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The Vietnam War is still on going, which started in the 1960's and is in full swing going into the 1970's, this war is very controversial in America at this time.
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In 1970, Carlos Santana recorded the monster hit “Oye Como Va!” hitting #13 on Billboard’s Top 100 chart.
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Herman Badillo is elected into the U.S. House of Representatives, making him the first Puerto Rican to serve in Congress.
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San Diego-based poet Alurista’s collection Floricanto en Aztlán is published by the U.C.L.A. Chicano Studies Center.
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Congress passes the 26th amendment lowering the age of voting form 21 to 18. effecting many young Americans giving them the opportunity to vote.
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Rodolfo Anaya wins the Premio Quinto Sol award for his novel, Bless Me Ultima, a coming of age narrative with magical overtones set in the rural communities of New Mexico.
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The San Francisco based group Malo releases “Suavecito” and it charts to the top 20 nationally. The song vys with “Sabor a Mí” for status as the “Chicano national anthem.”
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Héctor Lavoe’s solo album La Voz (The Voice) cements his fame as “El Cantante de los Cantantes,” (The Singer of Singers).
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Charles Felix organizes a massive mural painting project in an economically impoverished housing project in East Los Angeles known as Estrada Courts. Within a decade the walls of each apartment building are painted with murals reflecting the life and culture of the community.
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In New York, Dr. Gary Keller begins publication of the periodical, The Bilingual Review. Within a short time, Gary Keller and his staff at the Bilingual Review will begin publishing a wide range of Latino writers.
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Joan Baez releases her first all Spanish language album, “Gracias A La Vida,” The album includes traditional Mexican folk songs and songs of the Nueva Canción in Latin America.
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Maurice Ferre becomes mayor of Miami, making him the first Puerto Rican to lead a major city in the mainland United States.
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President Richard M. Nixon resigns the office of the presidency, avoiding the impeachment process and admitting his role in the Watergate affair.
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Muralist Wayne Alaníz Healy and David Botello join forces and form East Los Streetscapers. They paint a mural on the corner of Broadway and Daly in East Los Angeles , the first of dozens of murals they will paint throughout East Los Angeles in the decades that follow.
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Rain of Scorpions and Other Writings by Estela Portillo-Tramley wins the fifth and last
Quinto Sol Literary Award is published by Tonatiuh International, Berkeley, California. -
History of the Mexican Worker, a mural painted in Blue Island, Illinois by Raymond Patlán, Vicente Mendoza and José Nario, stirs controversy when its completion is delayed because of a city ordinance prohibiting advertising on public walls. The artists file a successful lawsuit allowing completion of the mural.
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The Viking 1 space probe successfully lands on Mars. It would be followed by a second unmanned Viking II on the Utopia Plains on September 3. The first color photos of the surface of Mars are taken on these flights.
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The Second Annual Chicano Literary Prize at UC Irvine is announced: Winners include Rosa M. Carsillo, Gary Soto and Rosaura Sanchez in fiction.
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Maize literary magazine begins publication in San Diego, California. The magazine
will continue publishing Chicano as well as international Latino writers until 1986 -
The Iran Hostage Crisis begins when sixty-three Americans are among ninety hostages taken at the American embassy in Tehran by three thousand militant student followers of Ayatollah Khomeini,
