View from the Pier
Herman Sillas

Hey, UCLA finally legitimatized me last month. Back in the ‘50s, I attended the Westwood university campus and graduated with a B.A. in political science. Not able to find a country that was willing to let me lead it, I enrolled in UCLA’s law school.

Then I opened my one-man law office in Los Angeles, praying for clients. In the height of the turbulent ‘60s and with a last name like Sillas, I attracted Chicano activists as clients. Hey, I was the new lawyer on the block and young Chicanos needed help. They were shaking up the establishment asking for better schools, housing, employment, and elimination of discrimination. The civil rights movement was in full swing and Los Angeles was recovering from the Watts Riots of 1965. LAPD feared that Chicanos would riot next.

It was a perfect setting for a young lawyer. Too many Chicanos were not graduating from high schools and they attributed it to more than just poor grades. They had enough education to know their Constitutional Rights. So the battle for change was on.

The other conflict in full swing was the internal struggle going on within each Chicano. He and she wrestled with the two cultures that swirled within, their parents’ Mexican culture on the one hand and the American culture encountered all around them. Eventually, Chicanos figured it out. They were a new entity created from the two cultures. One thing was certain, they were Americans and demanded the rights given to all Americans.

By the 1970s, some had entered the professional ranks, government positions, the movie industry, and educational institutions as teachers and professors. In the ‘80s, the focus was on business. By that time, Chicanos had learned that it takes money to change things. The media no longer referred to them as Chicanos. The new label was “Hispanic.” The term seemed less threatening. Hispanic names appeared in the news and they weren’t always linked to crime. They were elected officials, principals, school superintendents, teachers, engineers, and business leaders.

At universities courses were being offered about the Black, Chicano, and Asian experiences in the United States. The classrooms became filled with students eager to learn of their heritage. Standard American history books didn’t reflect those experiences. As the number of Hispanics increased on campus so did the number of Chicano courses.

By the ‘90s the new label given to Hispanics was “Latinos.” By this time I had been a “Mexican American,” “Chicano,” “Hispanic” and “Latino.” Yet, my kids still called me “Dad” and my wife called me “Honey.” Boy, are they all messed up.

On May 24, 2005 UCLA celebrated its establishment of the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies. Chancellor Albert Carnesale praised the efforts of the students and professors who had committed themselves to expand the knowledge of all Americans to include all those who have contributed to our nation. Dr. Reynaldo F. Macías, the Founding Chair of the department, reviewed the struggle to make the studies program a department. A hunger strike in 1993 was the turning point. One hundred seventy-two students now major in Chicano studies at UCLA.

I looked around among the assembled 500 and saw old friends. A former congressman and ambassador, professors, and teachers mingled and talked of the old days. Young students, many only speaking English, listened to us old guys reminisce about the struggle.

A young Latina in UCLA’s administration joyously reviewed her campaign experience volunteering for LA’s new mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. I smiled and reflected on the frustrated young Chicanos I had met in my law offices during the ‘60s. We had now become legitimatized. I can hardly wait to see what the media calls us next. It might be just an American.

(Sillas, a San Clemente resident and L.A. attorney, fishes at the pier most weekend mornings. He can be reached at: editor@hispaniclink.org)

© 2005, Hispanic Link News Service
07/17/05
END