• Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen

latinopia.com

Latino arts, history and culture

  • Home
    • Get the Podcasts
    • About
      • Contact Latinopia.com
      • Copyright Credits
      • Production Credits
      • Research Credits
      • Terms of Use
      • Teachers Guides
  • Art
    • LATINOPIA ART
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Film/TV
    • LATINOPIA CINEMA
    • LATINOPIA SHOWCASE
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Food
    • LATINOPIA FOOD
    • COOKING
    • RESTAURANTS
  • History
    • LATINOPIA EVENT
    • LATINOPIA HERO
    • TIMELINES
    • BIOGRAPHY
    • EVENT PROFILE
    • MOMENT IN TIME
    • DOCUMENTS
    • TEACHERS GUIDES
  • Lit
    • LATINOPIA WORD
    • LATINOPIA PLÁTICA
    • LATINOPIA BOOK REVIEW
    • PIONEER AMERICAN LATINA AUTHORS
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Music
    • LATINOPIA MUSIC
    • INTERVIEWS
    • FEATURES
  • Theater
    • LATINOPIA TEATRO
    • INTERVIEWS
  • Blogs
    • Angela’s Photo of the Week
    • Arnie & Porfi
    • Bravo Road with Don Felípe
    • Burundanga Boricua
    • Chicano Music Chronicles
    • Fierce Politics by Dr. Alvaro Huerta
    • Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz
    • Political Salsa y Más
    • Mis Pensamientos
    • Latinopia Guest Blogs
    • Tales of Torres
    • Word Vision Harry Gamboa Jr.
    • Julio Medina Serendipity
    • ROMO DE TEJAS
    • Sara Ines Calderon
    • Ricky Luv Video
    • Zombie Mex Diaries
    • Tia Tenopia
  • Podcasts
    • Louie Perez’s Good Morning Aztlán
    • Mark Guerrero’s ELA Music Stories
    • Mark Guerrero’s Chicano Music Chronicles
      • Yoga Talk with Julie Carmen
You are here: Home / Blogs / MIRÁNDOLO BIEN with EDUARDO DÍAZ 4.05.15 “THE PEOPLE WHO WEREN’T KIDDING”

MIRÁNDOLO BIEN with EDUARDO DÍAZ 4.05.15 “THE PEOPLE WHO WEREN’T KIDDING”

April 5, 2015 by

“Chicanos are Mexican Americans who aren’t kidding!”
—Dan Guerrero

Dan-Guerrero_200

The inimitable Dan Guerrero performing Gaytino!

I love that Dan Guerrero came up with this shorthand definition of Chicano; it succinctly captures both a personal reflection and a communal experience. Dan is an accomplished playwright and producer, whose impactful work, Gaytino, has helped raise awareness and driven advocacy around the experiences and rights of the Latino Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community. Notably—to help contextualize his activism—Dan is the son of the legendary Chicano musician and folklorist, Lalo Guerrero, who also greatly influenced the Chicano Movement.

As a veteran of the Chicano Movement, I often times have to go back to square one when talking about it, especially with younger generations. Unfortunately, the community manifestations and impacts of the movement are not widely recognized or appreciated. One finds few details about it in most history texts and only a handful of documentaries have been produced, including Chicano! A History of the Mexican American Movement. As for museums, there have been a precious few exhibitions on the subject, which is why I was thrilled to see History Colorado, a Smithsonian Affiliate, recently open El Movimiento: The Chicano Movement in Colorado at its flagship venue in Denver.

El-Movimiento-logo_200The El Movimiento exhibition, with some 85 objects, photographs, videos and audio segments, weaves a story that takes visitors from the implications of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which brought an end to the Mexican-American War converting Colorado to U.S. territory in 1848, to the 1960 and 1970 struggles to end racial discrimination, secure rights, improve education, and gain political and social power. Colorado was an epicenter of the Chicano Movement. El Movimiento captures the movement’s efforts from those led by the Crusade for Justice and its seminal Youth Congress in 1969, to farmworker actions in the San Luis Valley, to high school walkouts in Denver, to a strike at the Kitayama Flowers farm in Brighton, to the Coors Boycott, and the emergence of Chicano artists and community murals. The exhibition also highlights Los Seis de Boulder (The Boulder Six), six prominent

1969 Denver Youth Conference

1969 Denver Youth Conference

Chicano leaders were killed in consecutive car bombings in May 1974. The case was never satisfactorily resolved. There are some in the community who believe the activists were targeted by the FBI’s CONTELPRO program, which sought to infiltrate and destabilize Latino activist organizations, including the Crusade for Justice. All told, El Movimiento is a concise, well-crafted survey of a critical period in Colorado’s history.

With El Movimiento, History Colorado shifts the paradigm of a historical society, a reference framework that usually embraces the “official story,” often times excluding the histories of “the other.” In initiating the El Movimiento project, History Colorado begins the process of centering the margin by including Colorado Chicanos and their histories. History Colorado admitted it knew what it didn’t know and what it didn’t have. Principal organizers, Deborah Espinosa and JJ Rutherford, did a really smart thing—they assembled a group of Chicano community advisors to help ensure that events highlighted in the exhibition were properly detailed, contextualized and nuanced.

