Sinatra’s political associations became more conservative as part of the backlash against the counterculture. He backed Nixon’s 1972 reelection.

Imagine my surprise when I learned that his song, “The House I Live In,” served as an anthem of the multicultural, post-World War II left.

Such are the joys of research.

It started with a small notice from 1948. Under the predictable headline, “Idol of the schoolgirls,” La Prensa, New York City’s Spanish-language daily newspaper, ran a photo of the young Sinatra and reported that he would appear at a theater on 125th Street, not far from Spanish Harlem, as the cultural center of Latino New York was then known.

Archival research showed that in the previous year, 1947, the Cervantes Society, a fraternal order affiliated with the International Workers Order (IWO), had shown a film of Sinatra singing “The House I Live In” as part of its cultural program.

Image the setting. Five hundred Latinos gathered for the national meeting of the largely Puerto Rican fraternal society in New York. Leoncio Peña, editor of Liberación, spoke, as did society president Jesús Colon, recognized by historians as an icon within El Barrio.

The cultural program included fifty children dressed in the clothes of their ancestral homeland, including Cuba, Haiti, Panama, and Puerto Rico. The group then showed the movie.

At a time when some associated Americanism with being white, Protestant, and middle class, Sinatra created a more populist image of the U.S. as incorporating the working class and people of all races, religions, and ethnicities.

His song, “The House I Live In,” included these lines: “The grocer and the butcher, and the people that I meet
/ The children in the playground, the faces that I see
/All races and religions, that’s America to me.”

The short movie was released in 1945 and written by Albert Maltz and produced by Frank Ross and actor Frank Sinatra to oppose prejudice at the end of World War II. 
It received a special Academy Award in 1946.

About the same time the Cervantes Society was showing the movie short in New York City, the Committee for the Organization of the Mexican People (COMP) was screening it in El Paso, Texas.

COMP’s short-term political objective was to motivate Mexican Americans to pay the poll tax, the prerequisite of voting for one of their own for public office.

These largely forgotten organizations and a little-remembered movie connected Latino activists to each other and to the larger progressive community after World War II, with its wartime Fair Employment Practices Commission and the extreme example of theories of racial superiority espoused by Nazi Germany.

Almost seven decades later, the United States still struggles with diversity and ever-changing demographics. This short movie provides a powerful reminder of the long struggle for social justice.

For some, it may also provide a new perspective on Sinatra and the efforts of early Puerto Rican, Mexican American, and other Latino activists to create a more just society.

The Hollywood-produced short is viewable via this link.

]]> http://kennethburt.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1301 1 http://kennethburt.com/blog/?p=1225 http://kennethburt.com/blog/?p=1225#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:58:18 +0000 Ken http://kennethburt.com/blog/?p=1225 Continue reading →]]> For 10 days in June of 1943, soldiers and sailors stationed in Los Angeles targeted young Mexican Americans in the infamous Zoot Suit Riots. The clash is widely regarded as a symbol of racism, and a sign of World War II home front anxiety, as was antiblack rioting in Detroit and other cities during the same period.

Historians have long stressed the role of sensational headlines in the Hearst-owned newspapers. It has also been noted that papers in Latin America covered the conflict, thereby complicating the U.S. Good Neighbor Policy at a time when the Allies were pursuing hemispheric unity against Nazi Germany.

Now, some 70 years later, a cache of documents has emerged that illustrate the wide coverage the event received in the nation’s capitol. Mrs. Hobart Bosworth—wife of the early Hollywood actor and an advocate for servicemen needing housing, recreational activities, and other basic services—saved a file folder full of articles that were made available to this writer.

The Washington Daily News ran the most sensational headlines.

“High Officials Act to Halt Zoot Suit War,” an Associated Press story, made page 1 in the Washington Post on June 10, 1943 (the day before the banner headline pictured above). It citied a series of actions by government leaders at the local, state, national, and international level:

“Governor Earl issued an appeal for the ending of the rioting” . . . “In Washington, Rafael de la Colina, minister-counselor of the Mexican Embassy, expressed indignation” . . . “Mayor Fletcher Bowron of Los Angeles said he had been telephoned by the State Department in Washington.”

