Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzáles (June 18, 1928 – April 12, 2005) was a
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
boxerBoxing, also called pugilism, is a combat sport in which two people fight each other using their fists. Boxing is supervised by a referee over a series of between one to three minute intervals called rounds...
,
poetPoetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
, and political
activistActivism consists of intentional efforts to bring about social, political, economic, or environmental change. Activism can take a wide range of forms from writing letters to newspapers or politicians, political campaigning, economic activism such as boycotts or preferentially patronizing...
. He convened the first-ever
ChicanoThe terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
youth conference in March 1969, which was attended by many future Chicano activists and artists. The conference also promulgated the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a
manifestoA manifesto is a public declaration of principles and intentions, often political in nature. Manifestos relating to religious belief are generally referred to as creeds. Manifestos may also be life stance-related.-Etymology:...
demanding self-determination for Chicanos. As an early figure of the movement for the equal rights of
Mexican AmericanMexican Americans are Americans of Mexican descent. As of July 2009, Mexican Americans make up 10.3% of the United States' population with over 31,689,000 Americans listed as of Mexican ancestry. Mexican Americans comprise 66% of all Hispanics and Latinos in the United States...
s, he is often considered one of the founders of the
Chicano MovementThe Chicano Movement of the 1960s, also called the Chicano Civil Rights Movement, also known as El Movimiento, is an extension of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement which began in the 1940s with the stated goal of achieving Mexican American empowerment.-Origins:The Chicano Movement...
.
Early life
González was born the youngest of Federico and Indalesia González' eight children in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
. His father had immigrated to
ColoradoColorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...
early in life from Chihuahua, but he retained the histories of Mexico's
struggle against Spanish dominationThe Mexican War of Independence was an armed conflict between the people of Mexico and the Spanish colonial authorities which started on 16 September 1810. The movement, which became known as the Mexican War of Independence, was led by Mexican-born Spaniards, Mestizos and Amerindians who sought...
and against Porfirio Diaz, a struggle that culminated in the
Mexican RevolutionThe Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
, both of which he imparted to his son. His mother died when he was two years old, and his father never remarried.
He and his siblings were raised in Denver's tough "Eastside
BarrioBarrio is a Spanish word meaning district or neighborhood.-Usage:In its formal usage in English, barrios are generally considered cohesive places, sharing, for example, a church and traditions such as feast days...
", where the
Great DepressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
took an even heavier toll on Mexican Americans. However, according to Gonzales, "though the Depression was devastating to so many, we, as children, were so poor that it was hardly noticed". He attended high schools in Colorado and
New MexicoNew Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
while simultaneously working in the
beetThe beet is a plant in the Chenopodiaceae family which is now included in Amaranthaceae family. It is best known in its numerous cultivated varieties, the most well known of which is the purple root vegetable known as the beetroot or garden beet...
fields, and graduated from
Manual High SchoolManual High School is located in the Whittier neighborhood on the east side of Denver, Colorado.-Demographics:*5.6% white*40.9% African American*58.1% Latino*0% Native American*0.3% Asian- Manual Today :...
at the age of 16. Since his youth he demonstrated a fiery tendency, which caused his uncle to say that "he was always popping off like a cork." The nickname stuck.
Boxing career
All through high school, Gonzales saved to pay for a college education. When it became clear that his financial status would not allow him to continue his study of
engineeringEngineering is the discipline, art, skill and profession of acquiring and applying scientific, mathematical, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design and build structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes that safely realize improvements to the lives of...
after his first semester at the private
University of DenverThe University of Denver is currently ranked 82nd among all public and private "National Universities" by U.S. News & World Report in the 2012 rankings....
, he went into professional sports.
He soon became a featherweight champion, winning a
Golden GlovesThe Golden Gloves is the name given to annual competitions for amateur boxing in the United States. The Golden Gloves is often the term used to refer to the National Golden Gloves competition, but it also can represent several other amateur tournaments, including regional golden gloves...
title, and the National Amateur Athletic Union bantamweight title in 1946.
Despite his success professional boxing career and being ranked as a top three Featherweight by Ring Magazine, he never received a shot at the title. He retired from the ring in 1955 after compiling a record of 63 wins, 11 losses, and 1 draw. Nonetheless, his success in boxing lent him a prominence that he would later capitalize upon during his political career. Gonzales would be inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.
