Barrio Barrister (F-7)
For Barrio Barrister (F-1) click here. For BB (F-6) click here.
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)
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.
We notice chanting during the V.O., growing to a crescendo.
CROWD
The people, united, will never be defeated! The people, united, will never be defeated!
INT. MODEST HOME, BEDROOM — EARLY MORNING.
CONSUELO FLORES,(9), has risen and dressed. She finds her new red tennis shoes in their place of honor. She puts them on. Her mother, MRS. FLORES, 20’s, enters.
Subtitle: Consuelo Flores, August 29, 1970
CONSUELO FLORES
I can’t believe the day of the march is finally here.
MRS. FLORES
You better not wear your new shoes, mija. You might get them dirty.
CONSUELO FLORES
But mom, I feel like I am floating when I wear them. Please, please, please, let me.
EXT. STREET AND PARK — DAY
We begin with still photos from the actual event. One photo shows activists carrying a sign saying: “STOP MURDERING OUR PEOPLE” another, “GET YOUR KNEE OFF OUR NECK”(file footage)(ironic after George Floyd-no?).
A crowd is walking down a street. People are happy and smiling. They chant as they walk. They turn a corner and walk into Laguna Park where there is Folklorico Dancing, mariachis, and speakers. They are peaceful.
A wedding party is flanked by marchers. Blankets are placed on grass, songs sung and chat made with new found friends.
Gloria Chavez sits on a blanket with her golf club beside her. She looks on at the scene with a smile, noticing the little girls playing.
Consuelo Flores is playing ring-around-the-rosie with two other girls. We notice she is barefoot, and her new red shoes sit on the grass.
We begin to hear the sound of a helicopter faintly.
CAM PANS over to where the last marchers are still marching towards the park. Miguel, carrying Michael, now 5, on his shoulders, is walking with Gloria. Miguel has a trim goatee, large lensed dark glasses and a striped shirt. Little Michael has on a serape-like chaleco with a white shirt underneath.
Subtitle: Chicano Moratorium, August 29, 1970
YOUNG MICHAEL
(raises his small fist)
Chicano!
CROWD
Power!!
YOUNG MICHAEL
Chicano!
CROWD
Power!!
INT. HELICOPTER — SAME DAY
We look over the pilot’s shoulder at the city below as the helicopter slowly proceeds. We discover a huge crowd in the street. Later we come to the park. We hear the helicopter under the V.O. It plods along, ominously.
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)
That next August, an estimated 25,000 mostly chicano demonstrators staged the largest anti-Vietnam war demonstration by an ethnic group in US history. As the last marchers headed towards Laguna Park the police used the excuse of a liquor store robbery to create a riot.
EXT. NEARBY STREET — SAME DAY
THREE YOUNG MEN, late 20’s, civilian clothing, walk down a city street smashing store front windows with hammers. At the end of a block, one of them turns down an alleyway, unlocks a blue Ford Fairlane, and reaches for a civilian walkie talkie.
YOUNG MAN
Cobra here, it’s done. You copy?
INT. POLICE SQUAD CAR — SAME DAY
A POLICE SERGEANT sits in squad car monitoring the police radio. When the call comes in he picks up an identical civilian walkie talkie from the seat.
POLICE SERGEANT
Copy that, Cobra.
The Police Sergeant looks out the window at a POLICE CAPTAIN. He gives a thumbs up.
EXT. STREET CORNER — DAY
CU Police Captain with bullhorn.
POLICE CAPTAIN
This is an unlawful assembly. Disperse immediately. Those who fail to obey will be arrested.
GLORIA
Let’s go, Miguel.
MIGUEL
No, no. No reason to panic.
GLORIA
(insistent-forcefully)
I don’t want Michael hurt!
MIGUEL
Very well. We’ll go down that alley and back to the car.
They walk down an alley followed by other marchers. Suddenly, at the other end of the alley, a lone policeman walks to the middle of the alley and trains his rifle directly at the crowd, legs spread wide in a deliberately threatening stance. A woman screams. The helicopter sounds louder.
MIGUEL
Ay yi yi.
They return to main street. Miguel approaches the captain.
MIGUEL
How can we disperse when your men are down every alley with guns?
The captain glares at Miguel with hatred.
POLICE CAPTAIN
You fuckin’ commies gonna get a real lesson today.
Gloria looks petrified. The helicopter sounds very loud.
EXT. WS LAGUNA PARK — SAME DAY
We see mariachis playing. In the distance we can see a low flying helicopter headed towards the crowd. The sound is softer because of the distance.
EXT. LAGUNA PARK — SAME DAY
Gloria Chavez is lounging on a lawn chair, laughing and joking with someone. Suddenly she stops and looks worriedly in the direction of the helicopter. It comes closer, louder. She reaches for her golf club.
