Joseph Lewis Guadalupe (Joe) Navarro was born on 13 October 1953 in San Francisco, California. Brought up by his mother after the family was abandoned by his father, Navarro was a typical product of the many Chicano families raised mostly on welfare. He was expelled in the eleventh grade for wearing a brown beret, a symbol of Chicano pride and commitment, although his grades had been failing for some time before that.

After his expulsion Navarro launched himself more fully into the Chicano political struggle, helping to found an organization called "Free Los Siete de la Raza," which was named after a successful movement to free seven Latino youths who had been framed by the San Francisco police for killing a police officer; they were finally acquitted of the crime. Navarro went on to work in a foundry and became involved in union politics. In 1975 he was elected president of...