Rodolfo Gonzales
Template:TOCnestleft Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales , 1928-2005, was a Denver, Colorado activist.
His daughter is Nita Gonzales.
Background
Raised in the barrios of Denver, Gonzales first achieved national prominence as a prize fighter in the early fifties….When he left the ring, he turned to Democratic politics in his hometown" . A Colorado coordinator of the Viva Kennedy Clubs in 1960, he proceeded to serve in multiple War on Poverty programs and quickly become a “one-man directory of poverty agencies.” Like other barrio leaders of his time, Gonzales lost faith in conventional party politics and founded a separate organization called La Crusada Para la Justicia (The Crusade for Justice). He hoped to better serve the Denver Mexican community and saw that the future of that community within urban areas, focusing specifically on engaging young people.[1]
National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference
March 27, 1969 - The first National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in Denver, Colorado begins, bringing together 1,500 Mexican American youth from around the U.S. El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán (The Spiritual Plan of Aztlán) was adopted, which drafted some basic premises for the Chicana / Chicano Movement.
The plan presented a clear statement of the growing national consciousness of the Chicano people. It raised the concept of Aztlán, a Chicano nation, and the need for Chicano self-determination. The Chicano student group MEChA also grew out of the conference. During the conference, the participants marched to the Colorado state capitol building, lowered the Colorado State Flag and flew the Mexican flag declaring Colorado "liberated territory of Aztlán."[2]
Vietnam protester
Congressman Ed Roybal, journalists Ruben Salazar, Francisca Flores and Enriqueta Vasquez, and activists Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, Corky Gonzales, Reies Tijerina and Bert Corona, were all early Latino protesters against the Vietnam War.[3]
Chicano anti Vietnam War Conference
Rosalio Urias Munoz December 6, 2014:
Dec 6 1969 Chicano anti Vietnam War Conference at Crusade for Justice, LA activists Ramses Noriega, Bob Elias, Javier Galvez (Claremont Colleges Mecha) myself, and Chicago Puertoriqueno activist Sijisfredo Aviles. We began planning with Corky Gonzales and the Crusade, Bay Area Chicanos, as well as from Texas, New Mexico, maybe Arizona. — with Ramses Noriega and Sijisfredo Aviles.
Angela Davis connection
Angela Davis, Corky Gonzales, Ernesto B. Vigil, Denver 1973.
Soviet connection?
On April 9, 1975, Jorge Acevedo wrote a letter in Spanish to several well known Chicano activists including Enrique Lopez, Lorenzo Torrez, Bert Corona, Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, Alfredo Figueroa, Luis Valdez, Ernestina Garcia, Reies Lopez Tijerina, Rodolfo Gonzales, Jose Angel Gutierrez, Lila Gonzalez, and Santiago Montoya.
The letter referred to the Soviet Consulate in San Francisco, Chicano participation in the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, Chicano self-determination, the "socialist system" and the Soviet front World Peace Council. The letter spoke of two proposals received from the Soviet Consul in San Francisco.
The first proposal was to invite students of both sexes to enrol in the Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, for the academic year beginning in September 1975.
"Professional and personal expenses" would benefit the socialist system, which "seeks to support the Chicano self-determination movement."[4]
Sponsors of the Founding Conference of the NAARPR
The list of "sponsors" of "A Call" for a founding conference of the Communist Party USA front National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression May 11-13, 1973, included Rodolfo Gonzales from the Crusade for Justice.[5]
Peace and Freedom
The Peace and Freedom Party held its first national convention to nominate candidates for President and Vice President in Ann Arbor, Michigan on August 17-August 18, 1968. Eldridge Cleaver was nominated for President over comedian/activist Dick Gregory by a margin of 161.5 to 54. Cleaver, a convicted felon and Black Panther Party spokesman, was technically not eligible to run since he was only 34 years old at the time. Due to the needs of the state parties to collect signatures, the party fielded several different vice presidential nominees, including Chicago activist Peggy Terry, Chicano activist Rodolfo Gonzales, radical economist Doug Dowd and Judith Mage, who had been nominated at the national convention[6].
Chicano movement
The 40th Anniversary Commemoration Committee of the Chicano Moratoriums was formed in the summer 2009 by the Chair of the National Chicano Moratorium Committee of August 29, 1970 along with two independent Chicano Movement historians whom although not of the baby boomer generation, have become inspired by the Movimiento.
The organization posted a list of significant “Chicano movement” activists on its website which included Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, a member of Crusade For justice.[7]
References
- ↑ SPARC mural bio, accessed Jan 8, 2012
- ↑ [https://www.facebook.com/FreedomRoadSocialistOrg/photos/pb.145261140805.-2207520000.1436322641./10152619560425806/?type=1&theaterFB, Freedom Road Socialist Organization March 27]
- ↑ PW, Pentagon commemoration of Vietnam War far from complete by: Rosalio Munoz
- ↑ [Rodolfo Gonzales papers Denver Public Library]
- ↑ Revolutionary Activities Directed Toward the Administration of Penal or Correctional Systems, Part 4, HISC, Hearings, July 25, 1973, in part, p. 1654 and additional sponsors, p. 1655, to "A Call to a Founding Conference for a National Defense Organization Against Racist and Political Repression"
- ↑ http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/Peace_and_Freedom_Party_%28United_States%29
- ↑ Chicano Moratorium website: Moratorium Participants (accessed on April 16, 2010)