I was just a boy at the time but if my memory serves me right, he was only against illegal immigration for appx. nine months. I base this on Hearald Examiner articles I used to read. I wish I could access the archives so that I can finally come up with a more accurate time frame, for better or for worse.

I’d sure like to debunk the nativists who, as you state in your post, use this little known “factoid” to try to define Chavez as anti-immigrant.

He was not. And I repeat, he reversed himself. And that is the main thing.

Chavez’s family lost their land to the Anglos. They were a family of means (at least somewhat). But he cared for the poor. Who at that time were mostly Filipinos and Mexicans.