Professional record
|- style="margin:0.5em auto; font-size:95%;"
|align="center" colspan=8|63 Wins (11 knockouts), 11 Losses, 1 Draw
|- style="margin:0.5em auto; font-size:95%;"
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Res.
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Record
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Opponent
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Type
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Rd., Time
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Date
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Location
|align=center style="border-style: none none solid solid; background: #e3e3e3"|Notes
|-align=center
|Win || 12-0-0 ||align=left|
Frankie Rivera
|UD || 6 (6) || January 7, 1948 || align=left|
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 11-0-0 ||align=left|
Harold Jackson
|UD || 6 (6) || December 29, 1947 || align=left|
Civic AuditoriumThe Omaha Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CenturyLink Center Omaha in 2003....
,
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 10-0-0 ||align=left|
Bud Love
|UD || 4 (4) || December 15, 1947 || align=left|
Civic AuditoriumThe Omaha Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CenturyLink Center Omaha in 2003....
,
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 9-0-0 ||align=left|
Rocco Joe Romano
|UD || 4 (4) || November 10, 1947 || align=left|
Civic AuditoriumThe Omaha Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CenturyLink Center Omaha in 2003....
,
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 8-0-0 ||align=left|
Mel Hammond
|SD || 4 (4) || October 20, 1947 || align=left|
Civic AuditoriumThe Omaha Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CenturyLink Center Omaha in 2003....
,
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
|align=left|Hammond was undefeated going in
|-align=center
|Win || 7-0-0 ||align=left|
Dave Peake
|KO || 3 (1:18) || October 6, 1947 || align=left|
Civic AuditoriumThe Omaha Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CenturyLink Center Omaha in 2003....
,
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 6-0-0 ||align=left|
Paul Martinez
|TKO || 4 (0:32) || September 22, 1947 || align=left|
Civic AuditoriumThe Omaha Civic Auditorium is a multi-purpose convention center in Omaha, Nebraska. Opened in 1954, it surpassed the Ak-Sar-Ben Coliseum as the largest convention/entertainment complex in the city, until the completion of CenturyLink Center Omaha in 2003....
,
Omaha, NebraskaOmaha is the largest city in the state of Nebraska, United States, and is the county seat of Douglas County. It is located in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about 20 miles north of the mouth of the Platte River...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 5-0-0 ||align=left|
Johnny Martinez
|UD || 6 (6) || August 26, 1947 || align=left|
Mammoth Gardens,
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 4-0-0 ||align=left|
Spider Webb
|KO || 1 (0:28) || July 24, 1947 || align=left|
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 3-0-0 ||align=left|
Pete Cisneros
|UD || 4 (4) || July 11, 1947 || align=left|
Sioux City, IowaSioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 2-0-0 || align=left|
Jim Sully
|UD || 4 (4) || June 27, 1947 || align=left|
Sioux City, IowaSioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
|align=left|
|-align=center
|Win || 1-0-0 || align=left|
Jim Sully
|UD || 4 (4) || January 23, 1947 || align=left|
Sioux City, IowaSioux City is a city in Plymouth and Woodbury counties in the western part of the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 82,684 in the 2010 census, a decline from 85,013 in the 2000 census, which makes it currently the fourth largest city in the state....
|align=left|Professional debut for Gonzáles
|-align=center
I Am Joaquín
With his poem
Yo Soy Joaquín, known in
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
as
I Am JoaquinI Am Joaquin , by Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, is a famous epic poem associated with the Chicano movement of the 1960s in the United States...
, Gonzales shared his new cosmological vision of the "Chicano", who was neither Indian nor European, neither Mexican nor American, but a combination of all the conflicting identities. This new "
raza", or "race" found its roots in the
Pre-ColumbianThe pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...
civilizations, which gave it rights to inhabit the ancestral land of
AztlánAztlán is the mythical ancestral home of the Nahua peoples, one of the main cultural groups in Mesoamerica. And, by extension, is the mythical homeland of the Uto-Aztecan peoples. Aztec is the Nahuatl word for "people from Aztlan".-Legend:...
. It was strengthened by conceptions such as those of
José VasconcelosJosé Vasconcelos Calderón was a Mexican writer, philosopher and politician. He is one of the most influential and controversial personalities in the development of modern Mexico. His philosophy of "indigenismo" affected all aspects of Mexican sociocultural, political, and economic...
