After the Moratorium's suppression, the Berets turned to dramatizing the promises of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. A 1971 caravan, La Marcha de la Reconquista, traveled a thousand miles through the Southwest; and in August 1972, twenty-six Berets landed on Santa Catalina Island and raised the Mexican flag at Avalon, claiming the island — omitted, they noted, from the treaty's cession — for the Chicano nation. The 24-day occupation ended without prosecution when authorities chose eviction over martyrdom.
Weeks later David Sánchez dissolved the national organization, citing the infiltration and provocateur operations that had set chapters against each other — the Berets' own files and later disclosures confirming that police agents had reached the leadership. Revived chapters continue today, and the original generation's cases remain touchstones of Chicano political-prisoner history.