Athletes - Rodolfo Gonzales

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	Athletes - Rodolfo Gonzales

Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales (June 18, 1928—April 12, 2005) was an American (Chicano) boxer, poet, and political activist. He convened the first ever Chicano youth conference in 1968, which was attended by many future Chicano activists and artists. The conference also promulgated the Plan Espiritual de Aztlán, a manifesto demanding self-determination for Chicanos. As an early figure of the movement for the equal rights of Mexican Americans, he is often considered one of the founders of the Chicano Movement.

Early life

Gonzales was born the youngest of Federico and Indalesia Gonzales' nine children in Denver, Colorado. He would have been born in Keenesburg had the medical facilities there admitted Mexican patients. His father had immigrated to Colorado early in life from Chihuahua, but he retained the histories of Mexico's struggle against Spanish domination and against the Porfiriato, a struggle that culminated in the Mexican 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 Barrio", where the Great Depression 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 Mexico while simultaneously working in the beet fields, and graduated from Manual High School 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 engineering after his first semester at the private University of Denver, he went into professional sports. He soon became a featherweight champion, winning a Golden Gloves title, and the National Amateur Athletic Union bantamweight title in 1946. Despite his success and his being ranked the number 3 boxer by Ring Magazine, but never received a shot at the title, probably due to racism. He retired from the ring in 1953. Nonetheless, his success in boxing led to his election to the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and lent him a prominence that he would later capitalize upon during his political career.

Political career

While managing the successful restaurant/bar Corky's Corner and a bail bond service in Denver, he could not overlook the plight of other Mexican Americans in the city. Their housing was substandard, their jobs lacked union protections, and education in their children's schools was segregated and unequal. He financed the publication of Denver's first barrio rag Viva beginning in the late 1950s. He joined the Democratic Party, becoming a district captain and leading the Colorado branch of "Viva Kennedy", John F. Kennedy's campaign among Latino voters. By way of "reward", Denver mayor Tom Currigan appointed him head of the Denver National Youth Corps, part of LBJ's War on Poverty. Shortly after his appointment, he fell out with the mayor when he realized that the Democratic Party wanted the Hispanic vote, but was less than willing to nominate Latinos for elected office. He took umbrage at this and began looking for alternatives to two-party electoral politics. In 1966 he criticized the Vietnam War: "Would it not be more noble," he asked, "to portray our great country as a humanitarian nation with the honest intentions of aiding and advising the weak rather than to be recognized as a military power and hostile enforcer of our political aims? If we who are privileged to live in the United States enjoy a prosperity built on the backs of poor nations," he continued, "are we not living the good life at the expense of the blood and bones of our fellow human beings?" Two years later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would make a similar statement against the war. During those years, Gonzales also helped organize school walkouts and economic boycotts.

1968

In 1968 two important events occurred in the life of Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales. For one, he led the Southwestern contingent at the Poor People's March on Washington. This was part of the legacy left unfinished after the assassination of Dr. King. Secondly, he convened what became known as the Crusade for Justice, the first national Chicano youth conference. At a time when the first generation of Mexican Americans had received their WWII-era GI Bill educations and the next generation of Chicanos were being drafted to fight in Vietnam, the conference became an important meeting place between historical injustice and inclusion in American society, placing the majority of Mexican Americans, who at that point became known as Chicanos, in the camp of the anti-war activists who increasingly became associated with anti-colonial movements in the Third World. Even as Mexico's countercultural movements died at Tlatelolco, the Chicano experience reflected more of the awakening of Mai 68 or the Czech revolts than the general sorrow in Latin America. The youth who attended the Crusade for Justice became empowered to speak up about their unequal position in American society. They were encouraged to use all of the tools at their disposal—their American education, their artistic abilities, their organizing capabilities, et cetera, to create conditions whereby Mexican Americans would be recognized as having contributed significantly to the American experience and as willing to fight for their equal rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The recognition of the validity of Mexican culture was a large part of this process. Until this time, Mexicans were largely seen as the stereotypical slow, lazy Indian peasant. The vision Gonzales broadcast to his young audience was drastically different.

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