[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14363]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             HONORING THE LIFE OF RAMON ``CHUNKY'' SANCHEZ

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Vargas) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Ramon ``Chunky'' 
Sanchez, an exceptional musician and activist for the community of San 
Diego. Chunky Sanchez passed away on Friday, October 28, 2016, a few 
days before his 65th birthday.
  Chunky Sanchez was born in 1951, in Blythe, California, to Mexican 
immigrant parents. He was a talented musician who was taught 
traditional Mexican music by his mother and his uncles. Chunky Sanchez 
quickly learned how to sing, play 10 different instruments, and compose 
his own music.
  In 1969, he attended San Diego State University on a scholarship and 
began performing with La Rondalla Amerindia de Aztlan, a noted musical 
group composed of students and professors. Later, Chunky Sanchez became 
a vocalist for the folklore group Los Alacranes, the Scorpions, which 
he co-founded along with his brother, Ricardo. They recorded their 
first album in 1977.
  Through his music, he would tell the story of the Chicano movement 
and of the Mexican American bicultural experience. Chunky Sanchez was 
so well received that labor leader Cesar Chavez would often invite him 
to play at his union rallies.
  Chunky Sanchez was also an incredibly active member of the San Diego 
community. In his song ``Rising Souls,'' he sang that he needed and we 
needed ``to educate, not incarcerate, so that humanity will shine.''
  During his lifetime, he embodied these lyrics as he worked with local 
youth as a coach, an educator, a youth center director, and a gang 
intervention counselor. His passion and care for the community garnered 
numerous awards and honors from organizations across California and 
throughout the city of San Diego.
  Chunky Sanchez is best known for his song ``Chicano Park Samba,'' 
which narrated the struggle for and the successful creation of Chicano 
Park in San Diego. A city historic landmark, Chicano Park honors the 
history of the Chicano Mexican people throughout their monumental works 
and murals and sculptures and earthworks, and an architectural piece.
  Ramon ``Chunky'' Sanchez will be missed by his family, his wife, his 
five children, many grandchildren, and the San Diego community.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the lyrics of the ``Chicano Park 
Samba.''

                           Chicano Park Samba

  (By: Los Alacranes Mojados: Chunky Sanchez, Ricardo Sanchez, Mario 
                   Aguilar, Marco Antonio Rodriguez)

     In the year the year 1970, in the city of San Diego, under 
           the Coronado Bridge, lied a little piece of land, a 
           piece of land that the community of Logan Heights 
           wanted to make into a park . . .
     A park where all the chavalitos could play in so they 
           wouldn't have to play in the street and get run over by 
           a car . . .
     a park where all the viejitos could come and just sit down 
           and watch the sun go down in the tarde . . .
     a park where all the familias could come and just get 
           together on a Sunday afternoon and celebrate the spirit 
           of life itself.
     But the city of San Diego said, ``Chale. We're going to make 
           a highway patrol substation here, man.''
     So on April 22nd, 1970, la raza of Logan Heights and other 
           Chicano communities of San Diego got together, and they 
           organized . . .
     and they walked on the land, and they took it over with their 
           picks and their shovels and they began to build their 
           park.
     And today, that little piece of land under the Coronado 
           Bridge is known to everybody . . . as Chicano Park . . 
           . ¡Orale!
     It began in 1970, under the Coronado Bridge
     En mi barrio, in San Diego
     Where my people began to fight
     For Chicano Park, for Chicano Park
     Under the bridge, under the bridge, under the bridge . . .
     We shall continue to live my brother,
     We shall continue to fight my friend
     For Chicano Park, under the bridge . . .
     ¡Raza!, ¡Que vivan, que vivan, Los barrios 
           unidos!
     Por Ramon `Chunky' Sanchez.

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