The following day, the Post, one of several newspapers in the capital city, editorialized on the situation based on reported information. The paper posited that the core problem was economic and not racial, but acknowledged that the riots had already complicated international relations. Furthermore, the paper, while assuming the root cause of the problem as juvenile delinquency, did express concern when “vigilantes wear uniforms” and unflatteringly compared the disturbances with “uniformed rowdies in Italy, Germany and elsewhere.”

Here is the Washington Post editorial, “Zoot Suit,” in its entirety:

“The West Coast naval authorities have, it seems to us, shown great wisdom in their decision to make the whole city of Los Angeles forbidden territory to sailors on shore leave. This has followed the recent disorders between servicemen and gangs of fantastically clad young muggers. If the stories of assault, robbery and mayhem are correct, it would seem that the soldiers and sailors had plenty of provocation. It would also seem that they began to take reprisals only after the mugging had got beyond the control of the local police.

“All the same vigilantism is a dangerous form of correction, especially when the vigilantes wear uniforms and act on their responsibilities. The muggers, too, wear a kind of uniform called a zoot suit, which enables the outraged sailors to distinguish them from presumably peaceful civilians. And yet it is conceivable, though incongruous, that the wearer of a zoot suit might be otherwise inoffensive and law abiding. Nevertheless, the Los Angeles City Council has now decreed the wearing of a zoot suit to be a misdemeanor punishable by a 30-day jail sentence. The constitutionality of such an ordinance is doubtful, since it sounds like depriving citizens of the use of property without due process of law. Moreover, it is difficult to see how the ordinance will help matters much, since the Army and Navy cannot be expected to complicate the job of their military police and shore patrols by removing the uniforms from enlisted men on leave.

“The whole situation is full of explosive possibilities. It suggests a quasi-anarchic state of affairs, and too easily recalls the street fighting between groups of uniformed rowdies in Italy, Germany and elsewhere. As far as we can discover, the Los Angeles rioting has no political overtones, but it might easily and quickly acquire them. A large portion of these zoot-suit muggers are young Mexicans and young Negroes, a fact which has already produced unpleasant international repercussions. This racial complication is merely incidental. It mainly arises because the economic situation of the Mexican and Negro elements of Los Angeles offers a most favorable milieu for that increase in juvenile delinquency which has been noted in nearly all sections of the country.

“Thus it is well to remember that the phenomenon of muggerism is by no means confined to Los Angeles and that it is reported in parts of the country where there are no Mexicans and few Negroes, and that it constitutes one of our most formidable national problems.”

*     *     *

The CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations) was one group with political influence in Washington to side with the Mexican American community in the conflict. The CIO had aggressively organized Latino workers in a variety of industries, from canneries to mines to maritime trades, and had helped organize the Spanish Speaking Peoples Congress in 1938.

CIO President Philip Murray, acting at the request of the Los Angeles CIO Council (with Jaime Gonzalez Monroy heading its civil rights committee), stated in a letter to President Roosevelt:

“The agents of our enemies in this country and in our allied nations of Latin America are already making full use of these shameful outbreaks of in their propaganda against us and against the cause of the United Nations. They are pointing to the treatment of citizens of Latin-American extraction and of Negroes to bolster their claim that the United States is not sincere in its war aims or in its professions of friendship and quality among nations.”

Murray was quoted as saying that the situation in Los Angles warranted the president’s “personal attention.” In “CIO Asks President Act in ‘Zoot’ Cases,” New York Times, June 20, 1943, the national labor leader called upon numerous federal agencies and bodies, including the Department of Justice, Office of War Information, and the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs to engage the issue.

