Friday marks the 55th anniversary of the Chicano Moratorium in Los Angeles. The Aug. 29, 1970, protest started peacefully, but ended in violence.

San Diegan Gaspar Luna Oliveira remembers the day vividly; he was there.

“What was supposed to be a day of solidarity with families, having a get together, having some speakers and entertainment — it turned out to be a nightmare," Oliveira said. "It wasn’t a people’s riot, it was a police riot.”

That day, an estimated 20,000 to 30,000 Chicanos protested in East L.A. against the disproportionate death rate of Mexican Americans in the Vietnam War.

At the time, Oliveira was president of the San Diego State University chapter of M.E.Ch.A.. The group, whose name is an acronym for Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán, focused on Chicano pride a

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