, Mexico's Secretary of Education under the
RevolutionaryThe Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
Alvaro ObregónGeneral Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....
and the Indian-friendly
Plutarco Elías CallesPlutarco Elías Calles was a Mexican general and politician. He was president of Mexico from 1924 to 1928, but he continued to be the de facto ruler from 1928–1935, a period known as the maximato...
, who proclaimed that the hope of humanity lay in the mixed "
Raza CósmicaPublished in 1925, La Raza Cósmica is an essay written by late Mexican philosopher, secretary of education, and 1929 presidential candidate, José Vasconcelos to express the ideology of a future "fifth race" in the Americas; an agglomeration of all the races in the world with no respect to color or...
" of
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
. But perhaps more than anywhere else, Joaquín, the archetypical Chicano, found hope for his future in his own personal and spiritual awakening, a realization forced upon him by his status as an oppressed minority in the United States.
Some scholars have credited Gonzales with authoring this historicized, politicized definition of what it is to be a "Chicano". The far-reaching effect of the poem is summed up by
UC RiversideThe University of California, Riverside, commonly known as UCR or UC Riverside, is a public research university and one of the ten general campuses of the University of California system. UCR is consistently ranked as one of the most ethnically and economically diverse universities in the United...
professorA professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Juan Felipe Herrera: "Here, finally, was our collective song, and it arrived like thunder crashing down from the heavens. Every little barrio newspaper from
AlbuquerqueAlbuquerque is the largest city in the state of New Mexico, United States. It is the county seat of Bernalillo County and is situated in the central part of the state, straddling the Rio Grande. The city population was 545,852 as of the 2010 Census and ranks as the 32nd-largest city in the U.S. As...
to
BerkeleyBerkeley is a city on the east shore of the San Francisco Bay in Northern California, United States. Its neighbors to the south are the cities of Oakland and Emeryville. To the north is the city of Albany and the unincorporated community of Kensington...
published it. People slapped mimeographed copies up on walls and telephone poles." It was so influential that it was turned into a play by
Luis ValdezLuis Valdez is an American playwright, writer and film director.He is regarded as the father of Chicano theater in the United States.-Education:...
's
Teatro CampesinoEl Teatro Campesino , is a theatrical troupe founded in 1965 as the cultural arm of the United Farm Workers. The original actors were all farmworkers, and El Teatro Campesino enacted events inspired by the lives of their audience...
that toured nationally. It is seen a foundational work of the burgeoning Chicano Art Movement that accompanied, complimented, and enhanced the Chicano Movement, and, as the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán exhorted those talented members of the community to use their abilities to advance
la Causa ("the Cause"),
Yo Soy Joaquín provided a strong example.
Finding alternatives
Believing that Chicanos could not rely on the "gringo establishment" to provide education, economic stability, or social acceptance, he began to look for alternatives. His solution to the educational question was to found a private school (1970) that would focus on building students' self-esteem through culturally-relevant curricula. The school was named after
TlatelolcoTlatelolco is an area in the Cuauhtémoc borough of Mexico City, centered on the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, a square surrounded on three sides by an excavated Aztec archaeological site, a 17th century church called Templo de Santiago, a former convent, and office complexes that used to belong to...
, an area of
Mexico CityMexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
that was once an autonomous city-state under the
AztecThe Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
empire. It was also home to a community of scholars. During the conquest, it was the site of the last stand of the Aztecs, and witnessed the massacre of thousands. In post-Revolutionary Mexico, Tlatelolco became home to the
Plaza de las Tres CulturasThe Plaza de las Tres Culturas is the main square within the Tlatelolco neighbourhood of Mexico City. The name "Three Cultures" is in recognition of the three periods of Mexican history reflected by those buildings pre-Columbian, Spanish colonial, and the independent "mestizo" nation...
, which celebrated Mexico's dual cultural heritage, rather than uplifting the European and simultaneously denigrating the indigenous, an important step toward the vindication of indigenous Mexico. During the
1968 Summer OlympicsThe 1968 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XIX Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Mexico City, Mexico in October 1968. The 1968 Games were the first Olympic Games hosted by a developing country, and the first Games hosted by a Spanish-speaking country...
