DIY History | Transcribe | Campus Culture | Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974 | 1973-04-14 Workshop II, Chicanos: Political Process Page 2

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Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974

1973-04-14 Workshop II, Chicanos: Political Process Page 2

to our people. They have not allowed us to participate in the decision making process that affects our life. They have refused to give us their financial and organizational support whenever we wanted to run a Latino for a political position. They have concentrated all their efforts in getting only their people and when I say their people I mean Anglo Saxon or white, so register to vote. They know if they get our people registered they stand a very good chance of losing an election, primarily in areas where our people are over 30 percent or 50 percent of the population.

In the seventh Congressional district of Illinois where I am presently running as a La Raza Unida candidate for Congress, there are roughly 1/2 million Latinos. The reason why I use the expression or the term Latino is because we are not only Chicanos in the state of Illinois. We have Puerto Rico brothers and other brothers from Latin America. But out of 1/2 million of us in the seventh congressional district there are only fourteen thousand of us registered to vote. So, consequently our people or Latinos have never been able to win any political position. Now I am only talking about the seventh congressional district. In Illinois we have a little over one million Latinos. This is our estimate. The 1970 census came out with a 600 thousand figure but we know that we have a lot more than that. We are doing our own research at the present.

One of our goals as La Raza Unida in the state of Illinois is to get all our people who are eligible and who are citizens to register so they can vote. We want to start making changes, that is one way we can do it. So things are changing in Illinois. Our people are waking up and we do not like what we see. I would like to emphasize this point. I do not want to sound like our great godfather, "perfectly clear." But, I would like to make one thing clear and that is we are becoming involved in the electoral process. We are under the illusion that the electoral process is the only way to solve our problems. Negative, no. We are only going to become involved in the electoral process in voting. Only as a tactic. Only as one of the many tactics we are going to use to solve our problems. Many of us are committed to make the necessary changes to make our people free and equal. We have seen the proof of over 400 years of suffering under the mercy of our conquerors, because we are conquered and we are a colonized people. We are no longer going to bow our heads humbly and accept the few bones they give us every once and while to keep us pacified. We are going to stand on our own two feet and we are going to look them straight in the eye and we are going to tell them if they don't give us our equal tights, if they don't give us our full civil and human rights, then we are going to fight for those rights. We intend to fight until we get our rights or we fall down.

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to our people. They have not allowed us to participate in the decision making process that affects our life. They have refused to give us their financial and organizational support whenever we wanted to run a Latino for a political position. They have concentrated all their efforts in getting only their people and when I say their people I mean Anglo Saxon or white, so register to vote. They know if they get our people registered they stand a very good chance of losing an election, primarily in areas where our people are over 30 percent or 50 percent of the population. In the seventh Congressional district of Illinois where I am presently running as a La Raza Unida candidate for Congress, there are roughly 1/2 million Latinos. The reason why I use the expression or the term Latino is because we are not only Chicanos in the state of Illinois. We have Puerto Rico brothers and other brothers from Latin America. But out of 1/2 million of us in the seventh congressional district there are only fourteen thousand of us registered to vote. So, consequently our people or Latinos have never been able to win any political position. Now I am only talking about the seventh congressional district. In Illinois we have a little over one million Latinos. This is our estimate. The 1970 census came out with a 600 thousand figure but we know that we have a lot more than that. We are doing our own research at the present. One of our goals as La Raza Unida in the state of Illinois is to get all our people who are eligible and who are citizens to register so they can vote. We want to start making changes, that is one way we can do it. So things are changing in Illinois. Our people are waking up and we do not like what we see. I would like to emphasize this point. I do not want to sound like our great godfather, "perfectly clear." But, I would like to make one thing clear and that is we are becoming involved in the electoral process. We are under the illusion that the electoral process is the only way to solve our problems. Negative, no. We are only going to become involved in the electoral process in voting. Only as a tactic. Only as one of the many tactics we are going to use to solve our problems. Many of us are committed to make the necessary changes to make our people free and equal. We have seen the proof of over 400 years of suffering under the mercy of our conquerors, because we are conquered and we are a colonized people. We are no longer going to bow our heads humbly and accept the few bones they give us every once and while to keep us pacified. We are going to stand on our own two feet and we are going to look them straight in the eye and we are going to tell them if they don't give us our equal tights, if they don't give us our full civil and human rights, then we are going to fight for those rights. We intend to fight until we get our rights or we fall down.