{"id":5060454,"date":"2022-01-16T19:35:38","date_gmt":"2022-01-17T00:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rilatinonews.com\/?p=5060454"},"modified":"2022-01-16T19:35:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T00:35:38","slug":"martin-luther-king-jr-and-the-latino-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/latinonewsnetwork.com\/riln\/2022\/01\/16\/martin-luther-king-jr-and-the-latino-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Martin Luther King Jr. and the Latino Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

As the country commemorates the life of Martin Luther King Jr.; his work in advancing the causes of African Americans \u2013 we tend to forget how he also inspired Latinos in their fight for equality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the hundreds of thousands who were present for Dr. King\u2019s iconic \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963 were Latinos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Gilberto Gerena Valent\u00edn, the then president of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, was recruited by Martin Luther King Jr. to get the Latinx population to turn out for the March on Washington.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

King had asked Gilberto Gerena Valent\u00edn, the then president of the Puerto Rican Day Parade, to get the Latino population to come out. \u201cMartin Luther King Jr. invited me to Atlanta, Georgia to discuss the march that was being organized, and I went there with a strong team,\u201d Gerena told El Diario NY. \u201cHe personally invited me to organize the Latinos in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, and so I did.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. King traveled to Puerto Rico three times, visiting universities and speaking against the criminality that stigmatized the community of color in the 1960s. \u201cThey fail to see that poverty and ignorance, these breed crime whatever the racial group may be,\u201d he said in a speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King and the Chicano Movement<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Cesar Chavez, the head of the United Farm Workers Union, calls for the resignation of Walter Kintz, the first legal counsel for the state Agriculture Labor Relations Board, in Sacramento, Calif., on Sept. 16, 1975. Chavez’s efforts in California culminated in landmark legislation that protected the rights of the state’s farmworkers and created the ALRB.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

“As brothers in the struggle for equality, I extend the hand of fellowship and goodwill and wish you and your members continued success. Our separate struggles are really a struggle for freedom, dignity, and humanity\u201d, Dr. King wrote in a telegram to civil rights activist Cesar Chavez <\/a>in 1966. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Chavez went through a hunger strike in the 1960s, Dr. King encouraged him with a message that read, \u201cI am deeply moved by your courage in fasting as your personal sacrifice for justice through nonviolence.\u201d Your past and present commitment is eloquent testimony to the constructive power of nonviolent action and the destructive impotence of violent reprisal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Dolores Huerta, a seasoned activist who co-founded the United Farm Workers union<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRacism is a sickness. Many Americans with that sickness stormed the nation\u2019s Capitol recently as racism feeds fascism. Racism stems from ignorance and creates, hate, fear violence, and destruction,\u201d Huerta Chavez told CNN in an interview remembering Dr. King. The American labor leader and civil rights activist co-founded the National Farmworkers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers<\/a> (UFW) with Cesar Chavez.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Martin Luther King warned us that racism threatened the very foundation of our democracy\u201d, she said. \u201cRacism began with slavery, the oppression of workers, the subjugation of women and children.\u201d Huerta believes that a national effort is needed to save the United States\u2019 democracy from fascism and to end the racism which \u201cis so ingrained in our body politic.\u201dWe have no choice but to heal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Publisher’s Note: The number of Rhode Islanders identifying as Hispanic or Latino rose from 130,655 people to 182,101 people between 2010 and 2020, an increase of 40 percent – according to the U.S. Census.<\/p>\n\n\n\n