TO all California Brown Berets

As newly appointed BBNO California commander, I want you all to know it is a pleasure to serve La Raza and I look forward to helping solidify the Brown Beret Movement so that we can create everlasting change in our community and inspire a new generation of leaders willing to elevate the question of Chicano self-determination.

I don’t care if your beret is brown or black, or if it sports the rifles and La Causa or the Olin and La Causa. I don’t care if you claim the national structure (BBNO), Aztlan, Autonomous, Carnalismo or Lords.  I do care that we all start working in the same direction. I do know too, that if  we all stop and take a look around our immediate community, the problems I see are the same ones you see. What I see is totally unacceptable in a country that claims to be modern and democratic. 

First let me be clear, I will be a Brown Beret Soldado de Paz Por La Raza and will exercise any and all forms of non violent tactics. I will be a Brown Beret till the day there is not one more lost life due to gang pendejadas. I will be a Brown Beret until such time everyone in my community is given every opportunity to achieve their full potential.

With the state Chicano prison population currently at ___% and Chicano youth incarceration rate at %___, coupled with a 50% Chicano drop out rate, I would say our community is far from reaching our full potential and if something is not done, well, things might get better, but I don’t want to wait around another hundred years. Therefore, our top priority should be stopping the drain of human potential affecting La Raza.

The civil war between red/blue, norte/sureno, needs to be ended once and for all as that is where the our communidad’s greatest loss of potential is occurring. We need to take our message of Chicano/a Power to the pintos, veteranos, Cholo/a, vato loco, taggers or whoever is drawn to the vida loca pinto mentality.
Once the quetes are put away and vendettas buried, the next step is to take advantage of the existing educational resources.

It must be remembered that many schools now-a-days have Chicano teachers, counselors and staff--one of the demands of early Brown Beret organizing. The schools are also required by law to post your rights to educational access, check them out next time your are in a public school classroom. Those in the teaching field are more than happy to teach and should be honored for taking on such a noble career; not burning out in 5 years because they can’t handle “the kids who don’t want to learn.” The schools belong to the people so we need to utilize them to their fullest and for our benefit.

To many of our young gente give lame excuses for not wanting to go to school -- “it’s boring; the teachers are racist; I can’t relate, it‘s dumb,” etc, etc. Whether we like it or not, we have to get educated and that means using the school resources available to us. As, Sal Castro once said, “don’t forsake education”. You don’t have to like school, the teacher or the subject but if you want to be a Brown Beret you need to start doing what’s required to get educated and that’s graduating.

It will be the responsibility of each brown beret to help, encourage and motivate other brown berets and especially our youth, to excel and graduate from school. There is also no rule that states you can’t jump up in grades and graduate early.

Another youth population we need to reach before they go the gang route is the very young Chicanitos. They will be awestruck when you come into the neighborhood in full uniform. They are thirsty for knowledge and will be receptive to any and all positive messages. The chavalos who are older, between the ages of 11-16 years old, will confuse you with “Brown Pride” and someone will always mention they know someone in brown pride. Raza in this age group make very loyal and committed soldados but are prone to following the gangs at any time. When organizing the young make it clear to them that parental involvement is required and any informe given to them also needs to be given to the parent or guardian.

Raza youth in K-8 is another group we need to convince to like school and pursue high career goals. The transition from middle or Jr. high to high school is when many youth start making the wrong choices. They need to be set in a career path by the time they reach high school, not wanting to drop out or go into “home studies.”

Never ever talk foul when youngsters are around and complement and encourage them often. For many youth the positive reinforcement we give them might be the 1^st time they have ever been given it. Once you get a unit comprised of a good cross section of the community you will be strong have the support you need to effectuate change.

IDEOLOGYOnce you become a Brown Beret and become more politically aware you will see there are three competing ideas regarding Chicano Power. One is an integrationist model, meaning those with this approach encourage education and hard work for getting ahead, and might even advocate cultural identity but the end goal is to participate in the existing political and economic order and change will eventually occur. It is also called assimilation. This approach maintains the status quo and change is very incremental at best.

Another Chicano Power ideology is based on separatism, in which the Chicano population calls for the complete dissolution from the United States and the establishment of Aztlan. The means for achieving the goal, however, is “by any means necessary,” including the use of force against the US.  I would be weary of any rhetoric that espouses “revolutionary armed struggle” or other violent action. It would be asinine to try and fight the most powerful army in the world.

