Event Detail

Symbols of Resistance looks at the history of the Chicano Movement as it emerges in the 1970s with a focus on events in Colorado and Northern New Mexico. The documentary explores the struggle for land, the student movement, and community struggles against police repression.
The framework of the documentary challenges the criminalization of immigration by emphasizing the history of the U.S. expansion and occupation of northern Mexico during the Mexican-American War (1846–48) – when “the border crossed people.” The film explains that, in the same era that saw the growth and development of the civil rights movement for African Americans, reassertion of Native American land rights, and demands for an end to U.S. colonialism in Puerto Rico, the Chicano movement rose up to challenge racial discrimination and exploitation, and to strongly oppose the war in Viet Nam and the disproportionate assignment of people of color to the front lines while not accepting them as full citizens once they returned.
The film represents an important component of the Chican@ struggle that is often not well understood—that the movement was not limited to organizing agricultural workers. It shows how conflicts with government included resisting unprovoked police violence in urban areas and many protests against systemic language discrimination, judicial discrimination, disproportionate imprisonment, and the lack of educational and employment opportunities. These rising community and student movements were targeted by the infamous COINTELPRO (Counter intelligence program) of the FBI, working in tandem with other local, state, and federal agencies.
This film by Freedom Archives will be shown for free and is open to the public