The Milwaukee Worker took me to a tiny apartment in the Near South Barrio.  I interviewed the mother of Ray Mendoza, who was awaiting trial for the murder of two off duty Milwaukee policemen.  He had been arrested in a “knock down doors” dragnet of the Mexican community.  A white woman who witnessed the shooting seemed to clear him of involvement.  We sponsored a fundraiser that filled an auditorium with Mexicanos in cowboy boots and hats.  We may have called them Chicanos.  But most didn’t seem to know what the term meant.

One of the marches featured a column coming from the barrio joining up with a group originating in the student/hippy East Side.  For some doctrinaire reason that I can’t remember, we had been instructed by higher ups in the RU national leadership to walk out of the main Ray Mendoza Defense Committee and to form our own.  I remember the uncomprehending look on Ernesto Chacon’s face when we explained our logic.

To this day, I don’t know if Ray Mendoza was actually guilty.  He testified that he fired in self-defense.  His first conviction was overturned on appeal.  He was later arrested for possession of heroin.  Was this a vindictive set up – or if he was a straight up bandito.  Some say he was a coyote who helped Mexicans cross the border.  Reality was probably more complex than a simple label.  His mom was a director of the United Migrant Opportunity center.  So for me the whole phenomenon concludes with many question marks.

It does seem incongruous looking back and comparing it to the climate of today that so many people would be so passionate in support of Mendoza.  He was accused of a double murder of off duty police officers.  His supporters were true outsiders, immigrants who were only just beginning to populate Milwaukee’s near south side.  Also there was a lot of generalized hostility against the police in those days, especially among youth.

On the other side of town there had been the terrible swift punishment against the 3 Black Panthers.  They received 30 years for a supposed incident in which nobody was even wounded.  I wonder now if weak support for “the three” was due to the fact that the Panthers didn’t have much history in Milwaukee.  At first they rushed way ahead of what the people were ready for.  People may have been aware that they were heavily infiltrated by informants. To put your neck out for them could get you in trouble – especially if you were angling for a job or a grant in the expanding poverty programs of the day.