Gloria Arellanes

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Gloria Arellanes (born March 4, 1946) is a political activist known for her involvement with the Brown Berets during the Chicano Movement and has been influential in the development of Chicana feminism.^[1]:118

Early life[]

Arellanes was born in East Los Angeles, and a few years later her family moved to El Monte, California. Gloria's father, César Barron Arellanes, was a Mexican immigrant. Her mother, Aurora Arellanes, was of indigenous Mexican descent from present-day Azusa.^{[1]:115–117} Gloria as a child was never taught about her indigenous roots. Her mother found it easier for Gloria and her sibling, William (Bill) Cesar, to identify as Mexicans. As a child, Gloria was overweight, so her mother would sew clothes together because store-bought did not fit right. Gloria's size made her an easy target of bullying, yet later when she started junior and high school she began to use her size as a way to assert authority.^{[1]:115–117} Gloria attended El Monte High School from 1960 to 1964, which is where her political consciousness began to develop. Her high school had a large mix of white and Chicano population. The Chicanos although from different barrios often stuck together and supported each other. Fights would break out in her high school constantly until a counselor named John Bartan held a Human Relations Club where white and Latino kids could work through their problems.^[1]:126 Through this engagement and community-building, her identity as a Chicana began to grow. She identified many racist aspects of her high school, including discriminatory arrests made in school, teachers ignoring Chicano/a students when they raised their hands, and tracking Chicano/a students into vocational classes.^{[1]:123–126}

Gloria's parents were Democrats. Though they were not politically active, she did know that they had voted for John F. Kennedy. Gloria was more interested in the issues going around with race and discrimination, mainly because she knew what it was like to be discriminated against because of the color of her skin and because she was of Mexican descent.^{[1]:127–128}

After graduating high school, Gloria enrolled in East Los Angeles College but quit after one year. She went on to become involved in community work and got a full-time job with the Neighborhood Adult Participation Project, an anti-poverty program where she organized black and Chicano communities and worked on voter registration.

Brown Berets[]

In 1967, Arellanes and some of her friends visited La Piranya, a coffeehouse owned and operated by the Brown Berets. There she met David Sánchez, who would later become the prime minister of the Brown Berets, who encouraged her to join the Berets. She began attending community meets and events and eventually decided to join.^[1]:131 She was about 21 when she joined and was older than most of the members. Arellanes was named the first female minister of the Brown Berets. Early in her career she represented the Brown Berets when they were awarded the Ghetto Freedom Award by the Greater Los Angeles Urban League. The Brown Berets worked to raise their community by calling for improvement on education and employment, demanding more resources for the Chicano/a movement, and exposing police brutality against their people.^[2] The Brown Berets were involved with the 1968 blowouts, which Arellanes was forced to sit out by her boss, Ed Bonilla.^[1] She was informed that her friend and companion Andrea was arrested by Sergeant Arias of the Special Operation Conspiracy Force of LAPD under the assumption that he had arrested Arellanes. She was being watched by police because of her involvement in the Brown Berets. The Brown Berets worked on building community programs, including the Escuela de Aztlan, a school which aimed to teach Chicano kids Chicano history, politics, and culture.^[1]

Arellanes organized marches during her time with the Brown Berets. In 1969 she arranged for the Brown Berets to use a tank for their float in the September 16 parade. She requested it without informing the clinic it would be used for Brown Berets. Arellanes was also in charge of fundraising for the Berets on a couple occasions. She organized a "Zoot Suit Party" where they made money selling cheap beer. Arellanes, among many other women Berets, organized the newsletter that went out for Mexicans and Chicanos to read, titled La Causa. Limited resources and funds made the production and distribution of the paper difficult. David Sanchez brought the news about the Barrio Free Clinic, which Arellanes was given the responsibility of coordinating. In 1969, she was made the official clinic director.^[3]

Due to what she saw as gender inequality perpetuated by the male Brown Berets in the Chicano movement, Arellanes along with others left the LA chapter. They left by verbal resignation but wrote letters to other chapters explaining their reasons for leaving.^[1] The letter was signed, "Con Che!" due to Che Guevara's stance on equality among the sexes.

Gender relations had a big part in why the Brown Berets fell apart. There was a division between the work the men did and the work that the women did. While they got along for the most part, the women were expected to work the clinic and the men took little part in it. The Beret women were not aware that they were thought of as being not equal to the men because they "never openly expressed macho attitude." Arellanes mentions in her testimony that many of the women left the Brown Berets around the same time. She said this was because they "found that the Brown Beret men have oppressed us more than the pig system has."^{[1]:113–210}

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