DEVELOPMENT OF LPOA 1972-1973

          The purpose of writing about our early years is an effort to provide some background on the formalization of the Latino Peace Officers Association prior to 1974. This is also an acknowledgement of the tireless work done by many fine individuals to make this dream come true. There is still a lot to recount in the evolution of this fine organization; of the good fights taken on by courage’s people who felt, ya basta, enough is enough. One of those individuals that stands out in my mind for his courage and dedication is Joe Lopez. He filed a class action suit through the courts against the County of Santa Clara and was successful in generating a consent decree from the court. His courage and suffering because of his ideals is a story in its own right. However, there were also other victims who saw the wrong and tried to right it, and who paid a high price because of it. As stated, our LPOA is full of stories of heroes, and I would like to recall these many individuals at a later date. For now, I would like to narrate the events which took place before the adoption of the Association’s Articles of Incorporation and perhaps reveal the foundation for the LPOA to become the National Latino Peace Officers Association, NLPOA.    

Joe Lopez, now a Sergeant
with the Santa Clara Sheriff Dept.

          My eagerness to become involved in organizing and wanting to make positive change comes, perhaps, from my grandfather who was a strong supporter of Caesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers Union. As a young man I was impressed with the dedication and commitment of the folks involved in the farm workers’ struggle. These poor people had very little, but they gave all they had to guarantee a better future for the next generation. As a very young boy picking cotton in the San Joaquin Valley near Visalia, I saw the highway patrol officers on stops or patrolling along U.S. Route 99. It was strange to see tall white male officers, without seeing one minority amongst them. I made up my mind that I would be a highway patrol officer.

          I went to work for the State of California, in 1966 with the Department of Corrections as a correctional officer shortly after my discharge from the army. In 1968 I joined the California Highway Patrol and, after graduating from the academy, I was assigned to the West Los Angeles Office. I believe there were only approximately 2.5 percent people of color in the Department when I joined, and seldom did you see any minorities as supervisors, much less in the management ranks. It wasn’t that we were not qualified; it was the uneven playing field in which we had to compete. Not being part of the good ole boys didn’t help much either in the promotional process. Many times it was evident that a lot of the white officers did not agree with having minorities in the ranks. After all, the artificial obstacles that had been put in place greatly reduced the number of minorities that could join the ranks. A good example, and one which the CHP could not defend, was the minimum height requirement of 5’9" inches. This bogus requirement certainly limited the number of Latino and Asians that could meet that height, (LPOA with the assistance of Asian and Women organizations eventually changed that requirement when they testified before the State Personnel Board and won).

          For these reasons and others, the seed for organizing had been planted in my mind. In early 1972 John Parraz (who died in a freak auto/pedestrian crash in 1979) and I had been recruited into the Mexican America Correctional Association (MACA) by Mr. Gene Reyes, who at the time was employed with the California Youth Authority, and was a mentor to both John and I (he still continues to keep me on the straight and narrow).

Gene Reyes

          In October of that year the first Northern California Annual Conference of the MACA outside of the Los Angeles area was held in Sacramento. The event was held at the Mirador Hotel, located on the corner of "M" and "14^th" Streets. We supported the issues being discussed by MACA Members at that conference; however, the issues revolved mainly around parole and probation aspects of the criminal justice system.

          Although we understood the importance of the work being done by this organization, we agreed that as cops, (John was a deputy with the Sacramento Sheriffs Department and I was a California Highway Patrol Officer assigned to the San Jose command) we needed an organization that could address "police issues".

          We continued our discussion throughout the conference; and at the conclusion we resolved to begin developing an organization dedicated to seeking change in the law enforcement process and the way that policing was administered in the community. Our goals for this organization included the need to affect positive change in the educational process. That same day, we toasted and gave birth to what we, at a later date named, the Latino Peace Officers Association. Upon returning to San Jose (in Santa Clara County) I began immediately to make plans to turn our ideas into action. John and I began to recruit individuals who shared our commitment. We went in search of resources and input from more experienced individuals in the community then we. After all, neither John nor I had any administrative, business or supervisory skills, and here we were ready to take on a society that still looked at us as second class citizens and thought that the best we could do was to work in the fields. Later, in those early years we were to see exactly what our decision would generate.

          We were enthusiastic and entered our on-the-job training (OJT) in a very positive frame of mind, regardless of the hard work and expense our undertaking put on us. These were extremely difficult times for our families, not only due to the fact we were traveling throughout the State to organize, but also for financial reasons as well. We did not have any outside funding to support our organizational efforts. Everything we paid for came from our salaries, which weren’t much at the time.

          I must digress from my narrative in order to tell you why the name Latino Peace Officers Association was selected for our new organization. It had always been my intention that the LPOA should be a national association, and I realized that the only way to include the many nationalities was to name it "Latino" in order to represent those individuals who were not Mexican American, Chicano, etc. I might add that "Chicano Police Officers Association" and "Mexican American Police Officers Association" were a couple of the names suggested for the organization.

