Friends, internet QVO-Radio/QVO-Magazine published this article late summer 2005 with a bucket of historical pics. So many that my name and some of the narrative got lost in that plethora of Chicano imagery. It’s still online at http://www.qvoradio.com/Frank_Lechuga.html . But if you just want to get to the meat of the narrative and savor my story, here it is . . .
PART ONE
A Chicano’s Perspective on the Summer of Love, 1967
Reflections of an Elder and Survivor of the Counterculture
When I was in Monterey, California last year, attending my second daughter’s wedding reception I had the opportunity to look back to when I first drove my lowered ‘59 Chevy Impala from L.A. to San Francisco up the Pacific Coast Highway, through El Gran Sur, giving rides to hitchhiking hippies. I had just completed my freshman year at what was then San Fernando Valley State College and already had some activist experience under my belt through the campus chapter of U.M.A.S., (United Mexican American Students-the predecessor to M.E.Ch.A.) mostly picketing on behalf la Huelga.
Big Sur, California
It was the summer of 1968 and my destination was Haight-Ashbury and San Francisco. I did not know it then that the Summer of Love had already come and gone, and that the Haight-Ashbury scene was dead. I did not know that I was being drawn to an unprecedented wave of cultural and social change. I was being drawn to the counterculture. Some would call it a renaissance. Conservatives thought communists and pinkos had America under siege. The culture wars had started.
In the spring of 1969, I took a trip to Denver, Colorado with some homeboys from San Fernando, California. We went to attend the First National Chicano Liberation Youth Conference.
What is the connection between these two journeys other than that they were undertaken by the same young vato seeking meaning, purpose and adventure? Well, to see the connection you need to see the big picture of what America was like for Chicanos . . . Latinos if you will . . . before the 1967 Summer of Love. (Continued in Part Two).
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In 1967,while still at Belmont High School, before that summer, a Russian girl recently migrated, stood up in class to a political science teacher and university graduate , who objected to the Chicano High School Walkouts taking root in all East Side High Schools, led by a Chicano teacher, Mr. Sal Castro. The instructor labeled Sal Castro a communist and so all others willing to follow the Walkouts. As she stood up, she protested and replied in high tone, ” I rather be a communist than a racist as you are”, and turned to everyone and scanned the room as I stood up and we both walked out. Other students followed and from then on at the following High School Walkout, we supported Mr. Sal Castro and the East Side High Schools. As a consequence we were barred from assistance by our counselors and all our applications to any college or universities were denied. At that time, after graduation, my other choice was enlisting in the Army and after registration to the Selective Service, I was called by a counselor from San Fernando Valley State College, to enroll in college. I did enrolled and the love story began.
Thanks, carnal. I welcome your sharing this history. Our story has to be told!
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