, Tlatelolco became the staging ground for massive student protests, and saw yet another massacre, this time by Mexican forces. As such, the school's name evokes the history of duality, reconciliation, and hope for indigenous and Mestizo people. The school continues to fulfill its mission of providing alternative education, especially for Chicanos. Politically, Gonzales recognized the limitations of the two-party system. When he learned of the 1970 founding of the Raza Unida Party in
Crystal City, TexasCrystal City is a city in and the county seat of Zavala County, Texas, United States. The population was 7,190 at the 2000 census. The mascot of Crystal City High School is the Javelina....
, he traveled there to challenge
José Angel GutiérrezJosé Angel Gutiérrez, is an attorney and professor at the University of Texas at Arlington in the United States. He was a founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization in San Antonio in 1967, and a founding member and past president of the Raza Unida Party, a Mexican-American third...
for its leadership. Failing that bid, he returned to Colorado to focus on the Escuela's comprehensive program. The nonprofit school and health care center currently operates under the leadership of Nita Gonzales, one of his six daughters.
Violence in Denver
The success of the alternative school and Gonzales' political achievements were overshadowed in 1973, when a man was arrested for jaywalking in front of the Crusade's headquarters. A protest against the persecution was organized, leading to confrontations between demonstrators and police. Soon, a gun battle erupted, and a bomb exploded in the upper floors of the Downing Terrace apartments, which were in the possession of the Crusade. One man was killed and seventeen were injured, among them 12 police officers. Gonzales accused the Denver police department of grenading the facilities, but a detective described the scene of the explosion as a "veritable arsenal". Historians and scholars have yet to evaluate the impact of the bombing, but later prosecutions of Crusade participants served to diminish the influence of Gonzales and his organizations.
After this incident, Gonzales retreated into the private life of his family and Denver's Chicano community. He was still active in the movement, although he maintained a much lower profile.
Later life and death
Gonzales was involved in an automobile accident in 1987 after suffering a heart arrhythmia. His health continued to diminish until he was hospitalized in 1995 with acute liver disease. In 2005, he was diagnosed with renal and coronary distress. Astounding his doctors, he refused treatment and checked out of the hospital, stating, "I'm indigenous. I'm going to die at home among my family." Per his wish, Gonzales died surrounded by friends and family in 2005. He was remembered as an invigorating spirit, or "the fist" of the Chicano Movement.
See also
- American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
- César Chávez
César Estrada Chávez was an American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers ....
- Oscar Zeta Acosta
Oscar Zeta Acosta was an American attorney, politician, minor novelist and Chicano Movement activist, perhaps best known for his friendship with the American author Hunter S. Thompson, who characterized him as his Samoan Attorney, Dr...
- Chicanismo
Chicanismo is a cultural movement begun in the 1960s in the Southwestern United States by Mexican Americans to recapture their Mexican, Native American culture.-Major themes:...
- Chicano poetry
Chicano poetry is a branch of American literature written by and primarily about Mexican Americans and the Mexican-American way of life in society. The term "Chicano" is a political and cultural term of identity specifically identifying people of Mexican descent who are born in the United States...
- Hector P. Garcia
Hector Perez Garcia was a Mexican-American physician, surgeon, World War II veteran, civil rights advocate, and founder of the American G.I. Forum. As a result of the national prominence he earned through his work on behalf of Hispanic Americans, he was instrumental in the appointment of Mexican...
- Dolores Huerta
Dolores C. Huerta is the co-founder and First Vice President Emeritus of the United Farm Workers of America, AFL-CIO , and a member of the Democratic Socialists of America.-Early life:...
- List of notable Chicanos
- MEChA
M.E.Ch.A. is an organization that seeks to promote Chicano unity and empowerment through political action. The acronym of the organization's name is the Spanish word mecha, which means "fuse"...
- Mexican Americans
- Reies Tijerina
Reies Lopez Tijerina led a struggle in the 1960s and 1970s to restore New Mexican land grants to the descendants of their Spanish colonial and Mexican owners...
- Malcolm X
Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...
- Young Lords
The Young Lords, later Young Lords Organization and in New York , Young Lords Party, was a Puerto Rican nationalist group in several United States cities, notably New York City and Chicago.-Founding:...
External links