Chris Zepeda-Millan, UCLA associate professor of public policy and Chicana/o and Central American Studies, emphasized the Chicano Moratorium’s role in shaping immigrant rights activism in a recent article by Boyle Heights Beat. He explained that Boyle Heights–based organizers like Bert Corona and Chole Alatorre developed strategies to defend undocumented communities and trained activists to see migrant rights as human rights.

“Chicanos and Mexican immigrants in Boyle Heights can be credited for laying the foundation for the modern-day national immigrant rights movement,” Zepeda-Millan said, underscoring the community’s pivotal role.

He pointed to young people continuing this legacy: “Today’s activists in Boyle Heights and the broader East L.A. area are carrying on that legacy of fighting to protect and expand the rights of all members of our community, regardless of their citizenship status.”