In a nutshell, pure Chicano Nationalism, espouses the belief that we can not clean up the world until we clean up our own yard 1^st. Some Brown Berets websites I have seen recently claim that by being Chicano nationalist we are using an ideology based on the drawing of borders, which is what the “oppressor” has used to keep us divided. They also falsely claim that we are for establishing Aztlan for Mexico.

If there are any Brown Beret units that have these falsehoods listed on their websites then they are working against the Brown Beret Movement.

A simple content analysis of the philosophies of the BBNO and non-affiliated Brown Berets will reveal lots of similarities between foreign political ideologies and not Chicanismo based on El Plan Espritual De Aztlan, our blueprint for self-determination.

Finally, we need to reach the young Chicanos who are on track to finish school and go on to higher education, for it is this population who will be our nations future professionals but they will be no use to the movement if they don’t know about it. If the elementary, middle and high schools are not teaching Chicano history then the Brown Berets need to become the Chicano Studies Department.

So Brown Berets from Califas, the state of affairs for Chicanos is not all gloomy. Yes it’s been a 163 years since the last Mexican governor served in California. Our community had a chance to elect one of our own a few years ago but too many of us were star stuck by an Austrian body building actor.

There is no guarantee that a Chicano governor in California would have made a difference but had Cruz been elected I might not be a Brown Beret today because to me it would have been monumental progress. But I am not going to wait around for another Chicano to get a chance, because we might all be waiting a very long time.

So to all Brown Berets in Califas, let the sweat, sangre and spirit of the thousands who marched in the Morotoriums held not only in ELA but several other California cities, be our guiding force, for it is they who first called out Ya Basta y AZTLAN Libre.

 I will do my best to help lead your units to everlasting institutions of true revolutionary change in the community. We need to first build our ranks to millions of Chicano/a Soldados de Paz por La Raza. Puro Chicano Nationalism created this revolutionary and it will be the ideology that will lead us to the next level of creating a truly free and democratic nation capable of changing the world.

Que Viva Los Brown Berets, Viva La Raza, Viva Califas y Aztlan.

http://www.ppic.org/content/pubs/report/r_201brr.pdf , actual incarcertion stats omitted intentionally. This link speaks volumes. The Chicano high school drop out rate is pretty well established at 50% or higher.

VIVA Las Maestras

I saw a wonderful sight today at a school I worked at.  5 Chicana teachers were sitting in the school staff room in a round table discussion about ways to improve performance and motivation of their students.  What a change from many of the educators I have interacted with who just write off some of their students as "bad".  No student should be labeled as bad even if their performance is not up to standards or if they have some behavior (read identity) issues.  I salute all the hard working Maestra/os De Aztlan.  You have a hard job and are worth every cent you are paid and even more.  

Inspring Greatness

Thank you to my higher power for allowing me to live another day. Today I taught a class of 1st graders. We put on our imaginary lab coats as we worked on our writing, math and science skills.  We reviewed all those science words until each student was able to properly pronounce and identify the term. Probably a several week lesson plan in one day. For math I had the students use different denominations of money to pay for a $1.00 item. They'll never be short changed by the ice cream man now.

Yes a 1st grader can learn about adaptation, balance scales, levels of evaporation, photosynthesis and business.  At the end of the day I asked that they write a sentence and they voted on the best one. This is what they thought was the best: The astronaut eats a pie so he or she can fly high in the sky. (pie, high, sky spelling words).

Fresno BBNO reunion outcome

A few members from 1995-1999 phoned but didn't show. 1 member from the local autonomous BB showed up with some burritos and some sabroso salsa -- muchimas gracias.  Lack of interest didn't deter me or my family.  We set up the banderas in the front yard, set up two tables with Chicano and Brown Beret history and at every 15 minutes to the hour from 1-6 pm  a Brown Beret leadership development workshop was held on the sidewalk in front of my house.     

Every so often a bulldog gangster would stool by and I would try to reach out to him, some were receptive, but most weren't.   The drug addictos that regularly roam the street stayed off of our immediate block.  Not sure if they thought I was a cop? They watched us from the corner of the next block over.   Several of my neighbors who I regularly associate with never knew I was a active Brown Beret before they became my neighbors.  They committed their children to the Brown Berets and they all agreed to provide them transporation to any local activities we particpate in.  Some said they would be willing to dress out with their children too or help in other ways.  Altogether we inducted and gave the Brown Beret oath to 16 chavalos and 6 parents.   

