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Chicano! Taking Back the Schools

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1968 was a time in which the entire planet was feeling the reverberations of a new spirit it certainly was going on in Mexico it was going on in France it was going on all over the United States with students of every single skip college and town demanding that there was and had to be a better alternative to what was going on in the world at that time the Vietnam War was a big issue for everybody to play for Chicanos because we were dying their entire proportions to anyone else and no laundromat  so that our contributions didn't mean anything to the country and we saw reflected in the world that people thought that something could be done and we felt that we had to do what we could do with our lives as well that was a time in 1968 there was never a school term like this one it began with a simple protest by students who wanted a better education school officials became involved and the parents then the police any FBI before long schoolchildren were branded as subversive their lives threatened all because they wanted a better education giraffe East Los Angeles in the 1960s this was home to almost 100,000 Mexican Americans what's the largest bill in the United States  growing up in East Los Angeles I wasn't actually aware of it as the young child but it soon became apparent that I grew up in a very isolated very segregated neighborhood community that was totally separate from the rest Los Angeles education was seen as a way to break down those barriers away for young people to one day have what everyone else has I was buying it the whole thing about the American dream get an education you can be whatever you want to be and and you know read all these books I missed the teachers even though at the back of my mind I seen something going on here you know the reality I see here is different from what you're saying something was definitely wrong only one out of four Chicanos completed High School the dropout rate was really kind of what some people call a push-up Ray time it is where students who were being pushed school because their needs weren't being met their culture was not addressed the school really wasn't doing anything for them unemployment was almost double the national average  those who were earned about two-thirds of what other Los Angeles residents are these conditions had a dramatic impact on Mexican American children I started Elementary School in the early 1950s and I was the only student in my kindergarten class it was modeling Spanish-speaking child and I was immediately led to the front of the class and I was instructed in how to create a cone hat out of a construction paper teacher painted a word on it and told me I could take it off when I learn to speak English and the words painted on that was a weird Spanish I remember going to the elementary school taking my tacos of the holidays and leap and rise be made fun of by the other kids in in in junior high especially to the point where I didn't want to take tacos the account to school online bologna sandwiches  I remember a feeling ashamed you know when my father would go to school because he didn't speak translating for feeling ashamed being Mexican  which fed this growing anger in me time to same things were you know infecting everyone else and everyone responded in a different way the burden was pretty heavy you know in terms of the shame of not feeling that your parents were worth anything because the teachers and schools treated them like children there were clear signs of prejudice recrimination  I remember vividly when I was an honor student being asked by the white consler what my father for a living and telling her while you know he's a laborer you know he works with his hands and then she told me and I never forget this is what exact words that is a very honorable profession you should follow in your Father's Footsteps  my homemaking teacher she would say you know what are Mexicans you better learn and pay attention this class is very important because you know most of your going to be cooking and cleaning for play people  it was real clear to me that there was a definite tracking system some students went into on the accademia tracking and what or be prepared to go to college others or being tracked into going to the shop classes into the vocational areas it wasn't that there was anything wrong with with that but you didn't have a choice you were tracked into those areas  students were grouped into the classes generally based on some kind of ability rating usually it was like you the lower groups didn't get the same benefits and also didn't get the same support for a going to college gradually these students realize they were not alone in their frustrations  I heard that there were many for students who have the same kind of Yearning anger and desire to do something with their lives and not be stereotyped into pegged into playing some sort of commodity for labor where's our education  so we decide to take a survey that's when we start to gather that information and start interacting with will District say You're not meeting our needs and look at you know people are saying they don't get College advisement kids are saying that they get pushed out of all the discipline is not fair they went from better food all the way to you know we want to go to college  we have how is reading rate in East land in the East Side schools we have graduates graduate from high school to graduate that are in the top rated graduate now to face the world and can only read in a 9th grade reading level and we believe there's a crisis we were just saying because of our age and nothing else so they really didn't care if we learn how to read or we know how to spell or anything else like that it was just a matter of your no okay just call I think the bottom line is the lack of concern of a teachers towards the kids and we're the kids were really getting an education or not the reality set in that the teachers weren't really concern for the kids students called for bilingual instruction Mexican American history courses and into corporal punishment and the hiring of more Mexican American teachers