HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The month of August marks 45 years since a group of five bilingual Houston police officers broke barriers while fighting crime in 1979.
The team, made up of Hispanic men, was called the ‘Chicano Squad.’ They were the first Hispanic homicide unit in the nation and addressed the ever-growing crime across the city of Houston.
Their story will be told nationally in a new A&E docuseries, which will air on Labor Day.
“The cases were just waiting to be solved because no one did anything,” original Chicano Squad member Jose Selvera Jr. said.
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A language barrier created a big problem, with mountains of unsolved cases and five men placed to tackle the task head-first. “Un hombre que hablas dos lenguas vale por dos – that says it all,” Selvera said.
Selvera was one of those men who rose to the occasion to be part of a group of officers who would change policing as we know it.
“We came in at the right time. That’s the way I look at it. It was time for change,” Chicano Squad member Urbin Hernandez said. “We were able to break the barrier.”
Several men on this team join Selvera: Hernandez, Cesario Mosqueda, known as Cecil, Raymond Gonzales, and Jim Montero.
“We all came from the barrios,” Gonzalez said.
“The detectives couldn’t speak to these people (victims). So we were doing two jobs. We had two jobs. I was Hispanic, and I spoke English,” Hernandez said.
The did all this while tackling the rise of Latino homicides.
“Their excuses were that we don’t speak Spanish, we cannot communicate, we cannot go out there, and that’s why the squad was formed: to help out,” Mosqueda said.
The Chicano Squad was also tasked to create relationships with people in the community and create trust.
“Three days to clear a homicide. I told them that when we do something, it’s tough. We’re Hispanics. We relate to each other, but you guys can’t. They’re scared of you. They’re not scared of us,” Hernandez said.
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“Just stay focused, and don’t worry about what anybody says,” Gonzales said. He says their triumphs as a team didn’t come without hardships. “The biggest challenge was for the detectives to accept us,” Hernandez said.
“There were times that they weren’t necessarily encouraged to succeed but they did. They did it with their chins up and their nose to the grindstone,” Harris County Commissioner Adrian Garcia said.
But as the all-Latino bilingual team helped solve big cases like the murder of Officer Guy Gaddis, the respect of other detectives came, and so did that of the community.
“One of the detectives said, ‘Hey, how is it that you guys can clear a case in three days?'” Hernandez said. It was a team of hard workers who only keep growing as the years passed.
In 2010, the Chicano Squad dissolved from the Houston Police Department.
“They dissolved it because now they got plenty of Hispanic officers,” Selvera said.
The original Chicano Squad members say it’s good to see that while they were the first all-Latino homicide unit in the United States 45 years later. “I guess we did do something,” Selvera said.
They say it’s now a different world where diversity is seen in big ways across national agencies.
“Let’s just say that we were able to break the barrier,” Hernandez said.
Now, their story and legacy will be told in big ways for shattering glass ceilings and paving the way.
The Chicano Squad, an A&E docuseries, will be aired for a two-night premiere, deep diving into the chronicles and history of all the team did and the legacy they left behind.
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