San Diego City College Chicano Graduation Presentation
May 12, 2012

By Herman Baca, President
Committee on Chicano Rights (CCR)

Estimados, parents, sisters, brothers, professors, alumni, friends, and enemies. I say enemies because one cannot be in a struggle for change, and not have enemies.

I want to congratulate the SD City College graduating class and all other Chicano students that will be graduating on 2012. Hopefully I can leave you with a few words that you’ll remember and take with you as you go out to face the world.

· The first thing I want you to remember is the old Mexican saying that states, “the reason you are able to stand so tall and proud and graduate today is because, you are standing on the shoulders of those who came before you.” Your parents, grand and great grandparents and other generations that came before you, most who never had an opportunity to finish school, let alone go to college.

· Secondly, I want you to remember that the other reason you are graduating today is because, “of the historical political struggle that was undertaken by the Chicano movement in the U.S. in the 1960’s.” A struggle led by individuals such as Cesar Chavez, Humberto “Bert” Corona, Reis Lopez Tijerina, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales, Jose Angel Gutirrez, Abe Tapia and 1000 of others. These persons sacrificed, struggled, picketed, boycotted, were tear gassed, beaten up, jailed and many died fighting to end the racism and discrimination that kept our people from getting an education in places such as City College.

· Thirdly, I want you to remember history, especially your history. The great Afro-American leader Malcolm X once stated, “A people without a history, is like a tree without roots, dead!” Malcolm X pointed out that any individual could do whatever they wanted with a dead tree, and that a political system could do the same to a people who do not understand their history.

Looking at our history in the U.S. we as a people have come a long way from the 1960’s, but unfortunately we still have a long, long way to go to be treated equally, and as first class citizens in this nation. Believe it or not, just forty four years ago when I first became involved in the Chicano movement, La Raza didn’t even exist, socially, economically or politically to U.S. institutions. Back then La Raza was simply known as the, “forgotten, silent, or the invisible minority.”

There was no such thing as Chicano politicians, lawyers, school principals, counselors, police, or even college students. I remember in 1968 reading a report that SD State with a student enrollment of 20,000 had but 68 Spanish surnames.
So the question asked by reporters, professors, historians, academicians and everyday working people is… what has changed since 1968?

To be truthfully very little has changed, but it would be idiotic to state nothing has change. Obviously things have changed, but unfortunately they have changed for individuals and not the masses of our people whose rights are violated daily, and hunted down as “illegals” or outlaws in their forefathers land.

However what has changed, that no one in the U.S. can deny is demographics; our increasing population!

The demographic changes taking place, will in the near future make your generation the majority population in California, New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas The 2010 U.S. census recently announced that the “His/Her Panics” population in the U.S. is 55 million (75% persons of Mexican ancestry), making Mexicans the largest so-called minority in the U.S. In other words, your generation in 2012 is not little any more.

The ongoing historical demographic change in the U.S. is a fact, and anyone thinking that they can stop it, is tantamount to someone trying to stop the Rio Grande from flowing. Gringos in U.S. society instead of smelling Campbell soup now smell menudo!

The changing demographics has radically changed your generation’s struggle, because on February 5, 2003 a UCLA doctor announced that for the first time since the late 1850’s, Mexican births accounted for more than half the births in CA.

According to UCLA Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture, Director David Hayes-Bautista, “The long-anticipated Latino majority has arrived. In 2003 it is learning how to walk and will shortly learn to talk. They will be defining the American dream. It’s in their hands.” That is the political reality that your generation is facing.

Along with the demographic changes taking place, your generation needs to understand that a significant historical period in our people’s history (in the U.S.) is slowly but surely coming to an end. THAT PERIOD OF HISTORY ending is my generation. Look around… CESAR CHAVEZ, BERT CORONA, RODOLFO “CORKY” GONZALES AND MANY OTHERS THAT ORGANIZED THE CHICANO MOVEMENT STRUGGLE ARE GONE.

With you graduating today you have untold opportunities that other generations didn’t have. However you also have gigantic responsibilities due to the myriad of issues/problems that our people confront… immigration, education, unemployment, unaccountable politicians, and more youth in prisons than colleges, etc.

History teaches us that while being the majority is an asset, just being the majority is not good enough. For a people to be able to govern as a majority they must acquire political and economic power, and that requires learning our history, language and culture.

So I state to you today, with those historical facts the historical baton of struggle is being passed to you and other generations that follow. What you do with it will determine… if our people take their rightful place in this society with their rights respected and protected, or if they become the victims of a South-African Apartheid/Jim Crow type system in the U.S. where the minority controls, and violates the human and civil rights of the majority?

I again congratulate you and all others Chicano students who have graduated.

In closing, I leave you with these words, “without struggle there is no progress.”

Que Viva La Raza!