Chicano

Contributed by Chuck Stewart

Links for assisting student research on Mexican culture in Gallup, Navajo Uranium miners, Nuclear weapons

http://www.thegallup14.com/reviews/snoe.htm

This a review of the book about the gallup coal miners riot.

"The Gallup 14"

A Novel by

Gary L. Stuart

GALLUP --- Before opening Gary L. Stuart's newest publication, "The Gallup 14," I paused to think about the passage of time since April of 1935. Memories of scattered incidents during the two-year road to riot and murder have nagged at me periodically for 67 years. How might Gary, who grew up in Gallup, treat a long buried riot and murder trial that happened four years before he was born?

I already knew the book was a novel. Novels mean imaginary characters involved in a particular historic episode. Certainly the most prolonged and violent labor confrontation in the history of New Mexico and the resulting trial could be a setting for great fiction. Thinking "The Gallup 14" wold be another romant9icized New Mexico mystery, filled with authors license, some fact, and a lot of fiction, I opened the book to the first page, surprisingly titled, "The Author's Disclaimer." To my delight my original thoughts were totally wrong.

"The Gallup 14" is a real mystery sprinkled with the speculation of fiction. Gary's book is an accurate account of a series of real happenings in a real town; a strike, a riot, a trial. No names have been changed "to protect the innocent."

The real town IS Gallup; filled with neighborhoods of real people who participate in real actions resulting in real murders and real harassment raging through the community. The real trial in another community is before a real judge appointed by the state. The real jury decision is based on the equally real testimony7 found in the court records of San Juan County and transcribed by Eve Ellen Sabin, court reporter of McKinley County.

Well documented in the legal records and newspaper reports, the author has also drawn upon the vivid memories and experiences of still living local friends and family. These recollections add a local flavor to reality and speculation through out the book.

All is not reality. Fiction is found within behind closed-door conversations of the multiple attorneys. The author also incorporates two fictional personalities into the fabric of documentary evidence. Billy Wade, an attorney, and Mary Ann Shaughnessy, a Gallup High School teacher, exchanged questions and observations between themselves.

While the fictional attorney discusses legal points, his co-observer keeps a personal journal to record her thoughts and attitudes toward the developing court proceedings. The two viewpoints become a most interesting analysis of the societal reality of the trial.

The 1935 Gallup wanted no more to do with the National Guard occupation and aftermath as had happened only two years before. Community wide reaction to the riot and killing of Sheriff Carmichael was immediate. For the second time in two years Gallup once again an armed camp. This time it was the hastily appointed Sheriff's deputies and self appointed vigilantes that would terrorize certain areas of the community. As over a hundred suspects were quickly rounded up, news hurled across the telegraph wires to national labor organizations, the ACLU, the State of New Mexico and major newspapers around the country. The State of New Mexico marshaled its legal forces to immediately send representatives for both sides into Gallup.

The New Mexico Supreme Court in Santa Fe, closer than New York, issued an immediate statement concerning all the accused, ". . .these men are New Mexicans. The governor and this court want New Mexicans to defend its own." (Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Mexico, Judge A.L. Zinn. Pg. 76).

The best legal minds in the state were now a part of the proceedings. National, state, area and the Gallup Independent newspapers prepared to cover the complete story. The trial began on Oct. 5, 1935.

Long time residents of Gallup as well as numbers of people in New Mexico will recognize the names. More recent arrivals are introduced to all participants--from governors to the most insignificant witness.

The Gallup riot that exploded on April 4, 1935 didn't begin directly with a mine owners/workers confrontation. It all began over a little adobe house built for his family by an unemnployed miner, Victor Campos.

"The Gallup 14" is no literary or TV fabrication for merely an evenings entertainment. Reality and fiction are combined in a very persuasive mixture. It you enjoy mystery, court proceedings, Gallup history, constitutional issues, New Mexico history, or questionable political maneuvers, or social issues this is a book for you. Don't miss "The Gallup 14" by Gary L. Stuart.

The Independent

Saturday, March 11, 2000
By Sally Noe
Special to the Independent

Note: Sally Noe is a retired educator and historian who has lived in Gallup most of her life.

