Trailer for the film, Dolores (2017)
Dolores Huerta is among the most important, yet least known, activists in American history. An equal partner in co-founding the first farm workers unions with Cesar Chavez, her enormous contributions have gone largely unrecognized. Dolores tirelessly led the fight for racial and labor justice alongside Chavez, becoming one of the most defiant feminists of the twentieth century—and she continues the fight to this day, at 87. With intimate and unprecedented access to this intensely private mother to eleven, the film reveals the raw, personal stakes involved in committing one’s life to social change. Directed by Peter Bratt.
Changing Boundaries: The History of San Jose
Changing Boundaries: The History of San Jose is a detailed documentary story of the working people, political leaders and dreamers who built the City of San Jose.
The Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez Family (1946) in Westminster, CA
The Mendez family won the landmark Orange County case, “Mendez, et al vs. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al,” in 1946 which laid the groundwork for school desegregation throughout California and eventually the nation decades before the civil rights movement captured the country’s attention.
Learn More: Mendez vs. segregation: 70 years later, famed case ‘isn’t just about Mexicans.
It’s about everybody coming together’
https://www.latimes.com/socal/daily-pilot/tn-wknd-et-0417-sylvia-mendez-70-anniversary-20160417-story.html
El Excentrico Magazine May 20, 1968
A page from the magazine that was Founded-Edited-by Humberto Garcia II, a bi-monthly Spanish-English magazine published in
San Jose from April 1949 - April 1981. With almost 700 published issues it is the largest record of the daily-life of La Raza Community in the San Jose- Santa Clara County.
Learn More:
California Room Local History Collection Martin Luther King Jr. Public Library
https://www.sjpl.org/caroom
Pete Michel
A San Jose State Student in the 1970s, from the Santa Maria area and very active during the Anti-War movement and campus Grape-Boycott committee. He graduated and worked at SJS for over 30 years. His long hair, Grape Boycott -Eagle Bandana, and long army wool coat
was a typical dress at that time. Gil Villagran was another student at the school. Read his story below.
Learn More:
Vietnam War Inspires a Lifetime of Political Activism in San Jose
PFC Louis Joe Sandoval
Killed in Action in Vietnam. During the Vietnam War Era photos and stories like this appeared in every issue of ElExcentrico Magazine. A study by Ralph Guzman found that Chicanos represented about 10 percent of the population of the Southwest, they represented almost 20 percent of the casualties from the region.
Learn More:
Video: San Jose, CA Preview-On Two Fronts: Latinos & Vietnam Discussion 2/4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAxoDeBxawc
Vietnam War Deaths, by Race, Ethnicity and National Origin
Lance Corporal Patrick J. Vasquez Jr.
Lance Corporal Patrick J Vasquez Jr was one of the first Chicanos from San Jose to be killed during the Vietnam War in 1967. His father Patrick Vasquez Senior was a veteran and leader of the San Jose American GI Forum Veterans group. The death of his son made him an impassioned advocate for peace in Vietnam during the unless conflict and began to change community and country’s attitudes about the support for war and loss of American lives. We believe the first San Jose Chicano to die in Vietnam was Raymond Bernal Jr. on November 30, 1966. Raymond Bernal Jr. Memorial Park at 7th and Hedding Streets was named in his honor.
Learn More:
Obituary for Raymond Bernal Jr.
https://www.honorstates.org/index.php?id=262129
Dedication of Sons of San Jose Vietnam War Memorial: Who were these guys?
Everett Alvarez Jr.
Everett Alvarez Jr. was born in Salinas, California, the son of Mexican immigrants. He attended the University of Santa Clara and a former United States Navy pilot who endured one of the longest periods as a prisoner-of-war (POW) in U.S. military history. Alvarez was the first U.S. pilot to be downed and detained during the Vietnam War and spent over eight years in captivity. His sister Delia Alvarez was an anti-Vietnam war activist in San Jose and was featured in a tv documentary film by producer Mylène Moreno
Learn More:
Interview Everett Alvarez: A Vietnam POW for the Duration
https://www.historynet.com/interview-everett-alvarez-a-vietnam-pow-for-the-duration.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Two_Fronts:_Latinos_%26_Vietnam