The newly inducted Brown Berets of Illinios Ave, in Fresno, Califas, Aztlan, reclaimed their street today and declared that they will use all available educational resources so that they can  pursue their dreams of becoming doctors, astronaunts, mechanical engineers, attorneys and teachers. They also pledged to give at least 5 hours per week to the BBNO for the betterment of La Raza.  the betterment of La Raza.

Chicano Power.

Taking back our street and leadership development

Hello family, friends, and allies, 

It is with great pleasure that I am announcing the official reactivation of the Fresno Chapter of the Brown Berert National Organization (BBNO).  I want to personally invite  you, your family and friends to a reunion for all former, current or future Brown Berets in Fresno. 

The conditions in our barrios and pueblos are no different than they were 10, 20 or 30 years ago.  Our people are being criminalized and our youth are seeing a prison cell or grave plot instead of a classroom and higher education.  The dopefins, crackheads, tweekers, bullsdogs, Nortenos, Surenos and marijuanos are winning the hearts and minds of too many young Raza. The bloodshed and lost human potential that results from "OUR" problem is not acceptable.  

It is our problem because only we will be able to solve this, no one else will do it for us.  We can't start solving this one problem let alone the hundreds of other ones affecting La Raza if we continue thinking in one dimension.  We have enough educated Raza right now who could collectivly solve all of the Chicanos problems but we can't because most of us are chasing the American dream and quite frankly many can't envision what reality can be if we all said Chale to the good ol USA, "we'll do it ourselves" because under the following legal docments, US Constitution, Treaty of Peace (Hidalgo),and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we have a right to establish our own nation which we will call Aztlan.

The collective power of a nation can change conditions we have seen in the Phillipines and most recently the nationalist movement in Egypt. As a committed Chicano Nationalist I am going to work to create our nation of Aztlan by: 1, teaching the young our glorious history, 2. keeping them interested in education, 3. commit them to applying their future knowledge and educational success to furthering La Causa and creating Aztlan.    

The vision of a new nation that is colorblind, truely democratic and free of weapons of mass destruction will occur, it's just up to us as to how long we want it to take?  In our lifetime, our children's or their children's?        

The reunion will occur on Monday, February 21, 2011 and 4800 E Illinois, Fresno from 1pm to 6pm.  This in the areas of Chestnut and Tulare.   If you can please stop to say hi, bring some history, bring a drink or dish or even resources we might be able to use. 

I also need you to do another favor, please forword this email to anyone in Fresno or Madera that may have had ties to the previous Fresno bbno units as I am missing contacts with many or to anyone just wanting to stop by and start getting involved.

 Finally, check out my writing web site -- Chicano related short stories and some brown beret slide shows at:   http://contributor.yahoo.com/user/919634/paul_garcia.html.  I also posted so work and some history of 1st Fresno Brown Beret leader Catalino Hurtado at: http://fresnobbno.blogspot.com/2011/02/catarino-gato-hurtado.html.  Bookmark it.   

Any proceeds from page views on these sites will be used to pay for uniform assessories and for travel in support of other Brown Beret chapters. 

Information regaring history, philosphopy and rules and uniform requirements can be obained at: http://nationalbrownberets.com/

Any questions please feel free to contact paul garcia VIVA LA RAZA

Catarino "Gato" Hurtado

Back in the late 1990's when I was captain of the Fresno Brown Beret unit and we'd be in different barrios or pueblo's of Fresno County it never failed,but just about every time we'd encounter people who would mention the name Catarino or Gato and talk very fondlyy of him and his leadership over the Brown Berets. I didn't grow up in Fresno and at the height of the Chicano Movement I was 8 years old (1970) so I really didn't have any knowledge of him except what was told to me.  I'd also hear about his undying love for La Raza.  Not knowing a thing about him but hearing the comments the gente made about him only left me with one conclusion, Catarino was a die hard Chicano Nationalist.  

In early 2000 I stopped actively organizing with the BB group and returned to college to complete my unfinished degree.  For a research project connected to my Chicano Studies major I wrote a paper about the organizing of the Fresno Brown Berets of the immediate past but it also gave me an opportunity to research some history of Catarino.  

