Barrio Barrister (F-6)
For Barrio Barrister (F-1) click here. For BB (F-5 click here)
INT. LOYOLA COLLEGE LAW NIGHT SCHOOL — NIGHT
(Subtitle): Loyola Law Night School
Miguel (28 here) is conspicuously the only student of color. There are three white women, the rest are white young men.
MASON (V.O.)
So you were already in law school by then?
ELDER MIGUEL(V.O.)
Loyola. There were maybe 50 Chicanos studying law in all of California in those days. There were only two of us at Loyola.
I did not raise my hand in class. I guess I was afraid someone might laugh at my accent.
The class ends and students begin to file out.
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)(CONT’D)
I suppose it wouldn’t have mattered. But at the time it bothered me.
As Miguel exits the class, he meets RICHARD CRUZ, 28, wiry, 155 lbs, wears cowboy hats, nervous energy-crosses legs lots, loves parties. They shake hands, exchange greetings.
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)
There weren’t many of us in those days. Richard Cruz was the other 50% of the Spanish surnamed law students at Loyola that year. He attended days, I nights. One night he came to my class as it ended.
EXT. PARKING STRUCTURE — NIGHT
The two walk through other students towards the parking lot.
RICHARD CRUZ
Los Católicos Por La Raza need a fresh, unbiased legal mind.
MIGUEL
I’m not religious, Richard.
RICHARD CRUZ
(matter of factly)
You’ll be damned in hell for … eternity. But right now we need someone to focus on our demands of a Catholic church that has taken our tithings for generations yet can’t even spring for a Chicano law school scholarship.
They reach Miguel’s white Chevy. He climbs in, lowers window.
MIGUEL
A ver, a ver, a ver. I’ll take a look at them. When and where do you see these demands being made?
RICHARD CRUZ
The perfect time, Miguel. The Misa de Gallo event on Christmas Eve.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. — ST. BASIL’S CHURCH-BEVERLY HILLS — NIGHT
CAM dollies right-Church is packed. Cam pans from CARDINAL MCINTYRE, 83, giving sermon, then along well-dressed parishioners sitting in pews. There are a few well-dressed latinos near the back pews. Note: large concrete church had been finished that year for a cost of $4,000,000.
Subtitle: Newly completed St. Basil’s Church, Los Angeles, California-Christmas Eve, 1969
CAM continues panning — through the walls.
EXT. — OUTSIDE ST. BASIL’S CHURCH — NIGHT
We see a crowd of 300 gathered outside the church on the front steps, many dressed more casually than the crowd inside. BLASE BONPANE, 40, radical priest, is conducting a sermon. Among members of the crowd were leaders of the Chicano Movement: MIGUEL GARCIA (28), RICHARD CRUZ, JOE RAZO, OSCAR ZETA ACOSTA, GLORIA CHAVEZ, ANTONIO RODRIGUEZ, RICHARD ROSA, BOB FERNANDEZ and CARATE. A trash can burns — with persons warming their hands, then making room for others. Miguel’s hair has gotten longer and he sports a goatee.
Subtitle: Blase Bonpane, activist priest
BLASE BONPANE
Faith is not a matter of following the dogma of a church that has ignored the political causes of poverty.
EXT. SIDE OF CHURCH — NIGHT
Miguel takes his turn warming his hands at a trash can fire.
BLASE BONPANE (V.O.)
Faith is what you are willing to actually do in your life — what you are willing to risk — and what you are willing to take action on to make a better world.
EXT. BUSHES ACROSS THE WAY — NIGHT
A MAN is snapping photos of Miguel and others with a telephoto lensed camera.
EXT. ST. BASIL’S CHURCH PARKING LOT — SAME NIGHT
Miguel walks to the parking lot and notices light from a door. He enters and finds his way into the church. The protest crowd outside has gathered at the door, chanting:
CROWD
Let poor people in. Let us in.
Doors have been closed and sealed by the “ushers”, (off duty police). Father Bonpane is using tortillas for the eucharist. Miguel strides up to Richard Cruz.
MIGUEL
Richard, I know a way in. Follow me.
About a dozen from the crowd follow Miguel back into the church.
INT. ST. BASIL’S CHURCH — NIGHT
There are too many to be stopped by the ushers, and the glass electronic doors swing outward. People swarm in.
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)
It was a great victory for chicanos that night against a church that had forgotten them. Even the international press reported it. A few days later some of us returned.
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. RECEPTION AREA FOR CHURCH — DAY
Protestors crowd the room. A SECRETARY is seated at a desk.
SECRETARY
Do you have an appointment with Cardinal McIntyre?
Crowd pushes past. A large priest, MONSIGNOR HAWKS, attempts to block them. Football player, BOB FERNANDEZ, sends him to the floor with a body block. An inner door begins to close. Miguel runs over and pushes the door open.
MIGUEL
Here are our demands!
Miguel thrusts papers into Cardinal McIntyre’s hands.
CARDINAL MCINTYRE
(shaking)
Call the police! Call the police!
GLORIA CHAVEZ charges in whirling a nine iron.
GLORIA CHAVEZ
Manos arriba, calzones pa abajo.
A glass door is shattered, then a lamp is broken.
RICHARD C.
Vamonos!
(begins to leave, turns)
A church that turns its back on the poor is not the church of Jesus. Look, we better scram before the cops come. Party at my place.
INT. DINING TABLE AT CRUZ HOME — EVENING
We see a church elder sitting at the dining table with the Cruz family. He smiles and talks reassuringly during the V.O. Richard Cruz treats him warmly. Refills his glass.
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)
Richard did six months in jail for his participation, but the story of the chicano revolt against the church was heard around the world in news reports and even in a book by Oscar Zeta Acosta, The Revolt of the Cockroach People, who was the lawyer from Hunter Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Cardinal McIntyre was relieved of his duties the following year. His successor discussed the Catolico’s demands over dinner at Richard Cruz’s family home. A few months later our little demonstration got eclipsed by the largest demonstration ever by people of color against the Vietnam war. At that time, Hispanics were only 5% of the US population but they were 22% of American casualties in that war. Mexicans have fought in every US war, including the Revolution.
More on Richard Cruz — click here.
For Barrio Barrister (F-7 click here)
