The Targeting of the East Los Angeles Brown Berets by a Racial Patriarchal Capitalist State: Merging Intersectionality and Social Movement Research

Abstract

The Chicano Movement was flourishing throughout the southwestern part of the USA during the late 1960s. The movement was made up of a myriad of non-student and student activist groups in communities, colleges and universities. Its main goal was the economic, political and educational advancement of the Mexican community. Despite initial developments, by the late 1970s, some factions had declined primarily due to repression and violence from the state, patriarchal domination, and from internal ideological conflicts. This study examines the decline of a faction of the movement formerly known as the East Los Angeles Brown Berets between 1967 and 1973. The study focuses on the state and its intersections with ‘mutually constructing systems’ of oppression — racism, sexism, and class — that contributed to the demise of the Brown Berets.