Sen. Juan Carlos Loera de la Rosa
Editor’s note: The following translation of remarks were entered in the official record of the Mexican National Senate by Sen. Juan Carlos Loera de la Rosa on April 21, 2025. Loera de la Rosa attended the April 25, 2025 at the University of Colorado Law School in Boulder, Colo. and also chose to honor Martinez by entering these remarks into the official record. This translation has been approved by Senator de la Rosa.
In this era of social transformation and reconfiguration of the collective conscience – an era that demands full recognition of the historic struggles and the rights of people that are displaced, racialized and excluded – an official commemoration is proposed of the life and legacy of Reyes P. Martínez López, Chicano attorney, community activist, defender of human rights and martyr of the Chicano Movement. His name, his example and his commitment should be part of the civic calendar of our shared memories.
Reyes P. Martínez López was born in Alamosa, the heart of the San Luis Valley, Colorado on March 5, 1948, ancestral land of the original inhabitants and peasant communities, known for centuries of resistance to colonization, forced displacement and marginalization. The child of railroad workers and grandchild of families whose land was stolen following the war of 1846-1848 and occupation by the United States of land known as: America Mexicana.
The indigenous nations, such as the Diné (Navajo), Nde (Apaches), Nuche (Utes), Numunuu (Commanches), and the Pueblos of the Rio Bravo (Rio Grande), lived for time immemorial in what are today known as the states of New Mexico and southern Colorado. The Spanish colonizers arrived at the end of the 16th Century. In those times there was a shedding of blood as well as a mixing of blood amongst these groups of human beings; this is Reyes P. Martínez López’ lineage.
When the United States government established the national forests at the beginning of the 20th Century, many of the inhabitants were displaced from their land and were forced to travel northward to work in agriculture, mining and the railroads. Both of Reyes’ grandfathers migrated to Alamosa as railroad workers where they built their homes and raised their families.
Reyes’ ancestors have a long tradition of resisting imposition, be it from Spanish colonizers, North American invaders, Confederate slaveholders from the South, and both World Wars of the 20th Century. Reyes’ family’s generation continued this history and tradition of resistance to defend what is theirs.
The Mexican people in the territories usurped following the Mexico-United States War, have always resisted imposition and repression, be it by the government or non-governmental forces. The Martínez Family participated in the Chicano Movement, recognized as the rebirth of resistance by the Chicano people in the second half of the 20th Century.
Reyes was raised surrounded by a dignity formed as a member of an oppressed people where the struggle for justice is not an abstract concept, but a daily necessity. From an early age Reyes stood out as a brilliant student, culminating his university studies in history and government at Adams State University, after which he enrolled in the Law School at the University of Colorado in Boulder from which he graduated in 1973.
During his formative years not only did he dedicate himself to the study of law as a tool for change but he also participated in founding community legal centers that provided legal services to agricultural workers, mainly undocumented Mexicans who were the victims of exploitation and structural racism.
His legal work was not separated from his militancy during the height of the Chicano Movement, when native people demanded recognition of their identity, the return of their ancestral lands and access to meaningful education, justice and dignity.
Reyes became a prominent person in this collective awakening. His struggle assumed a major commitment when his brother, attorney Francisco Martínez, was charged with seditious conspiracy by the federal government in an obvious example of political repression. In response to this accusation Reyes undertook the defense of his brother and of the Chicano people knowing full well that this effort would invite the attention of the intelligence and repression apparatuses.
As the Chicano Movement gained strength, the state’s response and that of its accomplices was ever more hostile. For example, in 1972 an organizer for the American Independent Party lead by the arch-segregationist George Wallace, murdered Ricardo L. Falcón, a student leader in Colorado.
In March 1973 the Chicano Movement organized a march in Denver in support of the defenders at Wounded Knee. As a response to this march the Denver police attacked with bullets and explosives a dormitory for teachers at the Escuela Tlatelolco, a community school for Chicano children and part of the Crusade for Justice. In the skirmish the activist Luis “Junior” Martínez was killed. By a miracle Mario Vásquez, a young activist, survived the bombing of the dormitory. Other persons were detained and criminal charges were filed against them.
In May 1974, only one year after he graduated, Reyes was killed along with the activists Neva Romero and Una Jaakola in an automobile explosion engineered by yet unknown forces. Two days later three more young activists — Florencio Granado, Heriberto Terán and Francisco Dougherty — died the same way. A fourth passenger, Antonio Alcantar, was seriously injured and died several years later due to the injuries he suffered in the explosion. Today they are known as Los Seis de Boulder +1.
In 2015, a federal court in Washington, DC, based on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), ordered the FBI, the CIA and other federal agencies to release classified official documents in the custody of the federal government. The FBI and the CIA continue to release the documents in piecemeal fashion. The government estimates there are 250,000 pages of information generated as part of COINTELPRO, a secret operation whose purpose was to neutralize civil rights movements including leaders in the Black, Indigenous, Puerto Rican and Chicano communities. Presently unknown are the true motives and actions perpetrated by the state and its accomplices against the Chicano Movement. The right to learn the truth about this presently unknown information is part of the reason why Reyes’ memory should not only be preserved but also institutionalized.
The legacy of Reyes P. Martínez López is not only history: It is also the present. It is an affirmation that the struggles for social justice transcend generations and geography. In a world that is reevaluating the memory of nations, that demands policies of reparation and horizons of inclusion, a declaration of an observance in his honor is not a symbolic gesture, it is an ethical affirmation. It is a recognition that rights are constructed from the pain, the dignity and the resistance by those who the law denies, but who never renounced justice.
Reyes represents thousands of young persons who dreamed and died for a more just society and whose voice continues to be silenced, but it resonates today in every movement that seeks to redeem the land, the truth, culture and life.
In this regard, as a Senator of the Republic, we join said tribute by greeting the Chicano community, heirs to the labor and sacrifices of great women and men who struggled for their rights and those of the future generations; a clear example of the historical responsibility that we must undertake for the benefit of all of humanity in the face of obtuse speeches, and sustained by hate and the scorning of their fellow humans because of differences of origin, culture, social class or skin color.
We also honor today those that lift their voice because of the injustices of our time and we join them so they do not cease their struggles and “until dignity becomes habit.”
For all of the above, I submit for the consideration of this Honorable Assembly the recording of this important commemoration.
Faithfully, s/ Sen. Juan Carlos Loera de la Rosa