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Medrano / Horseshoe of Decision Making

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Interviewer-"So, I'm going to move a little bit ahead, Santos Rodriquez, 73, he was murdured by police officers in Dallas was that what started the Brown Berets?' Mr. Medrano-No, no Brown Berets were already active. Interviewer-"Over in Dallas, i'm sorry, they were already active." Mr. Medrano- Yea, yea we already organize in organize with Los Angelos the original [?] Interviewer-"Do you want to get that by the way, cause..." Mr. Medrano-No, no they get recorded, they originally like the Black Panther Party [?] there all organized, its time to move towards the southwest, so going to New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and then they went down to the valley and then the Cesar Chavez movement was going on at the same time, so simultaneously [?] activism in the campuses, and then the streets, and then the organizations are formulating and a lot of it had to do with already they knew, if we don't have someone in the horseshoe and the decision-making will never get nothing done. State Reps, school boards, city council, congressmans, we don't have those people intact to write the law, eradicate the law, you know, do everything, the civil disobediance will never get challenged because were going to be outside and [?] on the inside, you know, its going to happen that way, if they don't want to listen to us, they will, if they don't, they will just ignore us. we have to go to the [?] to sit with us, then it goes to actually a riot that comes out. We were really not to do that far yet, cause we already knew the theory of nonviolence of Martin Luthor King, your going to bring change. Mahatma Ghandi we already knew the concepts, it will, it will get done, its going to be a long hard battle, its going to a lot of blood, you know tears and a lot of sacrifices, your going to lose jobs, they're going to hire you, they're going to fire you, they are going to blacklist you, they're going to blacklist you, I gurantee you, your looking for a job, don't hire him by a telephone call, human resources,no, no, no.... you get labeled, you get labeled. Interviewer-"Right."...

Interview Interview with Robert Medrano
Subjects Community Organizations › Civil Rights Organizations › Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Black Power › Black Panthers
Chicano Power › Brown Berets
Electoral Politics › Local Elections
People › Chavez, Cesar
Tags Blacklisting
Rodriguez, Santos
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Interview date 2015-06-10
Interview source CRBB Summer 2015
Interviewees Medrano, Robert
Interviewers Acuña-Gurrola, Moisés
Duration 00:02:27
Citation "Horseshoe of Decision Making," from Robert Medrano oral history interview with Moisés Acuña-Gurrola,  June 10, 2015, Dallas, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/250/horseshoe-of-decision-making, accessed October 16, 2025