La Manplesa: documentary on the Latino "riots" in the Mount Pleasant neighborhood of DC, 1991

It's being broadcast now.  In the DC area, PBS World Channel isn't available although some of its programming is broadcast on Maryland Public Television secondary channel, MPT2.  But not tonight..

-- "La Manplesa: An Uprising Remembered," PBS World Channel, "America ReFramed" documentary series

On May 5th, 1991, people took to the streets of Washington D.C.’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood to protest the police shooting of a young Salvadoran man, Daniel Gomez. Through testimony, song, poetry, and street theater, LA MANPLESA: An Uprising Remembered weaves together the collective memory of one of D.C.’s first barrios and dives into the roots of the '91 rebellion.

-- "Mount Pleasant Riots," WETA-TV "Washington in the 90s" 
-- "1991: Mount Pleasant," Patrick Scallen,Washington History,Vol. 32, No. 1/2, Meeting the Moment: SPECIAL ISSUE (FALL 2020), pp. 35-37 (3 pages)

Latino emigration to DC was tied to unrest in Central and South America.  The Latino population in Mount Pleasant tracks to the 1940s, and it continued with each round of unrest, especially in and from El Salvador.

I had only lived in DC for about 4 years when this happened.  I was struck by the irony of the "oppression" of people of color by other people of color.

-- "Black on brown racism," 2009

From "The Painful Lessons of Mount Pleasant: Alienation Felt by Hispanics Caught Mayor and City Off Guard," by Christine Spolar, Washington Post, May 12, 1991, A1:

But the sudden spotlight on the Hispanic community has irritated some black leaders, opening a window on the politics of the 1990s in this majority-black city. Poor blacks and poor Hispanics could find themselves in competition for city help as the District's fiscal crisis deepens. ... The clearest challenge to the fledging efforts by Hispanics came from council member H.R. Crawford (D-Ward 7).

"If they don't appreciate our country, get out," he said Thursday. he also said he did not want violence to be rewarded with city programs, and added that the city needed to be concerned with "legitimate members of the community."

At the time, I shook my head, because that sounded like an almost verbatim quote from White racists opposed to equal rights for African-Americans, during the time of the Civil Rights Movement. It made me reflect on how far the nation had come, and how at the same time, as a people we had not moved forward far at all. .

Interestingly, later then Mayor Sharon Pratt Dixon said she mishandled the response ("Former D.C. Mayor: Ferguson Pols Should ‘Own Up To The Concerns’ Of Community," NPR). From the article:

Ultimately, as with Ferguson, we recognized that we had a deeper problem and we had to be more aggressive in owning up to the problem. And the leadership of the city had to say, ‘We understand why you’re angry, this isn’t an appropriate behavior for your anger but we’re going to do something about it.’ So we did let them know in a more personal way that we heard them and we’d address their concerns,” she said.

In the wake of the riots, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights produced a 173-page report (Racial and Ethnic Tensions in American Communities: Poverty, Inequality, and Discrimination. Volume I: The Mount Pleasant Report) highlighting the causes of the disturbances in Mt. Pleasant, among which was a police department that did not reflect or understand the city’s growing Latino population, said Pratt.

“I don’t think we had been aggressive enough in embracing this new population that was developing in the city. We did not have enough officers who could speak Spanish, not enough officers who we’re attuned to the cultural differences that may exist. And we had fallen behind in that regard,” she said.

The commission also proposed a number of solutions, including police reforms and increased Latino representation within the city’s government.

The city did create a number of outreach initiatives and directed more funding to various Latino organizations.  But the 2009 blog entry indicates that the problem continues.