EAST LOS ANGELES : Brown Berets Return to Stem Violence

With “La Causa” stamped on their trademark head wear, several members of the Brown Berets--a disbanded Latino activist group that gained prominence in the 1960s--have reunited with a focus on fighting violence in the streets.

The group will formally announce its new mission at a Barrio Peace Conference at noon Aug. 29 at Casa del Mexicano, 2900 Calle Pedro Infante.

“The Brown Berets were able to do it before by talking to gangs and getting gang members to show pride in their community,” said founder David Sanchez. “The community conference will introduce the Brown Berets to the community so the community and the Brown Berets can work together.”

The Brown Berets claimed 5,000 members in 80 chapters nationwide between 1967 and 1972. The group took part in a variety of activist causes, including the East Los Angeles high school walkouts in 1968, and protests against the Vietnam War and the disproportionately high number of Latinos sent to combat. The group also made news when members stationed themselves on Santa Catalina Island in August, 1972, claiming it and other offshore islands for Mexico.

It has been 21 years since the group disbanded. Some of the members say they have kept in contact during that time while they went to college, started families and joined the work force. With rising gang violence and other crimes claiming the lives of young Latinos, the Brown Berets decided to revive the group to address the problem.

“Nobody seems to reduce the statistics,” said Sanchez, 40, who said he disbanded the group in 1972 because he suspected that law enforcement agencies were infiltrating it. A Chicano Studies teacher at East Los Angeles College, Sanchez said that rather than take an active role in the Brown Berets, he will help it incorporate and seek government grants earmarked for anti-violence programs.

Talk of government grants and incorporation sounds like the Establishment the group once renounced, but its members say its goal--to reduce violence--cannot be tainted by funding sources or tactics.

“We’re not going to have overnight success, but our main attitude is to be positive,” said Mike Nava, 40, president of the San Diego chapter. “Things aren’t getting better. In the ‘60s and ‘70s, we had things going, but now, there hasn’t been worse poverty and homelessness. There’s money out there, but people are using it for jive programs.”

In addition to using more mainstream tactics, the group has also changed in its look. Gone is the uniform of dark brown bell-bottom pants and black boots, replaced by an all-khaki uniform with a small Mexican flag patch on the right sleeve.

Although optimistic that they can make an improvement, some Brown Berets members said the fight will be more difficult because conditions are worse than when they were active 20 years ago.

“The drugs are really worse now than back then,” said Joe Castillo, 38, who served as a Junior Beret in his teens. “Then, it was heroin and reds (amphetamines); now, it’s rock cocaine. It’s easier to get and it’s cheaper.

Nava also said the availability of guns has changed the situation.

“When I was growing up, they’d use rocks, chains or maybe some knives in a fight, but no guns.”

Brown Berets members say 10 chapters from Los Angeles to Phoenix have been re-established. In addition to addressing the problems of youth violence, members said they also hope to promote education and political awareness, including participating in voter registration drives.