By JUAN ESPINOSA
BOULDER — Fifty-one years after he and five others died in two car bombings, Reyes Martinez was honored at the University of Colorado Law School by his peers, his community, his family and a handful of Mexican dignitaries.
More than 200 attended the program on April 25, in the school’s main courtroom. Martinez was a graduate of the CU Law School. The three-hour program included a showing of a documentary film “COINTELPRO,” a panel discussion featuring four distinguished lawyers, each with their own history of fighting for civil rights and justice, followed by a dedication honoring Martinez’s life and work.
The film set the tone for the event. It is a documentary about the FBI’s secret counterintelligence program known as COINTELPRO that targeted pivotal movements for social change including the Black Panthers, American Indian Movement, and the Chicano movement. Many of the targeted leaders of those movements were killed in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
In her introduction to the panel, CU law professor and Associate Dean for Community and Culture, Violeta Chapin, gave a brief summary of the events that led to the deaths of Martinez and the others known as “Los Seis de Boulder” in May 1974.
No one was ever charged with their deaths. Investigators theorized they died when they accidentally detonated bombs they were handling. Their supporters believe they were targeted because of their attempts to increase the numbers of Chicanos and other minorities attending the university.
In addition to Martinez, the others who died with him on May 27, 1974 were his girlfriend Una Jaakola, a CU graduate and activists, and Neva Romero, who was a CU student senator at the time. Forty-eight hours later, three others were killed in a second car bombing. They were Florencio Granado, Heriberto Terán and Francisco Dougherty. A seventh victim, Antonio Alcantar was severely injured in the second blast and died a decade later.
The panelists have impressive credentials. They were David Martinez, a journalist who was one of the founders “La Cucaracha” and later was a member of the law team that successfully established the heirs’ rights to access the former Sangre de Cristo Mexican Land Grant in Costilla County.
Jose Jacques Medina, a graduate of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) Facultad de Derecho (law school). An activist in the student and populist movement, Medina survived the 1968 massacre of students at La Plaza de Tlatelolco and later served on the Mexican National Congress.
Dickie Montemayor a retired Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) who is still active on the Senior ALJ roster. Judge Montemayor served as an ALJ at the National Labor Relations Board presiding over labor cases throughout the western United States.
Kenneth Padilla has established a reputation as a premier civil rights and criminal defense attorney in Colorado. Padilla successfully litigated landmark, federal class action employment discrimination lawsuits including the desegregation of the Denver Fire Department (circa 1973) and discrimination by the City and County of Denver regarding initial employment and promotion of people of color (2013). He was defense counsel for many Chicano Movement activists charged with criminal offenses.
Padilla began the discussion by addressing the many veterans of the Chicano Student Movement. “You truly were the leaders,” he said.
Montemayor agreed. “The people like those students here in Boulder who protested, they opened the doors and I was fortunate enough to come through the doors,” he said.
He disagreed with the notion that the deaths of Los Seis had a chilling effect on the Chicano Movement.
“The Chicano Movement was wildly successful,” he said. “For me and my experience and for the work I have done, it can be traced directly back to the doors that they opened.”
Padilla said that despite it’s successes, the civil rights movement is now experiencing many setbacks.
“We had an experiment in the 60s, 70 and 80s where the legal system enforced civil rights of Chicanos, blacks and other minorities and groups traditionally marginalized. That experiment has died,” Padilla said. “What are we going to do about it?”
One of the actions Padilla suggested was to impose term limits on US Supreme Court justices to five years. He also advocated for expanding the court to 12. “ That way you would need to have seven votes. It would foster a lot more collaboration, discussion and justice,” he said.
Jacques Medina spoke proudly of Mexico’s new president, Claudia Sheinbaum — the first female president of any North American country. At one point in the 1970s he was forced into exile in the United States of America where he engaged in a protracted legal battle to win political asylum. In 1979 he and many others were granted amnesty, and he returned to Mexico.
He introduced the Mexican delegation who had travelled to Boulder to honor Reyes Martinez and the Chicano Movement. They included Ambassador Pavel Melendez Cruz Mexican Consul in Denver and Mexican Senators Karina Isabel Ruiz Ruiz and Juan Carlos Lora de la Rosa of Chihuahua.
Sen. Ruiz said she has roots in Oaxaca, Mexico, and came to the United States with her parents when she was 16. “I have lived here (Phoenix) for the past 25 years.” Inspired by the story of Reyes Martinez, she aspired to be an immigration lawyer.
In order to afford college, she had to become a legal resident of Arizona. “I had to come out and say I was undocumented. My attorneys were afraid Immigration would come after us. It was a different time. Now they are detaining and arresting citizens because of the color of their skin. And this is a challenge to all of us. What are we going to do about it? What is the legal community going to do about it?
There is no due process and they came after the undocumented, but it’s not just about that. It’s about white supremacy. It’s about those who are in power and don’t want to give it up.”
Ruiz is a Mexican senator who represents Mexicans living outside of Mexico. “I do my best to represent the more than 40 million people of Mexican orientation in this country.”
Jeremy Jones, representative of the law school, told the audience of their plans to honor Reyes Martinez. “A plaque for Mr. Martinez will be displayed in the law school recognizing Mr. Martinez’s commitment to justice in a public manner and hope that our law school community will be inspired to seek justice for all in the face of adversity and oppression for generations to come.”
Raquel Martinez Lopez, Reyes Martinez’s niece, spoke for the Martinez family. She also is a CU alumni. She thanked the law school faculty and leadership for creating a plaque for her uncle, but raised a new concern.
“In the process of planning this event, we found out an egregious injustice has been created here in this very room against my uncle’s brother, my dad, Francisco “Kiko” Martinez,” she said. “A donation was accepted to name a space in this very law school after Fred M.Winner, the chief judge for the federal district court for the state of Colorado. During my father’s trial in the 1980s, Winner was discredited and forced to resign following official misconduct for meeting with the prosecution with the objective of convicting my father without any evidence. Both men graduated from CU with law degrees. Winner gave money and has his name on the judges chambers in a room back here (pointing to the chambers). My uncle gave his life and he gets a plaque.”
Later in the program, Padilla also spoke about the late Judge Winner. “Recently I was in the U.S. Federal Court for Colorado and saw a portrait of Fred Winner. It really, really got to me. This man who had committed a crime. I’m going to write a letter, start a movement to have that portrait removed. He should not be memorialized or honored in any way.”
For many in attendance, the highlight of the evening was announcement of the Los Seis Scholarship Fund. Michelle Steinwand, sister to Una Jaakola, talked about how she and former Boulder City Councilwoman Mary Young started the fund when they were working on the memorial stone for Los Seis at Chautauqua Park, the site of the first bombing.
“To date, we have raised $160,000 including $50,000 from the university. This past year we were able to award six $1,000 scholarships,” she said. “Our big dream is to annually award $5,000 scholarships to six students in the names of Los Seis.
Jasaline Amaya was the first recipient of the scholarship named after Reyes Martinez. She is a political science major and wants to become an immigration lawyer. She said she has been inspired by Los Seis.
“As I grew older and became aware of the injustices in this world, my purpose became clear. I knew I wanted to dedicate my life to addressing those injustices.”