The CIO’s basic argument, extolled in greater detail in issues of the Labor Herald in Los Angeles, was that the unrest was instigated by foreign saboteurs seeking to disrupt wartime unity. This argument had the advantage of not applying the racist label to U.S. troops at a time when labor was rallying support for the war effort.

 *     *     *

For those interested in learning more about this dynamic period, here are the relevant citations:

“Mechanized Attack on the Zoot-Suiters,” Washington Daily News, June 8, 1943, p. 1. “Service Men Sought Revenge: Irate Soldiers Blitz Zoot-Suit Wearers,” Washington Daily News, June 8, 1943, p. 6.

“Los Angele Sailors Rout ‘Zoot Suiters’ in New Street Fights: 50 Stripped of Clothes Before Reinforced Police Dispense Crowd,” Washington Daily News, June 8, 1943, p. 5.

“Los Angeles Out of Bounds: Zoot Suiters Going Hog Wild, Attempt to Kill Policeman,” Washington Daily News, June 9, 1943, p. 4.

“Zoot Suit Warfare in Los Angeles Quiets: Hoodlum Gangs Absent from Downtown Area,” (Washington, D.C.) Evening Star, June 9, 1943, p. 4.

“High Officials Act to Halt Zoot Suit War: State Department Takes Hand in Touchy West Coast Problem,” Washington Post, June 10, 1943, p. 1.

“Hobble Skirts Hide Razors: Zoot Suiters Run for Cover but Their ‘Cholitas’ Carry On,” Washington Daily News, June 11, 1943, p. 5.

“Zoot Suit Cubs Diagnosed as Maladjusted,” Washington Daily News, June 11, 1943, p. 5.

“ZOOT WAR CALLED ‘NEAR ANARCHY’: Armed Police Patrol City in Effort to Stem Fighting: ‘Black Widow’ Girls Beat, Slash Woman; Soldiers, Civilians Enter Private Homes,” Washington Post, June 11, 1943, p. 1.

Editorial, “Zoot Suit,” Washington Post, June 11, 1943, p. 10.

“The Cop Drove the Surplus Home: Zooters Call Off Their War Under Folds of the U.S. Flag,” Washington Daily News, June 12, 1943, p. 5.

“Skidrow Castaways: ‘L.A. Needs Bombing,’ Bitter Sailors Groan,” Washington Daily News, June 12, 1943, p. 5.

“CIO Asks President Act in ‘Zoot’ Cases: Murray Lays the Riots on Los Angeles to an Enemy Plot to Foment Racial Outbreaks; LOOKS TO LATIN AMERICA: And There, He Says, the Axis Pushes Its Claim We Are Not Sincere in Equality Talk,” New York Times, June 20, 1943, p. 14.

“Zoot Suit Riot Probers Ask More Recreation: Augmented Police Force Also Recommended by Los Angeles Group,” Evening Star, June 23, 1943, p. 2.

New book includes Burt essay on Latino politics.

I am proud to write that Professor Robert Stanley Oden has included an essay of mine,  “Latino Los Angeles: The Promise of Politics,” in his new  anthology, California Politics: Shifting Majorities, Emerging Minorities (San Diego: Cognella Academic Publishing, 2011).

California Politics provides an important look into the history and current development of racial, ethnic, and cultural minority groups as well as coalition politics in the diverse state. Oden goes beyond the usually emphasis on Latinos, African Americans, and Asian Pacific Islanders to include an essay on Gays and Lesbians, a significant electoral and cultural force in the state.

Oden, in his introduction, describes my essay in the book thusly:

“The second chapter focuses on the city of Los Angeles and the region known as the Los Angeles Basin. Los Angeles is highlighted in this anthology for obvious reasons: it is the second largest city in the U.S. and its region houses close to 40% of the population in California.

“Economically, politically and culturally, Los Angeles sets the tone for the entire state and in many cases for the U.S. The influence of Los Angeles in the late 20th century, as a multicultural, mega-metropole with an enormous Latino population, is highly significant.

