up en masse on August 29, 1970.
Now, 40 years later, the still active Chicano Moratorium Committee, along with the Brown Berets, are keeping that moment alive. The Anniversary March and Rally took place on August 28, 2010 with a march down Whittier Blvd. in East L.A., culminating in a rally at the renamed Salazar Park in memory of the great reporter who has become the roll model for so many.
Today the march commemorates what happened 40 years ago, when the Los Angeles County sheriffs attacked an anti-war protest in the park…. opened fire on the protest with 12 gauge shotguns… killing three activists including a young Brown Beret. Later that day Sheriffs shot and killed Ruben Salazar a Los Angeles Times reporter, as he sat in the Silver Dollar café. The sheriffs shot Salazar with a tear gas gun canister, hitting him in the head.
At this years march people placed heaps of flowers on the sidewalk on Whittier Blvd where the Silver Dollar used to be. Marchers all stopped along the march to pay respects to the reporter assassinated by the Los Angeles County sheriffs department. Report from the newswire: Pics of Chicano Moratorium anti war protest and march by hellokitty siempre | | Past Coverage: 2009 | 2006
Related: Ramsey Muniz: Guilty of Being Latino and Activist in America
Hundreds Mark Chicano Moratorium Protest 40th anniversary in East LA