- Carlos Montes
Carlos Montes was a co-founder of the
Brown Berets , aChicano working class youth organization in the United States in the late 1960s and 1970s. The Brown Berets were inspired by and often compared to theBlack Panther Party . Montes was one of the leaders of theChicano Blowouts , a series ofwalkout s ofEast Los Angeles high schools to protest racism and inequality in Los Angeles-area high schools. He is portrayed in the 2006 HBO movie "Walkout".The agenda of the Brown Berets was to fight police harassment, inadequate public schools inadequate health care, inadequate job opportunities, minority education issues , the lack of political representation, and the
Vietnam War . It had a 13 poniit program that included self determination for Chicanos. It set up branches in Texas, New Mexico, New York, Florida, Chicago, St. Louis and other metropolitan areas with Chicano populations.Montes was indicted twice for the ELA Blowout knon as the ELA 13 and later with 10 others for cospiracy to commit arson by the
LAPD at a demonstration against then Governor Regan in 1969. After threats against his life and beatings by the policeand many arrests on false charges he went underground and lived in Mexico and later Juarez and El Paso where he did labor organizing. He was, rearrested in May 1977 and tried. However, a competent legal defense with community support and a defense committee he was found not guilty of all charges. The Walkout indictedmnet was thrown out of court as been unconstitutional.Montes remains an activist and is a leader of Latinos Against War, a
Latino antiwar organization based in Los Angeles and a member of theMarch 25 Coalition .cite web
last =
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authorlink =
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title =Announcements
work =Latinos Against War website
publisher =Latinos Against War
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url =http://web.mac.com/clshc/Latinos_Against_the_War_in_Iraq/Announcements.html
format =HTML
doi =
accessdate =2007-11-30]References
ee also
*
Chicano Moratorium External links
* [http://www.fightbacknews.org/2003winter/brownberets.htm Interview with Carlos Montes About the Brown Berets] (Winter 2003)
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