          In the selection of our Association’s colors of blue and gold, I was influenced by the fact that blue is my favorite color and the gold went well with it, plus it made our logo look very sharp. After going through dozens of books on Mexico’s’ Aztec Indians, I came away from the downtown San Jose Library with our present logo. It had purposely been my intention not to identify the origin of the statue to anyone in order for it to fit our motto which John Parraz, Ray Mendiola from San Jose Police Department and I had developed. The figure is of an unknown Indian origin and reminds us that we are twice bound together by blood and profession. Later, one of our scholars revealed its origin and significance to the membership. (Jenny Rodriguez, a friend who attended San Jose Junior College with me, painted our first logo on canvas)

          In retrospect, I feel the success in our early development was based on several important factors. First, we offered individuals hope and a future where, as policemen or policewomen, they did not have to constantly watch their backs, and could perhaps expect that the system could be made to work for them. The goals and mission statement developed for LPOA were important and meaningful to the individuals we spoke to and recruited. However, many individuals were afraid to join and believed that they would jeopardize their jobs if they joined LPOA, while others were in denial as many still are today. Many good individuals did lose their jobs and, for others, joining brought on its own repercussions.

          Initially and along the way, before and after John’s death, I had the privilege and honor to have had the counsel of many wise and knowledgeable individuals who for the most part had received their experience through the school of hard knocks and not necessarily the formal education process. Daniel Campos, now deceased, not only was a great individual, but contributed greatly to my personal development as well as to the progress of LPOA in its infancy.

          Daniel had just been promoted to sergeant with the San Jose Police Department when I was assigned to the San Jose Office of the CHP in March of 1969.

          At that time, Daniel was also very involved with SER and provided us many of its resources, such as a meeting place, typewriters, and copiers, which we used to produce our first (very rough) LPOA Flyers. But the most important thing he provided me personally was his wisdom and counsel. Even when he left the SJPD to work for the San Jose City Mayors Office, we continued to communicate regularly on a variety of issues, and he continued to be a strong supporter of LPOA throughout the remainder of his life. I will always be grateful for his friendship and guidance through very trying times in that period of my life.

          Early in our embryo stage of development, there was Mr. Jack Brito, the Director of the Mexican American Community Services Agency (MACSA), with whose support we were able to successfully accomplish many things for the advancement of LPOA. With MACSA came my introduction to a very special person that I hold very dear to my heart, Rosamaria Hernandez. Jack said he was the Boss, but it wasn’t long before I knew that Rosamaria was the MMC. She was someone I could always go to with problems, and I knew she had my back. I would write letters and other written communications, and she would proofread them and make them right. To this day, she is very involved with the NLPOA and has always given her best for us.

          Mr. Fred Caballero was a saint. He put up with all of us (LPOA), but specifically with Rosamaria, Barbara Rodriguez (Ponze) and I when we were attempting to make El Puente (LPOA) newsletter a reality. You see, Fred owned a very successful print shop, and he naively decided to help us in our efforts. Later, he was heard to say more then once, "Vicente, eres como un boracho, terco y necio!" Translation: "You are like a drunk--stubborn and obstinate." However, he was always there for us, even when we gave him last-minute changes or additions to El Puente. Even more amazing, he never charged us one red cent for the use of his resources and his patience.
 

          Today there are still many Latinos doing law enforcement work that continue to deny the positive effects that are produced when people come together for the common good. They shut their eyes to the many sacrifices endured by their communities to make the necessary changes possible and to ensure that departments are forced to reflect the communities they serve. I cringe every time I hear individuals say, "No one helped me get this job, I made it on my own." Hello, take the time to inform yourself of past discrimination, when school districts denied equal education and signs were posted, "No Mexicans or dogs allowed," then ask yourself if you did it on your own.

          There are many other stories regarding the early years of LPOA and its evolution to NLPOA; however, I have covered only the early years from 1972 to1974. These were hard times -- members lost their jobs and/or were harassed because of their involvement with LPOA, and we fought injustice in the trenches against entrenched ideas that largely excluded minorities from the policy and decision-making apparatus. However, and in spite of it, recalling the times has brought back a lot of good memories.

          Also, I want to acknowledge the contributions which early member from the Santa Clara County Chapter provided to make our association a success. Bob Bravo, Joe Lopez, Department, Ted Ferdin, Santa Clara Sheriff's Department, Fred Esparza, San Jose Police Department, Lou Cobarrubios, who eventually became Chief of San Jose Police Department, Tom Perez, San Jose Police Department and presently a college professor, and my compadre, Adolfo Hernandez, who was killed in the first CHP Helicopter crash in 1975. There was also Ray Mendiola, San Jose Police Department, who is a chief of police in Texas and Art Flores (that’s ludicrous) San Jose Police Department. My heartfelt thanks also go out to all those wonderful community people that supported our early cause and continue to support NLPOA today.

          For every successful man there is a successful woman, and that is certainly true in my case. My wife Frances was always in the forefront and supported my efforts and goals to the hilt. In the early days of my organizational and recruitment efforts (I always used to carry little strips of papers in my pockets with individual’s names, phone numbers and other information of potential members) she would say, "You would have made a good communist." Perhaps it was like Fred Caballero’s statement, "Eres como un boracho, necio y terco."

Si Se Puede

Vicente Calderon