http://www.doi-law.com/community/1chicano.html

1769: Father Serra founds first mission at San Diego.
1824: Mexico becomes a republic adopts first constitution.
1829: President Vicente Guerrero abolishes slavery in Mexico.
1836: Texas declares independence from Mexico
1841: New Mexicans successfully repel invasion of Anglo Texans.
1844: U.S. Minister to Mexico admits the acquisition of Texas has been a U.S. goal for 20 years.
1845: U.S. appoints Thomas Larkin its "Confidential Agent" in California to support revolt against Mexico.
1845: Padre Antonio Jose Martinez leads Taos Revolt against U.S. occupation forces in New Mexico.
1849: Veterans of Mexican War attack Chileno Village, causing formation of first San Francisco Vigilantes.
1850: Violence against Chicano miners in California gold rush.
1851: Juanita a Mexican's miner's wife is lynched. She was three months pregnant.
1851: California legislation passed the Foreign Miner's Tax Act. Aimed to take away.the mines from.Mexicans, Chinese, and Chileans.
1855: California passes "Greaser Act" against Mexicans.
1862: Many Chicanos enlist in the First Battalion of California Native Cavalry in the Civil War.
1862: New Mexican-join as volunteers in the Union Army in the Civil War.
1865: Violence flares between Anglos and Mexicans.
1871: Mesilla Riot, a violent election denies Col. Chavez his Congressional seat from New Mexico. Col. Chaves served as a surgeon in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He was murdered after this violent election.
1874: Tiburcio Vasquez is captured in Tehachapi Mountains North of Los Angeles.
1879: Racial tension flare in Phoenix when Mexican railroad workers settle in town.
1880: New Mexicans battle railroad workers.
1883: La Colonia Mexicana newspaper founded in Phoenix.
1903: 1,000 Japanese.and Mexican-sugar beet workers strike the Southern California.
1908: Anglos in Texas are complaining about the "Mexican Invasion,"
1910: Street car lines strike in Los Angeles Mexican workers are part of the strike.
1910: The Mexican Revolution.
1913: Weathland, California a violent strike in which Mexican workers were part of it. Mother Jones a supporter of the Mogon brother helped organized to, strike the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co. owned by John Rockefeller. 12,000 miners went on strike.
1914: Militiamen and company guards fired to the miner's camp, 18 people are killed. Twelve of them were Mexican children. The mine was owned by Rockefeller.
1915: 5,000 copper miners strike in Clifton, Morenci, and Met calf, Arizona.
1917: In Clifton-Morenci, Arizona 1,200 strikers are under up forced them to Bisbee, are loaded in cattle box, cars, taken them to Columus, New Mexico, the town refuses to let them come to town. They are taken to the New Mexico desert are abandoned without food or water. many were Mexican miners they were called "enemy Aliens"'
1922: Mexican grape pickers start a union near Fresno, California.
1924: More Mexican labor is imported. The farm journal referrers to Mexicans a "Mexican harvest,
1924:The Immigration Act of 1924 it was to restrict immigrants to this country due to the many strikes, it is known as the "Mexican Problem"
1927:Manuel Gamino reports in his Mexican immigration studies to Social Science Research Center.
1928:Confederacion de Uniones Obreras Mexicanos, labor union organized in California.
1929: L.U.L.A.C. League of United Latin American is founded in Texas.
1930: Independent School District V Salvatierra Del Rio, Texas. A Texas appellate court held that school authorities in Del Rio or anywhere else, have no power to segregate Mexican-American children "merely or solely because they are (Mexican-American)
1930: 5,000 farm workers strike in Imperial Valley. There was a lot of violence and mass deportation of Mexican strikers.1931:California passes a new law making it almost impossible for Mexicans to work in public construction jobs.
1933: Over 50,000 California farm workers take part in 30 major strikes.
1933: Pixley, California, two Mexican cotton strikers are killed and many deported in this strike.
1933: 7,000 Mexican farm workers walk out of the onion, berry and celery fields of Los Angeles county. There were many arrests and mass deportations.
1930-33: Due to the Depression and the continue strikes by Mexicans, Anglos began a campaign of terror and anti Mexicans claiming that they were taking the jobs of Americans and that they were in Welfare. By 1933 more than 50,000 were deported from Los Angeles alone. More than 300,000 were deported to Mexico, as a result of the "Mexican Problem~
1933: Asociacion de Jornaleros protest working conditions and harassment of union in lower Rio Grande Valley.
1934: YMCA hosts first annual Mexican Youth Conference in San Pedro California.
1934: Sheepherders strike in Texas.
1934: 6,000 pecan Sheller strike in San Antonio, Texas.
1935:Mexican coal miners strike at Gallup,.New Mexico there was a massive deportation.
1935:Dr. Stuart Jamison wrote. "The most effective agricultural labor unions were those organized among Mexicans."
1936: Mexican farmer-r-workers are involved in two strikes in Southern California, once again there was wholesale arrests and mass deportations.
1936: A strike of 2,500 Mexican farmer-workers tied up for several weeks a $20,000,000 citrus crop is Orange County. Over four hundred armedguards were recruited. Orange county was almost in a state of siege.
