Herman Baca will never forget August 29, 1970, when more than 20,000
Chicanos gathered in Los Angeles for a moratorium against the
Vietnam War. They came together in Baca’s words, “to
end a war that was destroying our most precious heritage—our
youth.” He vividly recalls the hot day, the banners, and
the atmosphere of a “giant family picnic”—until
what he describes as a “police riot” broke out. Three
Chicanos were killed in the chaos and many were hurt. It was
the moment when the “sleeping giant” of Chicano activism
began to awaken.
“Chicanos in the late ’60s and early ’70s were known as
the forgotten, invisible and silent minority,” Baca said in
a 2002 speech. “But
things were starting to happen, and
were rapidly changing in Mexican-American communities.”
Baca’s collected papers have
been acquired by the Mandeville Special Collections Library, and
they
are, according to UCSD University librarian, Brian E.C. Schottlaender, “a
major archival collection.”
 A printer by trade, Baca became active in Chicano politics in the
late 1960s, and served as president of the National City chapter
of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), organizing
protests and boycotts in support of the United Farm Workers.
Now in his sixth decade, Baca is the founder of the Committee on
Chicano Rights, and was a key player in the creation of La Raza
Unida political party. He worked closely with many of the leading
figures
of the Chicano Movement, including Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta,
Abe Tapia, Jose Angel Gutierrez and others.
“We’re thrilled about our acquisition of the Herman Baca archives,” Schottlaender
says. “Herman Baca and his colleagues personify Chicano activism
in California. The archive contains numerous documents, photographs
and original graphics of tremendous historical import.”
Lynda Claassen, director of the Mandeville Special Collections
Library, worked directly with Baca and his family and colleagues
to arrange
the valuable archive.
“These are the raw materials of future scholarship,” she says, “enabling
new works and new thinking about the spirit and the struggle of a
movement—and the people who are that movement.”
“Today,” Baca says, “I am still a printer and still reside
in National City. Along with a few others, we continue—in a
different way—to fight the same political struggles we have
fought for the last 35 years.” 
— Paul Mueller
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