EXT. LAGUNA PARK — SAME DAY
The helicopter, now flying low and slow over the crowd, drops tear gas. It’s rotors are very loud now. Screams are heard. People begin running, tripping over one another. A small child stands alone screaming in fear.
EXT. LAGUNA PARK — SAME DAY
CONSUELO’S OLDER FRIEND,(11), watching the helicopter.
CONSUELO’S OLDER FRIEND
Come on, Consuelo, let’s go.
CONSUELO FLORES
Wait.
Consuelo slips on her shoes without tying them. Her friend takes her by the hand and they start running. Soon the field is a mass of people running and screaming. A phalanx of police prevent people from leaving the park, converging from two sides.
Consuelo loses her shoes.
EXT. STREET NEAR PARK — SAME DAY
Police attack anyone within reach, regardless of age or sex. An old man falls hard on his knees. He is hit with a club.
Miguel, Gloria, and Michael move through the melee.
We see historical footage: A woman picks up tear gas canister and hurls it, only to be beaten by a cop in riot gear.
Note: At approximately 9:20 to 9:29 in this video you can see a woman hurl a tear gas cannister back at the police, and then get beaten for doing so.
MIGUEL
Quick, into the gym.
INT. GYM — SAME DAY
Miguel and his family enter a gym where OTHERS have taken refuge. A WOMAN walks around with a bucket of water, PEOPLE splash their faces, eyes vainly trying to stop the stinging.
OLD WOMAN rocks a CRYING CHILD back and forth while playing Loteria with TWO OTHER CHILDREN.
Miguel and Gloria watch out a window at the mayhem. They see a bearded VETERAN pulling himself along the street outside in a wheelchair with his feet while others run past him.
A YOUNG WOMAN turns back to help an OLDER WOMAN and CHILD being beaten. She gets beaten savagely as well.
The veteran continues through the mayhem, miraculously not being hit as he slowly makes his way.
MIGUEL
Who do you call for help when it’s the police you need help from?
GLORIA
That family could so easily have been us.
Miguel watches another beating. He frowns, starts to leave to go help. Gloria grabs his wrist to stop him.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. LAGUNA PARK —SAME DAY
Rubble lies all around the park. There is an abandoned wheelchair.
Two red tennis shoes lie on the ground. The rioting moves on.
EXT. OUTSIDE SILVER DOLLAR CAFE AND BAR, WHITTIER BLVD. — DAY
A BOY throws a rock at a POLICEMAN. He misses and breaks a window. Smoke rises in the background. The policeman moves towards the boy.
INT. SILVER DOLLAR CAFE —SAME DAY
Ruben Salazar, now 42, heavy set, wearing suit and tie and GUILLERMO RESTREPO, 36, sit at bar.
(Subtitle) Ruben Salazar and Guillermo Restrepo, Silver Dollar Cafe
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)
Ruben Salazar, a newsman who wrote about the Chicano community and whose phone number I kept for stories concerning police, and his photographer Restrepo, stopped for a drink at the Silver Dollar Cafe.
RESTREPO
Why so nervous, Ruben? Vietnam must have been worse than this.
RUBEN S.
It’s not that, Memo. I got word they’re onto our investigation. I’m being followed.
RESTREPO
(looks around)
Nobody here now.
RUBEN S.
I think they are lookin’ for a way to discredit me.
(drinks)
Or worse.
EXT. OUTSIDE BAR — SAME DAY
SHERIFF DEPUTIES have surrounded the bar, herd some people inside, and prevent anyone from leaving. DEPUTY THOMAS WILSON stands at the cloth covered doorway and fires a ten inch torpedo-shaped missile inside.
INT. INSIDE SILVER DOLLAR CAFE — MOMENTS LATER — SAME DAY
For a fraction of a second we travel with a projectile as it makes its way from the doorway towards Ruben Salazar sitting at a counter.
CUT TO:
Restrepo manages to crawl away, choking from gas. Ruben Salazar’s body lies dead on the floor.
ELDER MIGUEL (V.O.)
My friends and I called Ruben’s wife that day to check up on him. She hadn’t gotten the news yet and we didn’t know it yet, either. Salazar had been working on an exposé of police violence and the planting of false evidence, when he was murdered by a tear gas canister modified with a projectile designed to explode through a thick plywood barrier from 100 feet away. One hundred fifty people were injured that day, four died. Raul Ruiz draped a small Mexican flag over the body of Gustaf Montag, a Jewish boy who lived in Boyle Heights.
EXT. CHICANO MORATORIUM STREET — SAME DAY
We see the young man’s body, GUSTAF MONTAV, draped with a small Mexican flag (archives).
Additional material on Chicano Moratorium: here and here. For more on the Chicano movement here. Ruben Salazar here.
For Barrio Barrister (F-8) click here.
