3 UCLA DAILY BRUIN Friday, February 9, 1968

Revolutionary will speak at UMAS program here

By Irene Cardenas

DB staff writer

Mexican - American revolutionary leader Reies Tijerina will be the featured speaker al the "Mexican American In the Southwest" symposium, Feb. 22 In the Ackerman Union Grand Ballroom. They symposium is co-sponsored by United Mexican American Students (UMAS) and ASUCLA.

Tijerina is presently in jail in New Mexico on charges of conspiring to overthrow U.S. and New Mexican governments, Monti Esparsa, organizer of the symposium, said.

Tijerina held

"The Alliance began in 1959 and for seven years tried to get civil courts to uphold the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago. The U. S. signed the treaty in 1848, when Mexico ceded over half of her territory," Esparsa explained.

Under the Treaty, the U.S. government guaranteed civil rights, protection of property rights under land grants and protection of language and culture to people of Mexican descent, he explained.

Treaty broken

Tijerina tried unsuccessfully to get the matter into court "because the whole Treaty has been, violated I several thousand times," Esparsa claimed.

Tijerina is becoming a legendary hero in the Southwest. Several "corridos" (ballads) written bout him are already being sung by the Mexican-American people, he noted.

The Alliance entered the political arena in 1966 and successfully supported the husband of one of its members to the New Mexico governorship, he said.

Student Legislative Council (SLC) Wednesday night approved the symposium, which will be the first of its kind held on a college campus in the Southwest.

UMAS will submit an itemized budget for $2700 to SLC next Wednesday, Esparsa said.

Besides Tijerina, UMAS is bringing Caesar Chavez, organizer of the first farm workers union whose protest march from central California to Sacramento made national news two years ago. Chavez is presently leading the strike movement into its third year against Guimarra,, the country's largest table grape grower,

Mexican-American minority

Other speakers will include Ralph Guzman, a director of the UCLA Mexican-American Study Project, and Burt Corona, the state chairman of the Mexican American Political Assn.

According to Esparsa, UMAS is sponsoring the symposium to present information on Mexican Americans, who are relatively unknown, despite their being the largest minority in the state.

"The Mexican American founded this state, and most people don't even know that he exists," Esparsa said.

Organizing the symposium with Esparsa are UMAS members Ray Macias and Susan Rancho.