Chicano Activism La Raza Newspaper "Justicia O..!" Archive, Covering Oscar Zeta Acosta, UFW Activism, and the Killing of Rubén Salazar

UFW Activism La Raza Law Students Association

Periodical

[Chicano Activism] National La Raza Law Students Association. Four issues of Justicia O...!, the bilingual Los Angeles Chicano activist newspaper, covering Oscar Zeta Acosta, Rubén Salazar, the United Farm Workers, and the East Los Angeles Barrio Defense Committee from November 1970 to March 1971. Across these early issues, Justicia O..! reported on Chicano political protest in courts, police action, jails, schools, and draft boards, with front-page headlines including “La Comunidad Acusa Younger, Pitchess Davis,” “Draft Counseling in Oakland by Raza Students,” “Policia USA Tactacas Gringas Contra Los Barrios,” and “Grand Jury Racism Exposed.” The paper tied student legal organizing to community defense through concrete cases and campaigns, including Acosta’s defense work, Cesar Chavez’s jailing for contempt in Salinas, penal reform organizing in Los Angeles, and reporting on police beatings after the January 9, 1971 protest from Hollenbeck Station to Parker Center.

Justicia O...! Los Angeles, California: National La Raza Law Students Association, November 1970 to March 1971. Archive of 4 issues from Vol. 1, Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 5; bilingual folio newsprint periodicals. Folded at center as issued.

[1] Justicia O...! Los Angeles: National La Raza Law Students Association, November 1970. Vol. 1, No. 1. Front page leads with “La Comunidad Acusa Younger, Pitchess Davis,” subtitled “genocide and murder,” alongside “Acosta Defends Corky” and a memorial text for Rubén Salazar. Interior pages include a bilingual editorial on the paper’s purpose, “Police Under the Law?,” Frank Mendoza’s Police Malpractice Complaint Center feature “Can Be No Revolution... Querida Raza Are You Treated Justly???,” and reports on police intrusion at a Chicano wedding and the acquittal of seven Chicanos.

[2] Justicia O...! Los Angeles: National La Raza Law Students Association, December 1970. Vol. 1, No. 2. Front page pairs “Draft Counseling in Oakland by Raza Students” with “Cesar Chavez Legal Hostage?,” connecting anti-draft counseling, farmworker struggle, and student legal work. Interior coverage includes “Barrio Defense Committee Reports: Police Raid Chicano Party,” “Chicanos Head Drive for Penal Reform,” “Casa Legal Serving East Los Angeles,” bilingual editorials declaring “estudiantes de leyes chicanos, chicanos primero!!!,” and notice of Ricardo Cruz as chairman and Rodrigo Mayorga as vice-chairman of the California association.

[3] Justicia O...! Los Angeles: National La Raza Law Students Association, January 1971. Vol. 1, No. 3. Front page opens with the Spanish-language banner “Policia USA Tactacas Gringas Contra Los Barrios” and the English column “Reagan Would Deny Justice to Chicanos,” including discussion of the California Rural Legal Assistance fight and attacks on legal services for Spanish-surnamed communities. Interior pages continue the issue’s police-violence emphasis with “Marchers Protesting Police Brutality Beaten,” bilingual reporting on the January 9 march, and a large central spread titled “Barrio Defense.”

[4] Justicia O...! Los Angeles: National La Raza Law Students Association, March 1971. Vol. 1, No. 5. Front page centers Oscar Zeta Acosta’s challenge to grand jury exclusion under the headline “Grand Jury Racism Exposed,” with “Alarcon to Rule on Systematic Exclusion of Raza” and a parallel Spanish headline, “Los Muertos Hablan.” The accompanying text names the Biltmore case, the East L.A. 13, Acosta’s motion against the Los Angeles County Grand Jury, and the role of Judge Alarcon, locating the issue squarely within Chicano challenges to prosecutorial and jury selection power.

These issues were printed in the immediate aftermath of the August 1970 killing of Rubén Salazar and during the legal and political afterlife of the Chicano Moratorium, when student organizations, barrio committees, and movement lawyers were contesting police violence, criminal prosecution, and exclusion from civic institutions in Los Angeles and beyond. Justicia O...! provided especially strong reporting on the overlap between legal education and the Chicano rights movement: law students offer draft counseling in Oakland, report on CRLA and penal reform, publish bilingual guidance on courts and police, and place activists like Acosta, Chavez, Corky Gonzales, and local defense committees in continuous dialogue across its pages. Light tanning, otherwise very good condition. Surviving early issues of Justicia O...! preserve a concentrated record of how Chicano law students turned courtroom battles, police-abuse reporting, and community defense into bilingual print during a decisive phase of the movement in Southern California.

Item #23238

Price: $450.00