El-Movimiento-Advisory-Committee_200

Community advisors help shape the El Movimiento exhibit.

As History Colorado had very little material culture with which to work, the exhibition team relied on the community advisors and others to loan documents, buttons, picket signs, clothing, photographs, film and video, audio recordings, and other materials vital to museum storytelling. Other museums would do well to replicate this community-based curatorial approach, especially when they are entering unchartered history waters. History Colorado did another smart thing—it collaborated with Denver’s Museo de Las Américas, whose Chicano exhibition features the work of four prominent Denver-based artists that captures the spirit of the struggle.

I was honored that History Colorado asked me to speak at El Movimiento’s opening in February, attended by hundreds of community members, including many families and children. It was a very moving experience to see this community and its history validated and celebrated. Museum officials tell me that attendance and response has been steady and encouraging, developments enhanced by a robust series of correlative public and educational programs. The exhibition closes at the end of October 2015, but History Colorado indicates that more on the Latino community is forthcoming.

Corky-Gonzalez-Photo_tm180b

Denver civil rights activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales featured in El Movimiento

El Movimiento was a risky proposition for History Colorado, because the content is, well, political, unflinching and disquieting. They say that the truth will set you free. My sense is that El Movimiento has helped free this important community institution to tell fully contextualized, accurate stories that matter to its entire, diverse constituency. There are many more stories to tell, especially about the disenfranchised whose contributions have been foundational to community building. Colorado has much to look forward to.

More:

Chicano Movement Chicano El Movimiento History Colorado Denver Colorado Latinos & Hispanics Mexican American

__________________________________________

Copyright 2015 by Eduardo Díaz.

Filed Under: Blogs, Mirándolo Bien with Eduado Díaz Tagged With: Chicano Civil Rights Movement, Chicano history, Corky Gonzales, Eduardo Díaz, El Movimiento Denver exhibit, Mirandolo Bien with Eduardo Diaz

BURUNDANGA BORICUA DEL ZOCOTROCO 5.23.25 – EMINENT DANGER

May 23, 2025 By wpengine

In 2012, in Puerto Rico there were 13,000 farms; in the recent agricultural census, between 8 and 10,000 farms are recorded; a substantial decrease in the figure reported for 2012. At present, the agricultural sector of the Puerto Rican economy reports approximately 0.62% of the gross domestic product, which produces 15% of the food consumed […]

BURUNDANGA BORICUA DEL ZOCOTROCO 5.23.25 MORE ON THE NEED TO GROW

May 23, 2025 By wpengine

The title of the documentary, The Need to Grow by Rob Herring and Ryan Wirick,  is suggestive. Its abstract character is enough to apply in a general and also in a particular way. The Need to Grow applies to both the personal and to so many individuals. At the moment, the need for growth in […]

BURUNDANGA DEL ZOCOTROCO 5.16.25 PELIGRO INMINENTE

May 15, 2025 By wpengine

Peligro Inminente En 2012, en Puerto Rico habían 13 mil granjas; en el censo agrícola reciénte se registran entre 8 y 10 mil granjas; una disminución sustantiva de la cifra reportada para 2012. Al presente, el sector agrícola de la economía puertorriqueña reporta aproximadamente 0.62% del producto bruto interno, que produce el 15% de la […]

RICARDO ROMO’S TEJANO REPORT 5.23.25 MAYA BLUE EXHIBIT

May 23, 2025 By wpengine

Maya Blue Exhibit Incorporates the Artwork of Latino/a Artists A new exhibit, Maya Blue: Ancient Color, New Visions, at the San Antonio Museum of Art [SAMA], brings together for the first time pre-Columbian crafted clay figures, the art of Mexican modernist Carlos Mérida, and works by contemporary Latino/a artists Rolando Briseño, Clarissa Tossin, and Sandy […]

More Posts from this Category

New On Latinopia

LATINOPIA ART SONIA ROMERO 2

By Tia Tenopia on October 20, 2013

Sonia Romero is a graphic artist,muralist and print maker. In this second profile on Sonia and her work, Latinopia explores Sonia’s public murals, in particular the “Urban Oasis” mural at the MacArthur Park Metro Station in Los Angeles, California.

Category: Art, LATINOPIA ART

LATINOPIA WORD JOSÉ MONTOYA “PACHUCO PORTFOLIO”

By Tia Tenopia on June 12, 2011

José Montoya is a renowned poet, artist and activist who has been in the forefront of the Chicano art movement. One of his most celebrated poems is titled “Pachuco Portfolio” which pays homage to the iconic and enduring character of El Pachuco, the 1940s  Mexican American youth who dressed in the stylish Zoot Suit.

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

LATINOPIA WORD XOCHITL JULISA BERMEJO “OUR LADY OF THE WATER GALLONS”

By Tia Tenopia on May 26, 2013

Xochitl-Julisa Bermejo is a poet and teacher from Asuza, California. She volunteered with No More Deaths, a humanitarian organization providing water bottles in the Arizona desert where immigrants crossing from Mexico often die of exposure. She read her poem, “Our Lady of the Water Gallons” at a Mental Cocido (Mental Stew) gathering of Latino authors […]

Category: LATINOPIA WORD, Literature

© 2025 latinopia.com · Pin It - Genesis - WordPress · Admin