DALLAS — Everyone has a day they'll never forget.
For Rene Martinez, it was the day his mother told him 12-year-old Santos Rodriguez, a child from their neighborhood, was killed by a Dallas police officer in 1973 .
“This was the epitome of the worst that could happen,” Martinez said.
Martinez was just 24 years old when his mother, Maria Villasana, asked him a question that would shape the course of his life and professional career.
“She asked, ‘What are you going to do about it?’” Martinez said.
He began organizing community meetings and protests the very next day.
At the time, Martinez shared in the community’s anger over the young boy’s murder.
That anger only grew by day.
“I think the Santos Rodriguez incident was a pivotal point,” Martinez said.
Fifty years have passed since Santos was killed. Martinez told WFAA it feels like yesterday when protests erupted.
“Since I was the youngest and dumbest, I was the one asked to lead the march,” Martinez said.
Four days after Santos was killed, Martinez led thousands on a peaceful march down Commerce St. in downtown Dallas.
“It was a huge turnout, and the march and riot itself was very unfortunate, because it turned into a riot,” Martinez said.
As the march he organized ended, another group arrived.
“They were angry, they were much more vocal, and they couldn't really be controlled,” Martinez said.
They large group of rioters burned a squad car, blew up a motorcycle and tore through storefronts. They left behind a trail of destruction.
When Martinez watched an elderly woman beating a charred squad car, he decided it was time to go home.
“That was the epitome of anger and what people were feeling that day,” Martinez said.
The reaction to the murder of Santos sparked the beginning of the Chicano movement in North Texas. For years, marches, meetings, and calls for accountabilities followed.
“We did get some outcomes, and it was the beginning of the type of police reform we now have,” Martinez said.
His push for justice, accountability, and equal rights have become his life’s work. Martinez, a President of the LULAC Dallas chapter and Special assistant to the President of Texas A&M University-Commerce is focused on educating the next generation about the Santos story.
“We cannot afford to forget that day, but more importantly, that it should never happen again,” Martinez said.