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Finally Aroused . . .AMexican-Americans beek AdvancesEDINBURG. Tex. (UP1) -While Negro demonstrators shouted ‘black power. America’s second largest racial minority for years seemed quiet. But the five million Mexican-Americans of the Southwest have been developing some militants too. and their slogan is Chicano!Chicano” is a corruption of the Spanish term Mexicano, or Mexican. The word calls up some of the same kind of rnc-cial pride Negro militants find in black.Chitano power is being invoked in demonstrations from Denver to the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas. It is backed in some cases by a new-tough-talking group with links to at least two federally funded associations and a campaign aimed at Mexican-Americans as young as junior high.Pamphlets Distributed The group is called the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO). It handed out pamphlets among school children in Val Verde County. Texas last fall calling for an attack on the whole system of Gringo America...Last month, the Val Verde County commissioners charged MAYO had infiltrated the county’s federally funded Volunteers in Service to America (VISTA) program. Texas Gov. Preston. Smith vetoed further federal sponsorship of the project.MAYO retaliated by scheduling a rally in Del Rio. Tex.,S .nday. Its leaders hope it will draw demonstrators from all over the Southwest.A MAYO broadside states the chsc bluntly. It is the Gringo who we need to fight. it says. He is the real enemy and cause of our miserable plight.Appears In Valley MAYO suddenly appeared In the Lower Rio Grande Valley last fall. At the same at Ed-couch-Elsa High School in the Valley 200 youngsters staged a walkout and classroom boycott.One of the student leaders — a 17-year-old girl — later testified in court that local VISTAvolunteers had provided both money and moral support for the cause.At the same time two underground newspapers, both bearing the masthead of MAYO, surfaced in the Valley.'One. flagged Hoy. or Today. cheered the Edcouch-EIsa walkout, and called for more. The other. Rcvotuiocn. pro-trayed a drawing of the angry faces of men in sombreros, carrying guns.Printed 3.0flfl Copies Copy for the 3.000 issues or one of the papers was deliveredPlans Made for County Campaign On Brush ControlPlans were made at a dinner this week at Ben's restaurant for the Fannin county campaign for funds to help finance the state-wide program of research to control mesquitc and other types of brush on rangelands.Jack Caudle, chairman of the county beef cattle committee, is county chairman of the campaign.Attending the dinner were members of the beef cnttlc committee and vo-ac teachers from over the county. Robert Boyd, manager of the Production Credit association, was host at the dinner.Attending the dinner to outline the program was Jay Humphrey, Ft. Worth, District 4 chairman of the state-wide drive.Fannin county ranchers and farmers are being asked to contribute 1 cent per acre of their land to raise funds for the Brush Control and Range Improvement association to carry on research for controlling me-squites and all types of brush that are choking life out of rangelands of Texas.The campaign will be carried on during April and contributions may be sent to Caudle.to the printer by Narciso Aleman. a representative of the National Student Association. a Washington organization which last year gnt $200,000 In federal funds. VISTA volunteers picked up the issues prior to distribution.County VISTA supervisor Joe Unogas denied any connection with MAYO.in Denver, hundreds of high school students and some adult* clashed with police earlier this month demanding a high school teacher be fired for remarks about Mexican-Americans. Seventeen Policemen Hurt Militant Rudolfo Corky Gon-zalez was arrested during the melee for investigation of assaulting a police officer, and 17 policemen were injured by thrown rocks and bottles.Police Chief George Seaton blamed the trouble at Denver'* West High on anarchists.Whatever the size of the militant movement among Mexican-Americans. it is now vocal and visible. But more moderate Mexican - American and Anglo” leaders condemn it.Discontent can only breed where conditions are bad enough to allow it, and our Southwest has been for many years an area where the Meri-can-American's needs and at pirations have been ignored. says Jim Wilson, a justice of the peace of Mexican descent in Edinburg.Harvest of Discontent You are therefore to a large degree now reaping the harvest of the seeds of discontent which were planted long ago. We need to open our hearts as well at our minds, our private as well as our public institutions to the needs if the minotirp groupp.But this cannot be don* when hatred and racism ar« used as a base. It is just m bad to say 'hate that Gringo’ as it is to say 'hate that Nigger1 or ‘hate that Meskin.’ I see no fundamental difference between MAYO's philosophy and those of the Ku Klux Kian *rd the American Nazi party. They just hate different people.
Newspaper Details
Bonham Daily Favorite
Bonham, Texas, US
Sun, Mar 30, 1969
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Del M.
Texas, USA 21 Nov 2016
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