Editorial:
Last Friday was the final day for Aztec Printers. Normally the closing of a small business is not a big deal but in this case it was a very big deal for what it represents. Aztec Printers was never a big business. In fact how it survived this long baffled many people. But survive it did. So the closing celebration was not about the business in a monetary sense, but what occurred at that place of business over the past 45 years.
Aztec Printers was the defacto home of the Chicano Movement in the South Bay and in San Diego County. Aztec Printers was the home of the Committee on Chicano Rights that was founded by Herman Baca, who owned Aztec Printers.
For 45 years, important Chicano meetings and strategy sessions, including the planning and organizing of protest, emanated from Aztec Printers. When students, reporters, historians, and the gente wanted to talk Chicano politics or about the Movement they would all eventually show up at the door of Aztec Printers to sit down with Baca. To this day Baca still serves as the beacon of the local Chicano Movement and the standard-bearer by which others look to for guidance. Baca’s advice and help is still sought out by many in the community who are overwhelmed by the bureaucracy of city government or possibly abused by a police agency. And, there have been many times that we editors have sought out Baca’s understanding and collective memory so that we may continue and follow the guiding light of the Chicano Movement which we see as an ongoing struggle.
This Movement that came out of Aztec Printers did not die with the closing of Aztec Printers. It lives on at the University of San Diego, California, as a part of their historical archives. There one can find photos, posters, letters, and correspondences that document the Chicano Movement and the Committee on Chi-cano Rights. The legacy will live on for future generations.
There is another side to the closing of Aztec Printers: the symbolic aspect to the closing. The closing represented a passing of the old Chicano Movement, in action and philosophy. The leaders of yesteryear are now either retired senior citizens or sadly, have passed on.
The young people of today did not have to live through the troubled times of the 60’s, 70s, and 80s. Many young people were either very, very young or not even born. Today’s youth travel, socialize, and politicize by different means and different ways via social media and instant communication.
Technology has zoomed past the Chicanos of yesterday. This was reflected in the gathering at the closing of Aztec Printers and other folks came to say good-by to a time when they were young, active, involved and energetic. The closing statements were led with the recognition of the passing of Reies López Tijerina, a Chicano hero and leader. There were only a few young people there, mostly grandchildren or adult children of Baca’s friends and colleagues. The Chicano Movement as we once knew it is quickly slipping away into history.
There will be other movements. Today we are witnessing action and organizing around immigration. We have different leaders, younger leaders — DREAMers, and social media. In Mexico we see the action around Ayotzinapa and the 43 students killed. This movement is changing Mexico and is involving the youth on the U.S. side of the border who have taken up action in support of the Mexican Movement.
So the moral of this story is that yes the Movement of our youth is passing but this is not the end of young Hispanics, and yes even young Chicanas/os, continuing the struggle for self-determination and equity, but a new day and a new Movement…. Viva La Raza!