1937: 1,500 armed vigilantes break a cannery strike in Stockton, California.
1939: 6,000 Filipino and Mexican asparagus farmer-r-workers strike in Stockton.
1939: Mexican Congress organized in Los Angeles.
1941: U.S. declares war against Japan.
1942: Japanese Americans are removed to concentration camps.
1942: The Bracero, Program is implemented the first 1,500 Mexican workers arrive in Stockton, California. War's end. There were 250,000 imported Mexican workers helped in the war effort.
1942: 600 Mexicans are arrested in Los Angeles. Mexicans were blamed for the crime increase.
1942: The case of the "Sleepy Lagoon'.', Twelve Mexican youth are calledby the press "baby gangsters" or to pachucos" all are charged of murder.
1943: Two hundred sailors "The Sailors Task Force" and "Operation Dixie" went to Los Angeles and systematically beated up Mexican youth the so called "Zoot Suit". The police did not interfered but joined in beaten up Los "pachucos" this incident lasted for a whole week. The media dubbed it as the "Zoot Suit Riots. Thousands of people went in a rampage against any one that looked like zoot suiter, buses and street cars were stopped, movie houses were searched for "pachucos.". If they were found they would be stripped naked and beaten up. It was at a time when Mexico was the one good "neighbor." Mexico had supplies 250,000 workers, and as many as 500,000 Mexican-American were in the armed forces.
1945: Mendez V. Westminster School district of Orange county. Parents of Mexican students alleged that school officials were maintaining segregation.
1947: A strike against DiGorigo.
1947: Community Services Organization (CSO) was founded.
1948: American G.I. Forum is founded.
1948: Delgado V. The Bastrop Independent School District. The Federal court ruled that the segregation of Mexican American children is illegal.
1950: Los Angeles press calls Chicanos youth "rats" who run in "wolf packs" in anti-Chicano campaign.
1951: In Silver City New Mexico, miners of the Enterprise Co. Court injunction hits the striking,miners. Their wives maintain the picket line. Women and children were jailed. A movie was made about the strike called "Salt of the earth
1951: Gonzales V. Sheely Phoenix, Arizona. Segregation is illegal.
1951: Romero V. Weakley Segregation is illegal.
1953: "Operation Wet Back" massive deportations of Mexicans took place to step labor organizing by Mexican workers.
1955:, United Packing house workers of America organize lettuce workers in Imperial Valley and Yuma.
1966: Alinazistas march from Alburquerque, to Santa Fe.
1967: El Grito a Chicano journal is founded in Berkeley, and in Los Angeles the newspaper Loa Raza,is also founded.
1968: East Los Angeles blowouts. Chicano students boycott the school in protest of discrimination.
*1965: Filipino grape pickers go on strike in Deleno, California, they are joined by NFWA led by Cesar Chavez.
1969: La Raza Unida Party is founded.
*1965: Crusade for Justice is founded by Rudy "Corcky" Gonzales.
1969: California court rules farmer-r-workers don't be fired for labor organizing
1970: National Moratorium against the war in Vietnam. Los Angeles police attacked and three people were killed. Angel D"as, Lyn Ward and journalist Ruben Salazar.
1970: Two La Raza Unida candidates win in Crystal City, Texas.
1970: Lettuce field workers strike in Center, Colorado.
1970: Sisneros V. Corpus Christy Independent School District. The Court held that placing Blacks and Mexican-Americans in the same school did not achieved a unitary system.
1970: Perez V. San Angelo School District in Texas. The Court held that it is a violation of the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to maintain by custom or regulation segregated schools for Blacks and Mexican-Americans.
1970: 7,000 the UFW calls for a strike in Salinas and Santa Maria1970 Lettuce workers strike in Center, Colorado.
1970 Police murder two Mexicanos in Los Angeles "mistake" raid and shooting.
1973: Teamsters Union signs sweet heart contracts with Cochella grape growers, 1,000 UFW members vote to go in strike.
1973: Gallo signs contract with the Teamsters, without taking a vote. Most of the workers went on strike.

These are only a few of the events in our history that deserve a place in El Calendario Chicano. El Calendario Chicano belongs to the people who have made and are making Chicano history.

Bibliographies: Carey McWilliams North from Mexico, Greenwood Press, Publishers New York 1968
Chicano Cumnications Center, 450 years of Chicano History Alburquerque,New Mexico. 1976
Quinto Sol Publications, El Grito, A Quinto Sol Book, Berkeley, CA. 1973
Rodolfo Acuna, Occupied America, Canfield Press, San Francisco, CA. 1970

A special recognition to the historian Carey McWilliams for recording our struggle.

http://www.albany.edu/talkinghistory/arch2000jan-june.html

April 20, 2000
Segment 1: "The Gallup 14."

From KUNM in Albequerque, New Mexico, Marcos Martinez interviews author Gary Stuart about his recent work of historical fiction that chronicles events in 1930's Gallup New Mexico, then a major US coal-mining area. Drawing on historical documents and interviews with local residents, Stuart tells the stories of a miner's strike, a riot, the murder of a local sheriff, and a famous trial that tried to assign blame for the killing.