Pistol Shots Ring Out
“I am Joaquín, lost in a world of confusion, caught up in the whirl of a gringo society,”
-Excerpt from the Chicano Poem “I Am Joaquin”
“This morning, just a few blocks from this station, gunfire was reported at the Spring Street Courthouse, during the scheduled visit of the State Attorney General, we will keep you updated”
-The beginning of the days events as reported by one California radio station on February 9th, 1954
“Though shrouded in the fog of time as well as the blankets of hearsay and rumors that of course took place after the event, it is not too hard to piece together the events of that morning. The State Attorney General, Edmund “Pat” Brown, came under fire as he exited the Spring Street Courthouse. The assailant supposedly shouted some words in Spanish prior to firing upwards of 3 rounds at the Attorney General, none of which hit the target, though one round did hit a legal clerk exiting the building behind him. Though law enforcement was quick to act and protect the Attorney General, the perpetrator was not caught, at least not immediately.”
- American Historical Association Report on the events of February 9th
“I distinctly remember the day, I’m pretty sure I could even tell you the color tie that Mr. Brown was wearing. I was exiting the building just behind the Attorney General when I heard shouting and noticed a man, more a boy than a man but you get my meaning, running towards the Attorney General. He then revealed an old service revolver and began firing. Me and the other officers weren’t slow to act but our first instinct really wasn’t to go after the man but to protect the Attorney General.
[He was then asked by the interviewer: “At the time, you said the man was Hispanic, will you repeat that for me?”]
The court did in fact find one Joaquin Navarro guilty yes.”
-Excerpt from the dissertation Racial and Socioeconomic Justice in Southern California
“-Do you remember where you were that day?
--Me and Joaquin were trying to fix an old bike that we’d been working on in the shop for quite a while.
-So, you still claim to have been with him at the time of the shooting?
--I know where my brother was”
-Interview with Elías Navarro, brother of Joaquin Navarro, done as research and included as a citation in the previously cited dissertation in 1975
“What happened after the shooting is where events grow more questionable. Most agree that a few hours later, around 5 PM, typical after work hours, a small group of white men, mostly members of the local Native Sons of the Golden West organization, met at the home of former City Councilman Earl C. Gay. Some authors stop here to note that the group was unarmed and merely agreed to drive to East Los Angeles to see if they could help police in that neighborhood in anyway, whilst other authors observe that the men were likely armed and were likely unaffiliated with police. Regardless, the group of men arrived in the City Terrace community by 6:30 PM”
- American Historical Association Report on the events of February 9th
“I remember my Mom crying as the men came into our home, she tried to send me into the other room but they insisted I stay, I now understand they thought I very well could have been the shooter, despite being no more than 12 at the time. They searched through our home and I think one of them hit my Mom, they passed over our house quickly. Luckily for us we lived two blocks away from where most of the real action would take place.”
-Interview with a resident of East Los Angeles done in 1976
“-And do you remember why you had the revolver?
--It wasn’t uncommon for a shop owner to own a gun in Los Angeles at the time, not in East Los Angeles
-It was a service revolver no?
--It was, they were the easiest to come by and the cheapest to buy too, lots of veterans pawned off their old equipment to pay some lost debts.”
- Interview with Elías Navarro
“When the band of men arrived in the neighborhood of Joaquin Navarro, they entered his home and found what they suspected to be the murder weapon. Again, reports diverge at this point. Many of the earlier reports claimed that the men took Navarro immediately to the police and that the events that followed were unrelated to the men or the arrest. Later reports, often updated to include the accounts of those living in the neighborhood, reported that the men dragged Joaquin out to the car, but were not yet finished, as they took out their anger on the neighborhood.”
- American Historical Association Report on the events of February 9th
“Before the fire, this is where the garage of the Navarro brothers once stood. Most of the old equipment and the husk of the building remained out here till the early 1960’s when the equipment had mostly been sold off. Joaquin’s brother, Elías tried to sell the building throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s but ultimately just had to get the lot leveled, selling it in 1971. It passed through multiple hands until eventually it came under the ownership of this Beauty Salon.”
-Excerpt from the transcript of a documentary on the East Los Angeles Fire done in 2018
“What sparked the fires is not known. The police reports at the time concluded that it had been an unnaturally dry period and that electrical issues on account of poor wiring started the fire. Some eyewitnesses report that the garage had been purposefully targeted by white militias. When asked about his role, former City Councilman Earl Gay claimed that the fire was unconnected with his group’s arrest of Joaquin Navarro. Regardless of the spark, every news report and account agree that the fires spread far past the neighborhood of the Navarro garage, quickly engulfing much of the City Terrace community and spreading into the rest of Eastern Los Angeles. “
- American Historical Association Report on the events of February 9th
“You can actually see on the maps of the time just the sheer amount of buildings lost in the fires, over 20% of the Eastern Los Angeles community saw some damage, most of it irredeemable. It is actually what laid the groundwork for the overpasses in the area, as the land was amazingly cheap for the federal government to seize for infrastructure projects.”
-Interview with a member of the local planning board, 2015
“The scale of human lives lost is disputed. Police records claim that no more than 10 people died whilst the highest estimates (those done by one UCLA student in 1968) claim that over 30 may have died. Both estimates agree that property damage was well into the tens of thousands. “
- Excerpt from the dissertation Racial and Socioeconomic Justice in Southern California
“-Do you think what happened was an injustice?
--Yes
-And why do you think that?
--You could look at the jury and tell what their ruling was going to be.”
- Interview with Elías Navarro
“After being driven to the police station, Joaquin Navarro was held and interrogated for multiple days. The trial saw multiple pushbacks that led to Navarro sitting in a jailcell for three weeks prior to his trial. When the trial did commence, it was relatively quick. He was tried in front of an all-white jury in a segregated courthouse, two practices that would be declared unconstitutional in just a few months in the case of Hernandez v Texas. His sentencing was swift, and no appeals were made."
- Excerpt from the dissertation Racial and Socioeconomic Justice in Southern California
- Excerpt from the Chicano Poem “I Am Joaquin”