I met Maria Guadiana right around the time I entered my freshman year at Wayne State University. I was enrolled in the first-class cohort in Latino En Marcha, which later changed its name to the Center for Chicano and Boricua Studies, and is now known as the Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies. Maria, along with Ricardo Guzman and Native American activist Thurman Bear, would play a huge role in Latino En Marcha and had an immediate impact on their fellow students. But it wasn’t till decades later that I would start to realize the full extent of how instrumental she was to a number of organizations and institutions during the early years of the Detroit Chicano (Mexican American)/Latino movement of the late 60’s through the 70’s. Few are aware of the critical behind the scenes role she played in the early years of the Latino civil rights movement in Detroit.
Some of you may already recognize her name from a few articles I wrote for EL CENTRAL. I often go to her when writing articles about our community’s history, as she is quite the historian. She shared her father Jose Guadiana’s story as the first president of El Comite Patriotico Mexicano. She also introduced me to her brother Ray Guadiana, a fantastic visual artist and muralist, whose 3-sided wall mural graced the inside of the former G.I. Forum Hall on Lafayette and Waterman for decades. Ray also was one of the original members of the late 50’s Doo Wop renowned Mexican American and African American group the Latin Counts, a number whom went on to storied recording careers. Finally, she was a key source for the series I wrote on the formation of Latino En Marcha (Center for Latino/a Studies) at Wayne State.
As I reviewed my notes for this article, I realized quickly I could not do justice in telling her story in such a short article as her experiences were far and wide. What follows is but a part of that story.
Maria was born and raised in Detroit as the youngest of five and was the only girl in her family. She would often accompany her father on his daily chores which included responsibilities associated with being the first president of El Comite. He played a big influence on her which definitely impacted how she started to “see the world”. She remembers picking green beans in Memphis, Michigan in order to supplement family income when she was about eight or nine. This would impact the development of a “consciousness” that would later resonate with the organizing efforts of the United Farmworkers. In the late 60’s and early 70’s she would become an organizer with them.
A Detroit Public Schools student, she went to Preston, Riverside, Webster and eventually Western High School. At Western she was active in school theatrical productions, as a cheerleader, member of the drama and Spanish clubs and participated in the annual Western High Cowboy Capers variety show.
She remembers the impact seeing Robert “Bobby” Kennedy” had on her in 1968 when he visited Detroit while running for President. Robert Kennedy would be assassinated later that year. Not much later, she would become involved in the Eugene McCarthy presidential campaign. This would spark her interest in direct action. It was not long after Tom Gonzalez, then an organizer for the West Central Organization (WCO), came to her house one Saturday while as part of WCO’s regular neighborhood canvassing efforts and talked to her about the United Farmworkers. He would invite her to learn more. She picked up on that invitation which led to her involvement with the United Farmworkers. She recollects that Lupe Andiano, a nun who had moved here from Los Angeles, CA, was the head organizer for the local Farmworkers Office, which at that time was housed in a building on the corner of 17th, and Howard.
Detroit would become a major center of the national Grape Boycott which effectively brought attention to the plight of the farmworkers and their organizing efforts. A major target of the Detroit boycott was the picketing of the A&P grocery store on W. Vernor. At that time A&P was one of the country’s largest grocery store chains.
This work led her to meet a number of notable activists such as the recently deceased peace activist Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and others from the UAW and AFL-CIO. As time progressed Maria would become more socially conscious and immersed herself in progressive politics. This started with her introduction to several of her United Farmworkers colleagues such as Bill Johnston and Ken Firestone who had been members of Students for a Democratic Society. Then Lupe Andiano, the Detroit Farmworkers director, encouraged Maria to attend the 1969 National Brown Berets Convention. As a result of this experience and connections established at the convention she came back to Detroit as the lead organizer for their office in Detroit. She remembers other members of the Brown Berets included Jose Rendon, Leonard Solano, Rolando Garcia, Ricardo Guzman and Art Sanchez, among others.
In the late 60’s and early 70’s the community agency LA SED and a number of Latino activists such as Gus Garnett, Israel Layton, Liz Salas, Gumencindo Salas among others who were members of the Committee of Concerned Spanish Speaking Citizens ramped up their educational advocacy work. Maria was hired as secretary for LA SED and in that role handled a lot of the administrative support work for the groups’ organizing efforts and advocacy, which led to the successful establishment, in collaboration with New Detroit and Wayne State University, of the leadership development and educational program Latino En Marcha in 1971. As noted earlier, fifty-three years later the program still exists as Wayne State’s Center for Latino/a and Latin American Studies.
Her work “went national” at times such as when she worked with Tony Munoz a professor at Fresno State with El Colegio de la Tierra in late 1970 or in her second year of graduate studies with Carlos Arce, another former founding faculty for Latino En Marcha. Maria assisted Arce on his national research with La Red. She traveled most notably to Oklahoma and throughout the southwest training project interviewers.
In 1981 she married Larry Chakur, a reporter for the Garnett News Service. They would later move to Danville, IL, because Larry was transferred there. In the Danville area she worked in a number of hospital and nursery home settings. After five years Larry would be transferred again to Battle Creek where Maria, in a span of 27 years, worked in a number of Adult Day Care, nursing home, senior citizens, hospitals, youth and school settings. When she moved back to Detroit, she landed at Cesar Chavez High School as a social worker. In just shy of two years, she retired in 2015.
Throughout this article I have yet to truly delve into the fact Maria is a licensed social worker. She found time during her activism to study for and secure her Master’s in Social Work from Wayne State in 1978. She credits two individuals early on in her childhood with encouraging her to consider a helping profession. Around the age of 12, Kathy Lopez, a social worker who lived nearby, would regularly take neighborhood children to Clark Park. Another individual Sister Sandy, a teacher at Ste Anne’s who would later on become a social worker, told Maria she should become a social worker when she grew up. She noted Maria liked helping others.
At heart, Maria believes she is an organizer and is proud of her continued community involvement with Messiah Church, which is located on the corner of W. Grand Blvd and Toledo. She noted New City Kids operates out of the facility and local youth to work with younger kids. As she spoke about their efforts you could see that glisten in her eyes! That told me all about her continued joy in and commitment to social activism which will not stop anytime soon.
