First Person:
By Al Carlos Hernandez

    Ironically the Brown Berets, the radical Chicano community organization, began in the office of the mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayor’s Advisory Youth Council had just selected 16 year old David John Sanchez as its chairman for 1966.

    Acting as advisers on behalf of the Mexican American community were David Sanchez, Carlos Montes, and Ralph Ramirez. The group originally hoped to ease the strained relationships existing between the community and the police department.

    They opened up a coffeehouse. The intention of the coffeehouse was to attract teenagers and give them something to do other than to hang out on the streets. The coffeehouse was called, “La Piranha,” which also served as an office and meeting hall.

    The Sheriff’s Department decided that the coffeehouse was a bad place because the kids drew a picket line in front of the Sheriff’s station protesting a case of police brutality.

    David Sanchez said, “I was jumped by the fuzz. They had me at the jail for some minor kid thing and I didn’t want to sign. One cop got me in a judo hold and another came up behind me from the back and knocked me flat. When I woke up they were booking me. I began to change my mind about things and began to see that something was wrong with America. Things were no longer Stars and Stripes.”

    Experiences like these incited the group and they became openly militant. In the fall of 1967, they officially changed the name of their group to the Brown Berets.

    The goal of the Brown Berets in the beginning, according to Sanchez was, “To unite our people under the flag of independence. By independence we mean the right to self-determination, self-government, and freedom – our land was stolen from our forefathers.”

    The Beret program included demands for the return of all the stolen land and called for an end to the police occupation of Raza communities, an end to the robbery of Chicano communities by businessmen, and an end to the drafting of Chicanos. Then the demand went out for Chicano control of Chicano education, and for housing fit for human beings.

    The Berets often provided a sense of security to individuals and families and were often called on to provide security at public demonstrations by Latino groups they labeled as La Raza.

    The Berets started people’s clinics, youth centers, anti-drug programs, and many other projects. Sheriff’s deputies harassed the Brown Berets and infiltrated the organization, causing disorganization and forcing them to shut down their coffee shop in the beginning of March 1968.

    Late in May, 1969 the Los Angeles Police Department’s Special Operations Conspiracy Squad raided the main headquarters of the Brown Berets in Los Angeles. Police claimed that the raid was to arrest two people on a charge of conspiracy to commit burglary. David Sanchez, on the other hand, felt the raid occurred because, “The police were irritated by recent intelligence activities by the Berets. Brown Berets members had reportedly uncovered two undercover agents from the police department in their membership.”

    Undaunted, Brown Berets continued to operate their East Los Angeles Free Clinic. With financial help from the Ford Foundation and the volunteer help of professionals, the clinic offered free medical, social, and psychological services to Mexican Americans.

    Through the clinic, similar services were also provided by the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, also financed by the Ford Foundation. But such efforts were to be overshadowed by the arrests and convictions of those Brown Berets who allegedly created fires and disturbances in the Biltmore Hotel on April 24, 1969.

    Soon, the medical and legal services of the East Los Angeles Free Clinic would cease. But the violence in the streets in the form of demonstrations and social protests would continue and a contingent of the Brown Berets would continue to participate in a show of “Brown Power” and militancy.

    David Sanchez was the Brown Berets founding leader and Prime Minister.

    As a former Brown Beret myself, while in college, I had an opportunity to talk to the enigmatic Dr. David Sanchez about the Brown Beret experience:

    Al Carlos: Society viewed the Brown Berets as a militant organization on the same level as the Black Panther Party. What was your original vision for the Brown Berets?

    David Sanchez: The Brown Berets was a psychological ploy to bring attention to the Mexican American and Chicano community. Our vision was often misinterpreted by scholars and writers. What we did was non-violent community activism drawing attention to our struggle for the survival for our cultural communities and for future generations. Of course, we are always up against reactionaries who called us militants and barrio mentality which was conservative and quite provincial at the time.

    AC: So your intention was social change without violence, using implied power?

    DS: The locos (crazy street guys) in the barrio thought that we should use violence. Still, we taught that learning to use non-violence would keep us safe from spending all of our time going to court and jail. We had to deal with extremists from the right and left; polarization was always a concern.

    AC: When in life did social activism become something you became passionate about?

    DS: At 12 years old, I was drafted into a gang in which I ended up making peace with surrounding gangs. Then, an Episcopal priest hired me at 16 years old to be a summer youth counselor. The priest was Father John B. Luce. He gave me books to read. From there, I was able to hook up with other youth organizations. I then became the first president for Mayor Sam Yortie’s Youth Advisory Council.

    Then, whites from the Young Republicans came to demonstrate and to throw me out of L.A. City Hall. They could not. During this time, I was a regular rebel in high school with a “B”average and organized a campus protest against the police explorers. The only Anglos that we saw were the white LAPD police who constantly pulled over any Chicano on any street.

    I knew that there would be a long struggle and was willing to drop everything just to get the movement on the correct path. The Brown Berets were not out to shoot police. Rather, our tactic was to create mass events.

   AC: Why, then, are the immigrant struggles getting more traction while Chicano causes lay on the back burner?

   DS: Barrio mentality and lack of respect for each other is holding us back.

   AC: Tell us about your recent run at local politics?

   DS: Recently, I ran for Congress. It’s a way to get out the issues. Last June, I ran against Congresswoman Lucille Roybal Allard and was opposed to her strong support of the war. I received 5,500 votes. She got 12,000 votes with 18 years in office. This after getting the job passed on to her from her father, Congressman Ed Roybal.

   AC: How would you like American history to remember you?

   DS: I think I will be remembered as the leader during the Chicano Rebellion in East Los Angeles. And founder of the Brown Berets, and founder of the Chicano Moratorium Committee.

   Last said: to care about our people…it’s in my blood.