 The biography of Catarino is so impressive that it is a crying shame there is no monument, commemoration or any type of book that chronicles his contribution, not only to the  Brown Berets but to the Fresno Community and the Chicano Movement specifically.  Some people have even speculated that the 1977 car crash that claimed his life may have even been the result of sabotage by the Feds because he was getting too influential.  Therefore this post is to highlight some of the contributions this Soldado de La Raza has given to the Movemiento. 

Catarino "Gato" Hurtado, who passed away 2/12/1977 was the founder of Fresno Brown Berets and La Raza Unida Party.  In a commemorative edition of the newspaper, El Sembrador (3/77) Cat is described as Un Guerrero De Puro Corazon.

Catarino Hurtado was also a co-founder of Universidad de Aztlan, Colegio De La Tierra, Universidad de Capesinos Libres, Administrator of 1st alternative high school for Chicanos (Millbrook Alternative), co founder of Operation Christmas, a toy drive for kids which continues to this day and is better known as Navidad en el Valle. He was a school counselor at the time of his death.  He knew alternative medicine and regularly helped gente who needed medical help. He was seriously considering returning to school to become a medical doctor.  Catarino along with others connected to the Brown Berets and Universidad de Aztlan were indicated in 1971 by the FBI on bomb making charges. He was eventually exonerated.  

 

 

The historical photo that is in several Chicano history books and wesites, which depicts a group of male brown berets -- one is standing to the side wearing a poncho and one is standing in the background of the group holding a shotgun, while the others are sitting--is in  fact a group picture of Catarino and some of soldados of the 1st Fresno Brown Beret Unit. 

 

The story of Catarino is far from complete so part of FresnoBBNO organizing activities we will be to document and finish the history of Catarino Hurtado. We will interview the people who knew him best. The anniversery of his death recentlty passed and he should have been honored by some group or individual but instead he was largely forgotten.  NO MORE.  Chicano History needs to be told.  Brown Beret history needs to be told.   Viva La Raza, Viva Catarino Hurtado, Viva Aztlan Libre.

Fresno Brown Beret Historical Photos

For more pictures like these and the story behind the above pictures, visit my slideshows at the following link: http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/68590/fresno_brown_berets_bbno_organizing.html?cat=75

