Denver teens attend this Latino leadership event.
“ I shed tears of anguish
As I see my children disappear
Behind the shroud of mediocrity
Never to look back to remember me.
I am Joaquin.
I must fight
And win this struggle
For my sons, and they
Must know from me Who I am”
On Friday March 20th, 2009 an excerpt from I am Joaquin by “Corky” Gonzales was read to a crowd of over 500 students at the annual “Corky” Gonzales Symposium, which took place in the Tivoli Student Union at the Auraria Campus in Downtown Denver.
The symposium is held every year to commemorate two of Denver’s most important Chicano activism events: The West High School Blowout and the First National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference. This event brings together Latino students from many of the metro area high schools and colleges. “The goal of this event is to empower the students attending with a sense of pride in, and awareness of, their cultural identity,” said Ramon “Bones” Castillo, the Co-Chair and one of the organizers of the event.
The name of the symposium comes from one of Denver’s best known and most admired Chicano rights activist, Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. Gonzales was a political activist honored in the Latino community for all of the work he did for the rights of underrepresented and “enslaved” Chicano and Latino individuals. “I want our Latinos to find their place in the world. We want them to be leaders not assimilated followers,” said Memo Gonzales, Corky’s oldest son and a new leader in the Chicano community. “Corky” was born in Denver on June 18th, 1928. He was the youngest of eight children who grew up in an east side barrio in Denver during the Depression.
Gonzales was the son of two immigrants who came from southern Mexico and worked in beet and onion fields. He spent his entire school career working along with his parents while still managing to graduate from high school at the age of 16. He then became an amateur national champion in boxing and is known as one of the highest ranked featherweight fighters in the world.
After his career in boxing, Gonzales founded the Crusade for Justice Movement. This became one of the most important civil rights and cultural movements in the Latino and Chicano communities. The Crusade was and is still known as the Chicano Movement which fought for the nationalism of Chicanos. Gonzales got his point across to the communities and the media by holding high school walkouts, such as the West High School Blowout, demonstrations against police brutality, and helped in legal cases involving Chicanos and immigrants. He wanted better housing, education, and less discrimination for the Latino people. “As a worker alongside Corky I know he was always wiling to help the community. He wanted the best for his people and the best for the children who now come to these events,” said Carlota Espinoza, an inspiring activist and muralist who came all the way from San Francisco to be part of the symposium.
Corky Gonzales is also credited as one of the organizers of the Annual Chicano Youth Conference, which is still taking place today, and helps young Latinos express the views they have on their communities and earn a college education. The Conference helped form La Raza Youth Leadership Program, and Colorado’s Raza Unida Party. Gonzales was an important part of the Latino and Chicano history which took place in Colorado, and which many people still don’t know about today. His memory is an inspiration to all civil rights activists and is not recognized enough for the work he accomplished here. Gonzales passed away on January 2005, nearly half a century after he began his legacy as a civil rights leader.
The symposium brings together all of the history behind the name of “Corky” Gonzales and teaches students about many of the issues going on today in our communities. The organizers try to focus on issues in the life of today’s Latinos, such as Hip Hop as a social and political voice, heritage, Barrio youth, student-led walkouts, and over-representation of Latino’s in prison. Each issue was organized into a workshop in which the students were allowed to have hands-on participation. “I think that to help what is going on in these streets we need to have the kids learn about it. You cannot help a situation by turning your back on it,” said Castillo.
The symposium is organized by people who wish to help “La Raza” (The people: a common term used to describe people of Latin descent) to say united. They wish to create Latino leaders who educate and help other Latinos. By teaching future generations about the unity of their people, the economy, education, self-defense and the right way to defend each other, and their culture and political liberation, they plant a seed for help and understanding between each other. “By learning about your culture, the people of your heritage, this society and all the little items that make it up, you learn to live. You can’t understand tomorrow without knowing about today or yesterday,” said Espinoza. As they repeated throughout the presentations and workshops, “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de esta La Raza nada.” For our people everything. Away from our people [we do] nothing.
