Stories from La Cucaracha’s first edition
By DEBORAH MARTINEZ MARTINEZ
Nearly 50 years ago, in 1976, La Cucaracha appeared in the Pueblo/Southern Colorado community declaring the new newspaper dedicated to creating an alternative to the existing radio, television, and newspapers in Pueblo. “We feel these established information outlets are not adequately serving all of the people of the community.”
The initial publication of La Cucaracha was May 5, 1976. At that time, the NBC series “Chico and the Man” was being protested as distorting the image of Chicanos and the Barrio. Felix Gutierrez wrote an opinion piece saying that the series “defamed, and demeaned” the Chicano.
With the backdrop of the Cinco de Mayo that year, Chicanos were invited to a week of activities. A Mariachi Mass was offered in Bessemer, and both softball and boxing tournaments played to large crowds. Alcohol was not part of the festivities.
An article reported that the Cinco de Mayo event was based on earlier community activities from the 1930s and 1940s called Jamaicas. Educator Lucia Martinez discussed the evolution of the Cinco de Mayo in her archived interview available on the CSU Pueblo Library website.
Speakers for the 1976 event include pinto Jose Gaitan on prison reform and youth crime prevention. An all-day conference at el Centro de Quinto Sol was presented by La Raza Unida and funded by their Social Services Agency.
Another hot topic for the initial Cucaracha was the June 30, 1975, passage of the Colorado bill authorizing bilingual-bicultural education. By May of 1976, community members were still struggled with School District 60 over the operation of the program. The article reports that the “community committee” was meant to be a decision-making body. The District wanted a ratio of five district employees and two general community representatives on the. committee. The community disagreed and wanted more local people involved. The community committee proceeded to hire teachers without input of Chicano community members. The programs were discontinued in 1981 by Governor Lamm.
The lead article in the Cucaracha was about police interactions with the Chicano community. The story related a recent (1975) incident when Fred S. Rael, 21, was hospitalized with head injuries following an altercation with two officers at his home. After being released from the hospital, Rael was not charged. In April 1975, El Centro de Quinto Sol hosted a community meeting to allow victims and families of police maltreatment to speak out. Some 150 people attended.
Through the discovery process, the Cucaracha related, one officer who assaulted Rael—Steve Sutton—was found to be involved in three other assault cases.
Rael was brought before the Pueblo Grand Jury to testify about the assault charges he filed against the two officers. The Grand Jury resulted in a “no true bill” indicating their refusal to indict the two officers who beat Rael. On this topic, the Cucaracha announced their intention to continue reporting cases of police misconduct.
Other stories include one on the promised traffic lights at Troy Avenue and U.S. 50 and an article about the four meetings planned by the Army Corps of Engineers to talk with the Eastside community about the floodplain.
In 1976, the big Centennial Bicentennial festivities were deemed “unwarranted” by the Cucaracha. An opinion piece said the celebration “is merely a nationally organized campaign to placate citizens in regards to many problems that demand action.”
These were some of the topics discussed in the 20-page, initial publication of the La Cucaracha newspaper nearly 50 years ago.
Information for this article is from the on-line source Colorado Historical Newspapers.
