- Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project
- Title:
- Carlos Montes oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Alhambra, California, 2016 June 27
- Contributor to Resource:
- Montes, Carlos, 1947- interviewee
Cline, David P., 1969- interviewer
Bishop, John Melville, videographer
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) - Date of Original:
- 2016
- Subject:
- National Brown Beret Organization
Chicano movement
Civil disobedience
Civil rights demonstrations--California
Civil rights movements--California
Civil rights movements--United States
Civil rights workers--California--Interviews
Mexican Americans--Civil rights
Mexican American students--Political activity
Poor People's Campaign
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Hispanic Americans
Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Protest movements - Location:
- United States, 39.76, -98.5
United States, California, 37.25022, -119.75126
United States, California, Los Angeles County, Alhambra, 34.09529, -118.12701 - Medium:
- personal narratives
interviews
oral histories (literary genre)
video recordings (physical artifacts) - Type:
- MovingImage
- Description:
- Carlos Montes, founding member of the Brown Berets, talks about his decades-long involvement and activism in the Brown Berets, the Brown Power movement, MEChA, the East L.A. blowouts, the Chicano moratorium against the Vietnam War, the anti-Iraq war protests, his political persecution at the hands of federal and local authorities. He recounts participating in the inter-racial coalition that occupied the Mall in Washington, DC, for the Poor People's Campaign (1968), and the ways in which that experience opened up the consciousness of the Brown Berets to the global struggle against class oppression and imperialism. He talks about the circumstances of his arrest on arson charges in 1969, and having to flee the country in the face of relentless, racist persecution of himself and other Chicano activists. He recalls community action programs and events that challenged the Brown Power movement.
Recorded in Alhambra, California, on June 27, 2016.
Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0139), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
Carlos Montes was born in 1947 in El Paso, Texas. He was raised in Juarez, Mexico for part of his childhood, and moved to Los Angeles in 1956. While attending East LA Community College, he became involved with various Chicano organizations and eventually co-founded the Brown Berets. He was an organizer of the Chicano Blowouts in East LA, and he participated in numerous protests including the Poor People's Campaign. In 1970 he fled the country and lived underground for several years in both Juarez and El Paso. Since returning to LA in 1980, he has been involved with immigration reform, Chicano rights, freeing political prisoners, and community organizing.
The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
In English.
Finding aid http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af013005 - Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2010039.afc2010039_crhp0139
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
- Extent:
- 9 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (2:18:32) : digital, sound, color.
transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files. - Original Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0139
- Contributing Institution:
- American Folklife Center
- Rights:
-
