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GUESTS: Jaime Cruz, Coordinator, National Chicano Moratorium Committee, Elizabeth Chavez, MEChA and student at East LA College

This Saturday, activists are planning for a march and rally in East Los Angeles in commemoration of the Chicano Moratorium. Thirty-six years ago, on August 29th 1970, the largest ever anti-war demonstration organized and attended by Chicanos in the US took place in East Los Angeles. More than twenty thousand protestors marched against the war and its destructive effects in the Chicano community. As demonstrators converged on Laguna Park, hundreds of helmeted police advanced and attacked the peaceful crowd without warning. Numerous people were injured, over two hundred were arrested and three were killed, including Ruben Salazar, a Los Angeles Times columnist and news director for KMEX TV. Ruben Salazar was covering the Chicano Moratorium and witnessed many of the disturbing events regarding police behavior. Each year since the first Chicano Moratorium, activists have commemorated the historic march.

The march will take place on Saturday August 26th, from 9 AM – 12 noon in Belvedere Park (corner of 1st Street and Mednik). A rally and program will follow from 12 noon – 5 pm at Salazar Park (corner of Whittier and Ditman).

For more information, contact jcruzor1@aol.com, or partido_nacional@yahoo.com.

Also, Luis Valdez’s historic 1971 play “SOLDADO RAZO,” a story of a young man about to go to war in Vietnam during the 1960s will be performed at The Museum and Theater Center, 514 So. Spring St., for a four week-end run starting on Friday, August 25, 2006 at 8 p.m.

“SOLDADO RAZO,” performances will be held on Friday and Saturday nights at 8 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3 p.m. Dates include: August 25, 26, 27;
September 1, 2, 3; September 8, 9, 10, and September 15, 16. A special performance will be held at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, August 29 to commemorate the 36th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium. For reservations call (213) 626-7600.