April 16, 1999
The 29th annual
Chicano Park Day, celebrating the takeover of the park by Chicano
activists in 1970, takes place on Saturday, April 24, 1999 from
10 a.m. until 5 p.m. at the park located in the Barrio Logan community.
The park's powerful mural paintings exhibit themes of Mexican history and struggle and are recognized world wide as a preeminent public art site. This annual celebration is free and open to the public.
The theme for the 1999 commemoration is "Resistance, Unity and Power." The Chicano Park Steering Committee reminds everyone that the struggle to obtain the park is the same struggle we fight now to gain our human rights, liberty and dignity.
The celebration includes:
Movimiento Speakers, Danza, Ballet Folklorico, Cultural Exhibits, Films, Workshops, Live Bands, DJ's, Lowriders, Poetry, and much more.
Performers include:
Music: Aztlán Underground, East L.A. Sabor Factory, High Vibe, Galactic, Agua Dulce, Zia, Power Play, Los Pochos, Storm, Koryn Cuevas, Inka Show, Los Romanticos, Daniel Valdez, and others.
Dance: Ballet Folklorico Yaqui, Danza Zaachila, Aztec Danza hosted by Danza Mexi'coyotl, Ballet Folk-lorico de Sherman Heights Community Center, Ballet Folklorico en Aztlán, La Presa International Dance Club, and others.
Poetry organized by Calaca Press:
Manuel J. Vélez, Daniel Sánchez-Glazer, Chuy Quintero,
and others.
Speakers: Herminia Enri-que - Chicana elder, Roberto Martínez - U.S./Mexico Border Project, and speakers from the Chicano Park Steering Committee, the Brown Berets de Aztlán, Unión del Barrio and others.
A Lowrider Car Show organized by the Amigos Car Club will also
be presented.
A brief history of Chicano Park
Chicano Park was founded on April 22, 1970 when the community of Barrio Logan and Chicano movement activists joined forces to protest the construction of a Highway Patrol station on the present site of the park. The Highway Patrol office was at the time the final insult to a community that had already been degraded by the demolition of hundreds of homes to make way for Interstate 5, the Coronado Bridge, the placement of toxic industries and junkyards, lack of community facilities, proper schools, jobs, social or medical services.
Protesters led by the Brown Berets, community activists, artists, M.E.Ch.A. and others took over the site and faced police and bulldozers for days while negotiations took place that resulted in the land being given over for a community park. In the following days and months similar actions by the same groups led to the forming of a Chicano Free Clinic, now known as the Logan Heights Family Health Center, and the Centro Cultural de la Raza in Balboa Park.
The struggle for Chicano Park came to symbolize the Chicano Mexicano people's struggle for self-determination and self-empowerment. The murals in the park painted by Chicano artists such as Victor Orozco Ochoa, Mario Torero, Salvador "Queso" Torres, José Mon-toya and many others portray the social, political and cultural issues that form the struggle for the liberation of Chicano Mexicanos.
¡Que viva Chicano Park!
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