“Kenneth Burt’s essay, ‘Latino Los Angeles: The Promise of Politics,’ from a book edited by Martin Schiesl and Mark Dodge, City of Promise: Race and Historical Change in Los Angeles (2006), discusses the historical emergence of Latino electoral politics in Los Angeles.

“The important political work of Edward Roybal is discussed, as well as the community organization efforts he led, and the Community Service Organization (CSO) which helped elect Roybal as the first Latino to the City Council since Gold Rush days.

Burt assiduously details the role played by Roybal and others in creating a Latino political machine in Los Angeles, a machine which had defeats as well as victories, and eventually created opportunities for the election of many prominent Chicanos to political office in Los Angeles and surrounding areas.

“Burt points to the election of current mayor Antonio Villaraigosa as evidence of the Latino-labor coalition forged by the late Miguel Contreras, the former head of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.”

Interesting, the number of Hispanic legislators was much greater during the New Deal period. Five served during the Roosevelt years: Herman J. Atencio (1933-1939), Alejandro M. Guerrero (1935-1937), Juan Noriega (1936-1940), Daniel Vigil (1941-1943), and Frank Lacombe (1943-1946).

The following portrait of Gallegos is reprinted from Colorado: Latin American Personalities, a wonderful little pamphlet published back in 1959.

*     *     *

Bert A. Gallegos is a man with a purpose, and the zeal and courage to make his dream come true. He believes is civic and political responsibility for all persons, and especially for the Latin American community.

As a practicing attorney and a leading member of the Colorado House of Representatives, Gallegos has and is continuing to make a direct and valuable contribution to better the life of his group.

He came up from Pueblo, where he was born in 1924, and educated in elementary and high school, to attend Colorado University at Boulder on a scholarship. He won the scholarship for hard studying and top grades, one of many given each year by the State Education Department.

Gallegos early developed an intense liking for people, for the excitement and activity of social organizations. Becoming an inveterate joiner, he soon was a leader in many organizations.

Graduating from C.U. with a major in Economics, he decided that the law profession would be his career. Accordingly, he went back to C.U. to add a law degree to his honors, and again won a scholarship to help pay the tuition.

Since 1950, he has been a successful attorney and has served with distinction in the State Legislature. He has helped author and fight for legislation requiring fair employment practices, establishing the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Commission and widening its powers to halt bias in jobs, housing and in the courts.

“Members of the Latin Community ought to take a greater part in civic and political life. If we had better representation in all social activities—and I don’t mean just in politics—we could do so much more. Women need to join civic and welfare groups.” And he adds, almost wistfully:

“In many groups, I’m the only member representing the Latin community. There should be many more.”

And, truly, there should be many, many more like Bert A. Gallegos.

New biography tells a wonderful personal story and provides a powerful warning to the Republican Party on why they have trouble courting Hispanics.

Martinez’s story is chronicled in Richard E. Foglesong’s new biography, Immigrant Prince: Mel Martinez and the American Dream(University Press of Florida, 2011).

A page-turner, Immigrant Prince is both heartwarming and coldly analytical in examining the man who, for many, came to encapsulate the American Dream as well as the failed Republican Party’s efforts to incorporate Hispanics into a “big tent.”

The story begins in Cuba in 1962 where, at age 15, Martinez bids farewell to his parents and friends and heads for the United States in one of the opening acts in a drama known as Operation Peter Pan, a now-famous resettlement program run by the Catholic Church.

But instead of being dropped off in the growing Cuban enclave of Miami, as was the experience of most Peter Panners, he was placed with Anglo foster families in Orlando, a central Florida community with few ethnic residents.

Martinez excelled in the Anglo world. He married his college sweetheart, Kitty, a Southern belle from Alabama, and became a U.S. citizen, a Democrat, and a successful trial attorney in Orlando.

Ronald Reagan proved decisive in Martinez’s switch to the Republican Party and to the rise of the Miami-based Cuban community.

