¡Raza Sí! ¡Guerra No!

Abstract

On August 29, 1970, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Los Angeles to protest the Vietnam war as part of the National Chicano Moratorium. In response to highly disproportionate numbers of Chicano casualties listed among the wounded, protestors from all factions of the Chicano Movement marched to demand an end to the war. By the end of the day, the police had killed three protestors while dozens more were critically injured. The massacre at the Chicano Moratorium was a low point in the civil rights history of the United States, but it is also clear evidence of how numerous actors, institutions, and events unified the Chicano movement towards one goal during the Vietnam War. Its violent suppression by the Los Angeles Police Department also situates the event in a larger history of government supported violence against minorities and civil rights groups. This paper tracks the development of the Chicano identity, civil rights movement, and the development of anti-war sentiment from the early twentieth century up to the 1970 moratorium.