09/04/2020
L.A. City Councilman Gilbert Cedillo knocks this one over the fence with the striking elegance and power and arc that plain-spoken, honest and unadorned recollection can, at the hands of a pinch-hitter, sometimes attain. I offer profuse gratitude to Conrado Terrazas, Council staff and the esteemed Council Member himself for courteously extending me permission to publish this heartfelt and awesomely inspiring personal memoir by one of our community's most progressive, yet still unapologetically Chicanx, political representatives under the BROOKLYN & BOYLE banner. Gil Cedillo's integrity as a public servant remains unimpeachable. And his tireless, sincere advocacy on behalf of arts and culture, the homeless, immigrants, young people and hard-working people across the Southland ranks him, in my humble estimation, among the best of those who soldier on, in the brutal, cutthroat political arena on behalf of the folks least able to advocate for themselves. I would even go so far as to suggest that the personal recount of what he witnessed on August 29, 1970 merits our collective regard as a definitive primer on what is universally acknowledged as the largest peaceful political demonstration until then ever assembled, in California. Drawing well over 20,000 sympathizers, according to even the most conservative estimates, the Moratorium was to a great extent perceived by authorities as a Mexican American political uprising led by well-organized--and as such dangerous--Chicano agitators, but the Moratorium united Latino community organizers, Black civil rights advocates and progressive white anti-war activists, which might explain why Sheriff's deputies used such heavy-handed violence to quash the presentation of cultural dancers, live music and speeches at an idyllic Laguna Park (now Ruben Salazar Park) that day Gil Cedillo was there and he describes how it went down here. Bravo Don Gilberto! http://www.brooklynboyle.com/2020/09/la-councilmember-gil-cedillo-former.html
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