Stop The Violence

Fresnobbno@aol.com or http://nationalbrownberets.com/aztlan

A speech by Brown Beret National Organization founder, David Sanchez. Given Sunday, April 23, 1995, at Sanger High’s Tom Flores Stadium for the 1^st annual Stop the Violence rally organized by Save Our Youth (SOY) Committee in response to multiple gang related killings in Sanger, CA. Unfortunately the committee died out after this 1^st event and today gang violence still is common in Sanger. Anyone from Sanger want to start a Brown Beret Chapter?
Contact me at
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“I’m very happy to be here in Sanger, understanding the problems of violence throughout the country, and not only do we have a disaster in Oklahoma, we have a disaster in many of our communities and it’s time we do something about it.
…Violence is a disease, the nature of violence is very cruel. It‘s something that happens when people don’t think. It’s a cruel way of treating people. We must stop the violence by stopping the rudeness. Looking at the nature of violence, you’ll find that something happens before violence occurs and those are the circumstances and situations that lead to the act. Those circumstances such as spreading gossip…being rude…giving people dirty looks. Those are the things that must stop.
Altogether there were 3,500 homicides in the State of California in 1994. Is that part of our plan? It is not!. Of those 3,500 murdered…How many of them were Latinos? How many were Chicanos? You’re talking about 40% to 50%…close to 1,500 Latino homicides in…California…in Los Angeles County alone, there were 2,000 homicides…about 900 were Chicano homicides.
The violence of Los Angeles County is a disease. It’s a disease that’s also striking Sanger …Fresno….it’s a disease that needs to be cured. The only way this disease can be cured is for communities -- just like Sanger -- to come together and get involved in your community. Educate your community and do something about this terrible problem…because it affects everyone. It’s a problem that affects our community …so we need to educate our community …that’s what the Brown Berets are all about.
The purpose of the Brown Berets is to educate the community to stop the violence…it’s also to create an influential power base. I don’t care how smart you are, if you don’t have a group of people behind you, no one is going to listen to you. I don’t care how tall you are…how rich you are…how much money you got, no one will listen to you …unless you have votes …unless you have people. If you don’t vote the wrong people get into office, and unfortunately, a lot of the wrong people are in office…and they don‘t do anything about the violence because they don’t know how to… A lot of the politicians around the state are not worth a dime.
The only way you can make politicians move is to get a petition of voters and take that petition to those politicians and say, “we have voters and those voters may decide the next election. Even though we may have just 50 votes, you just might lose by 50 votes. “ Therefore it is important to take these problems to the politicians so they can do something about it.
The Government has run away. We have a runaway government and a runaway system. Everybody runs away from the problems…escape for the weekends and escape the problem. We need to address this problem because it is an indicator of where our society is at today. Unfortunately, the sociology that we live in is not working for us. We have to turn that sociology around, educate our people and make that sociology work for our community, so that our young people are not destroyed in the streets…so they don‘t get bored and turn to drugs or turn to gangs and die from drive-by shootings.
It’s unfortunate, but we have to once again…explore the situations that lead up to death. Trace the situations that lead up to somebody getting killed. Much of it is because our young people are not thinking, they’re pulling the trigger without thinking. We need to make our community think. We need real politicians that can make our community think. Help the community not bow away from what’s really happening.
What is the future in our community? Our community needs an educational system that is effective…that teaches social communication skills not teaching our kids to be anti-social but teaching them to get along and dialogue. We also need Chicano studies so our students have pride in their community and pride in the culture, so that they have pride in their history.
You would think that by now, since the Mexican American population is the largest ethnic group in the state of California that the Mexican American population would have solved their problems by now. We have the numbers but we are powerless. The reason we are powerless is because we don’t have enough leaders, enough people who are committed to doing something about our problems.
So I ask each and everyone of you who are here to support the Brown Berets because the Brown Berets are dedicated to non violence and education. Dedicated to doing something about the community and it’s many problems. We can no longer run from our problems, we must do something about it. We must vote, we must educate our people to vote and get the right people in office, because if you don’t vote you don’t eat. The vote has a lot to do with how our community is controlled.
So we are trying to do something about these problems. We are not running away. We are trying to educate our community to stop the violence and understand how the vote works. The vote is very important …in getting the right people in office. If we have to get Brown Berets elected to office, maybe we’ll have to do that as well. Most important than anything though, is that we have to begin to look at our corazon, look at our heart, and do something about this problem …of violence.
We need to do something and talk to our young people and tell them to stop the violence and stop the rudeness…it‘s the rudeness that…creates the problem. It occurs at parties when people start giving each other dirty looks. When people start calling each other names. The reason they call each other names is because they don’t have better things to talk about.
The reason they don’t have something better to talk about is because our education system has not showed them advanced communication. Our education system has not shown them to have pride in their community…has not educated them, so education is something everyone has to do not just teachers. We have a lot of good teachers…we have some that don‘t care…but we have a lot good teachers.
We need to educate our community to do something about the problem first of all --- through activism and social change by community involvement. Also through identity --identity is very important. We need to promote Chicano Studies. Remember, the Aztecas had a very high language. They would never fight each other because they had many things to talk about. They had planetariums…dentistry…farming…religion…they had many institutions which supported their language. We need institutions which support our language.. WE NEED INSTITUTIONS WHICH SUPPORT OUR YOUTH -- TO STOP THE VIOLENCE ONCE AND FOR ALL!!! VIVA LA RAZA”

Barrio Honor

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7699686/barrio_honor_pg2.html?cat=75

Justice for Brisenia

I just learned about the tragic story of Brisenia Flores.  She was a 9-year-old girl from Arizona who was murdered by anti-immigrant vigilantes.  Her alleged murderer is on trial, but the main stream media has not taken much notice. 
That's why I've downloaded a poster from Presente.org because they are highlighting her life and demanding that we say NO to anti-Latino hate. 
Please join me!
http://act.presente.org/sign/brisenia/?referring_akid=301.151841.2Qguwi&source=taf

Self Determination

Saludos to the brave Egyptian people for their inspiring non-violent revolution.  Chicanos need to start demanding our self-determination too since the Treaty of Peace is a farce.   Aztlan Libre
http://www.associatedcontent.com/slideshow/68590/fresno_brown_berets_bbno_organizing.html?cat=75