Brown Berets

The Brown Berets are a racially charged Chicano nationalist, political extremist, and Mexican American group that emerged during the Chicano Movement in the late 1960s and remains active to the present day. The group was seen as part of the Third Movement for Liberation. The Brown Berets focus on community organizing against police brutality and advocate for educational equality. Several groups have been quite active since the passage of California Proposition 187. Units exist in most sections of California and a few in other southwestern states. Brown Beret member and former Watsonville Mayor Oscar Rios was quoted in an interview as saying,"It (California) belonged to us, Mexico, 1848. It was taken away okay, so it's no surprise we're taking it back slowly but surely."