With the help of newly organized Puerto Ricans who moved to central Florida, Martinez was elected Orange County chair in Orlando as a moderate to the officially nonpartisan post. He raised his profile in 1999 and emotionally connected to fellow Cuban refugees when he deftly invited the young Elian Gonzalez to join him at Disney World.

Martinez became more partisan and willing to adopt conservative positions as he rose in power and became the central figure in the George Bush–Karl Rove national Hispanic Republican outreach strategy.

He campaign alongside Bush in Florida during the 2000 election and the president-elect, knowing he would need Hispanic voters to be reelected, named him Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). As secretary, he focused on increasing minority home ownership and addressing Hispanic organizations.

With Bush’s assistance, Martinez rapidly became a United States senator and general chair of the National Republican Committee.

The ultimate career test came on the issue of immigration reform in 2007. Following the failure of Kennedy-McCain, Martinez sought to craft a new bipartisan compromise with the active backing of the Bush White House. This reform effort was undermined first by House Republicans; instead of courting moderates and Hispanics, they tried to animate their conservative, anti-immigrant base for the 2008 election cycle.

Soon thereafter Martinez resigned from the Senate and as general chair of the Republican Party. He announced that he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Martinez’s decision not to complete a full term in the Senate represented a sad ending for an otherwise fabled career. The personal attacks he endured from fellow Republicans during the immigration debate also provided a powerful warning. Far too many conservatives remained hostile to efforts to woo moderate Hispanics.

Ultimately, Martinez’s Senate position remained in the hands of a Hispanic Republican—but one with a far more radical agenda: In 2010 Florida voters elected Marco Rubio, a Tea Party supporter opposed to comprehensive immigration reform.

Janet Weaver’s article on Mexican American activism in Davenport, Iowa, is a gem.

She interviewed activists who were involved in the United Farm Workers’ boycott committee in the late sixties and early seventies and traced their political development back to the 1940s and 1950s.

Not surprisingly, she found that a number of key leaders had been involved in CIO-affiliated unions and that the UFW militancy harkened back to the glory days of industrial unionism.

The activists had also been active in a variety of civil rights and political organizations. These included the GI Forum and LULAC, social justice groups associated with the Catholic Church, Viva Kennedy, and the Midwest Council of La Raza. They also lobbied state legislatures on behalf of migrant farm workers.

Henry Vargas served on the first Davenport Human Relations Committee, and John Terronez was the first Mexican American appointee on the Iowa State Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

Here is the author-provided link to her article, “From Barrio to ‘Boicoteo!’: The Emergence of Mexican American Activism in Davenport, 1917–1970,” in The Annals of Iowa 68 (Summer 2009).

President Barack Obama extended his sympathy to surviving family members: “Michelle and I were saddened to learn of the passing of Richard Estrada Chavez. . . . I was honored to have Richard visit the Oval Office last year on Cesar Chavez Day with other family members, and will never forget the stories they shared.”

Newspapers from coast to coast ran obituaries. The Los Angeles Times reported: “Richard Chavez oversaw construction of the union hall at UFW headquarters in Delano, Calif., and was first director of the National Farm Workers Service Center in 1966, providing social services for farm workers. He also designed the black eagle emblem that is the union’s insignia in 1962, and put up his house as collateral for a loan that helped capitalize the union’s credit union.”

It is a testament to his pioneering work and the increased clout of the Latino community that Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis attended the funeral as the president’s representative. There was also a personal connection. Chavez and Huerta campaigned for Solis in Los Angeles, where she served as a state legislator and then a member of Congress.

For photos from the event see the post by the Bakersfield Californian.

Less remembered is Richard Chavez’s role in community organizing prior to the UFW. This was the subject of my conversation with him. Richard Chavez organized a chapter of the Community Service Organization (CSO) in Kern County in the early 1950s. He campaigned for Edward Roybal in his race to become, in 1954, California’s first Latino lieutenant governor in modern times.