Expanding Community Advocacy in Santa Clara County With CIC, CAP, CPL And UPA

Title

Expanding Community Advocacy in Santa Clara County With CIC, CAP, CPL And UPA

Description

Community Improvement Center (CIC) & Community Alert Patrol (CAP)

The creation of the organization Community Alert Patrol (CAP) is a good example of the transition from small community groups focused on single issues to the establishment of formal organizations capable of addressing more complex long-term issues. In 1963 the Community Improvement Center (CIC) began as a self-help program. Sofia Mendoza started working with the CIC in 1963 and was a founding member of Community Alert Patrol (CAP). She remembered, “We just had it. We had reached our limit. The police had guns, mace and billy clubs. They were always ready to attack us. It seemed as if nobody could stop what the police were doing” (Roots of Social Justice Organizing in Silicon Valley). CAP was created to deal with complaints of police harassment and brutality, similar to the Black Panthers in Oakland. Close to a thousand local residents were trained to observe and record police interactions with the public, the most active participants being San José State University students involved in organizing for ethnic studies classes.

Community Progress League (CPL)

The CIC evolved into the Community Progress League (CPL) by 1965, with Sofia Mendoza leading the campaign to work with parents at Theodore Roosevelt Junior High in the ethnic Mexican Mayfair neighborhood. As discussed in section 6.4, several ethnic Mexican children told their parents that other students and even some teachers had used racial epithets against them. These children had been reluctant to talk and Mendoza encouraged other parents to become involved. Eventually several teachers and the principal were replaced. Despite the new staff, ethnic Mexican parents and some teachers felt other changes were needed in the curriculum and support system for their children. They organized a student blowout/walkout in 1967 at Roosevelt Junior High, which was an inspiration for the LA “Blowouts” (walkouts) and the Chicano Moratorium March the following year.

United People Arriba (UPA – United People Upward)

The success of the walkout encouraged the group to create United People Arriba (Upward) (UPA) in 1967, which broadened the scope of membership and concerns to include multiple groups and issues. Mendoza and co-organizer Fred Hirsch lead the group. Mendoza recalled, “We wanted an organization that was not limited to one ethnic group, that would organize our entire community, so we called ourselves United People Arriba—United People Upward. We liked the term ‘United People’ because it got the idea across that people from different ethnic backgrounds were coming together in San Jose to work for social change—Blacks, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and whites working together in one organization” (Roots of Social Justice Organizing in Silicon Valley). One hundred thirty people attended their first meeting, many of whom had been involved with the school walkout. They developed a committee system to deal with multiple issues: improving local health services, challenging discriminatory education, expanding welfare rights, monitoring policing tactics, and increasing employment and better housing.

Additional Online Information

Roots of Social Justice Organizing in Silicon Valley | Reimagine!

The Chicana Civil Rights Activist Who Helped Transform San José Housing - KQED Pop

East Side Revelations - Sofia Mendoza | San José Public Library

East San José Celebrates the Life of Sofia Mendoza

SOFIA MENDOZA

Sofia Mendoza Women Leaders of San José, CA The 1960's & 1970's Part 1/3 4/24/2010

In Memory of Fred Hirsch | Local 393

Fred Hirsch: Doing the Work That Needed To Be Done | Convergence

Guide to the Fred Hirsch Ephemera Collection

Fred Hirsch

Identifier

B4SV Exhibit Topic Six: Slide 014