Oct. 1 (UPI) — Google is celebrating U.S. Chicano educator, boxer, poet and activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales with a new Doodle.
Google’s homepage features a slideshow of artwork featuring Gonzales be a champion in the boxing ring and later becoming a leader of the Chicano Civil Rights Movement.
The slideshow was illustrated by New York-based guest artist Roxie Vizcarra and features lyrics from Gonzales’ 1967 poem Yo Soy JoaquÃn that became a rallying cry for the Chicano cultural movement.
Gonzales was bron in June 1928 in Denver and worked alongside his father, a first-generation Mexican immigrant, in sugar beet fields. He graduated from high school in at the age of 16 but later dropped out of college due to the high tuition.
Gonzales became a pro boxer at 19 in 1944 and was ranked as a top 3 Featherweight boxer. He left the sport after promoters wouldn’t allow him to fight for a championship and used his fame to advocate against racial and socioeconomic injustice.
He founded the Chicano civil rights organization Crusade for Justice in 1966 and organized the first National Chicano Youth Liberation Conference in 1969.
Gonzales and his family opened on this day in 1970 the Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios, the first private school in U.S. history that had a focus on Chicano and Mexican-American cultural studies.
Google also released a behind-the-scenes video on how the Doodle was created.
Gonzales died at the age of 76 in April 2005.