KPLU Local News
(2009-11-12)
Listen Now:
null
Bob Santos (left) and Roberto Maestas joke around at Seattle's El Centro De La Raza, a community center the two activists helped found 37 years ago.
Larry Gossett, King County Councilman and longtime civil rights activist, who is being honored by the Seattle YMCA.Florangela Davila (KPLU)
"I'm the handsomest of the four," Roberto Maestas says. "Bernie Whitebear -- he was always kind of smooth looking. Larry Gossett. Larry Gossett doesn't change, you know? He holds his age well. Bob Santos looks more raggedy every day. Isn't that right Bob?"
Bob Santos laughs, calling Roberto Maestas "old."
Maestas and Santos, both in their 70s, are in a conference room on Seattle's Beacon Hill, in a building that's very much a legacy of their activist lives. Thirty-seven years ago, in protest of funding cuts for English as a Second Language classes, Maestas and other Latinos occupied the boarded-up Beacon Hill school. The occupation lasted three months. It ended up creating El Centro De La Raza, a vibrant community center with its day care, education classes and food programs. But Maestas says it wasn't just Latinos who got the job done.
"I know for a fact that when we walked in on Oct. 11, 1972, into an abandoned building right here where we're talking right now, that one of the first responses of support was Bob Santos, who was the leading spokesperson for the Asian American community," Maestas recalls.
"And the Indians sent us a delegation of people with 300 fish the day after the occupation, from the Nisqually Delta, saying Good luck. This is a symbol of love and solidarity. You're going to need this salmon because its going to be a long haul."
The men can talk activist story after activist story for days. The time they stormed the King County Executive's office to protest the building of the Kingdome and the disruption it would cause in the International District. The time they picketed a waste disposal company when it mistreated Latino workers. Or when they "invaded" Fort Lawton at Discovery Park. That "invasion" resulted in Daybreak Star cultural arts center.
Back in the day, there were four of them: Maestas, Santos, Larry Gossett and the late Bernie Whitebear, who died nine years ago.
"Bernie was really our most inspirational leader and comrade amongst the four of us. He so inspired and we had so much fun," Larry Gossett recalls.
You might recognize the names of the men, who've been nicknamed The Four Amigos. But if you've been in Seattle for any length of time you know their work. El Centro de la Raza. The Black Student Union at the University of Washington. The Central Area Motivation Program. The International District Improvement Association, also know as InterIm. Daybreak Star.
Maestas, Santos, Gossett and Whitebear: Four men of different races and ethnicities who shared a common civil rights agenda.
"We were minority groups in the United States that (sic) had a long history of being discriminated against," Gossett says.
"All the issues -- equality, employment, education and housing -- with each individual group having those kinds of problems that was sort of the glue keeping us together," Santos says.
Even when authorities tried to pit one minority group against another, the activists didn't flinch. There gained power - and the public's attention - when all people of color took up a cause.
"When we had black, brown and red joining us we would see the dramatic attitudes that powerful officials would have. University presidents, and whomever, this is a different ballgame," Maestas says.
Larry Gossett, who helped start the local Black Panthers group, says crossing racial lines wasn't always easy.
"Some people said,'Why are you supporting those people? When have they ever been there for us?' Yeah, we got that from some people but fortunately, here in Seattle, we had a Bernie Whitebear and a Bob Santos and a Roberto Maestas saying, 'That's crazy. We gotta be together.' And that has paid off," Gossett says.
The four men have each received accolade after accolade. But the Seattle YMCA says the men have never been championed for what they've done as a group. Which is why the Four Amigos are receiving this year's A.K. Guy award, named for a man who ran a local drug store and was an active volunteer.
Bob Santos is now retired from InterIm. Roberto Maestas has stepped down from the helm at El Centro.
But Gossett, who is 64, is a King County Councilman working in an office that used to be a jail cell. His jail cell. His activism sent him there eight times.
He pages through a scrapbook about his activist past.
"I have all the Black Student Union newspapers that we did. I feel like I was one of the luckiest men in the world to have lived during this period and be involved in the manner that I was."
It's a sentiment shared by all the amigos, who insist they've still got an agenda: fewer numbers of blacks in jail; more minority college graduates; affordable housing. They plan to mentor the next generation of activists and say they'll continue fighting no matter how old they get.
Florangela Davila, KPLU News
Profile of Larry Gossett, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
Profile of Bob Santos, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
Profile of Roberto Maestas, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
Lawney Reyes recalls his late brother Bernie Whitebear, Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project
© Copyright 2012, KPLU