and counselors their efforts transformed America's understanding of what was meant by civil rights  vapor play their demands to a Los Angeles School Board they felt like we were not counseling him regret can I have them go into industrial Arts will that wasn't true at all we were trying our best to get as many to go on to a four-year school as what what can we look when we do not have the actual authority to control what the whole of society is going if we could distribute everybody equally and have equal van sciver turn have equal quality of teachers that would be no problem  lay patterns on the back  a my recollection was as if they live can you just threw away the results of our survey  and that began food sizes the students were facing a problem that had for years cause concern within their community  has the turn of the century Mexican American families called for educational reform they protested the segregation of their children and so Mexican schools where teachers severely punished Mexican American students for speaking Spanish in the classroom keep in mind that the Spanish language for many Mexicans is almost a characteristic of being Mexican it's a defining characteristic not an incidental characters young children were taught that the culture of their community of their parents was really a hindrance to success smile learn these kinds of things he began then to look upon his cultural background upon his parents upon his community in make it a boy  so you treat them and you teach them at the lowest common denominator of Labor and how to use your hands and you get them out into the does an into jobs as quickly as possible that was the Mexican experience in schools  my 1946 parents and Santa Ana California who were fed up  they filed suit against local school officials and one  Mendez vs the Westminster School District the segregation of Mexican American children to be unlawful  it's at the stage for the landmark US Supreme Court decision Brown vs. Board of Education which declared segregated schools unconstitutional throughout the United States despite this ruling what day did schools remain and even in integrated settings Mexican-American student still suffered from neglect and unequal resources the end result of this is that the Mexican children were given an inferior education which repair them for the meaning of kinds of positions and jobs she labors two kinds of positions with a parent's spelled our greatest resource what is the scale and the vision and the wisdom of our people if your education folders are failed everything else that we attempt as a nation will fail if you succeed America will succeed over half of all the Mexican-American children have left  8 years of school how long can we pay that price the best ignorant about the Mexican  consequently there's a there's a myth that the turn is pliable he is not resisting and that anybody can do anything to him but anybody which is what this isn't true more numerous generation of a longtime labor activist and educator of the Mexican-American Community were about to be challenged and they show themselves despite the earlier efforts to improve education a half-century of frustration was about to explode in the East Los Angeles schools this was a time in which enough Chicano students had gained Mastery of the tools that were necessary to shake up the system  the taken the mules of the country to Heart and so we protested for rights who is the political evolution of a group of young Chicanos la  from being involved in community civic-minded activities as young citizens for Community Action and then becoming culturally where are the background new history the race in becoming young Chicanos for Community Action and asserting their real identity and then getting involved lies into the system when change unless you became more more direct action  during that time we were building support we were talking other students at campuses were talking to teachers people were talking to their parents and we were building support in the community play first your garage is stupid and I was involved in the initial organizing of Loomis which stands for the United Mexican American students and that we had begun to talk with other leaders in the area at other campuses that we needed to commit ourselves as college students to the betterment of community and in particular to changing things for the betterment of our sisters and brothers in the high school spring zample in the elementary schools  South Astro an outspoken history teacher helped to organize the students per year the school have wrapped for it plainly turn home for not doing a good job and educating the kid then other words that the kid doesn't go to school at the Mexican parents Faller the Mexican homes fault but I've yet to see Mexican kid come in the school at the age of 5 or 6 years of age not knowing the language Castro grew up in these Los Angeles where he learned firsthand the problems Within These schools learning Readiness or he's ready to learn when he walks in the school so it's not her fault it's never been the fault of the Mexican home is activism was shaped by Vivid memories from his youth  1930 South father was deported to Mexico part of a US repaid patient program provoked by the Great Depression  a 1940s he witnessed the Zoot Suit Riots when US soldiers and bears attack mexican-americans in the streets of Los Angeles by the spring of 1968 Sal Castro knew clearly what he was up against  most teachers approach to Mexican is with a negative attitude and it you have nothing to give tell me I am going to make you an angle come hell or high water and whatever you have to say about it makes no difference we had to say polls are not working there taking our taxpayers money the hard money that our fathers and mothers work for and not return it in any way we're the only ones losing out a massive walk out to shut down the school was what we somehow decided on change wasn't going to come from within and had to come home without how many people are going to do it and who was going to do it I think decided that morning to put for lot Schenectady Janet 9 a.m. when we were all sitting in class everyone was aware this was going to happen the signal was going to be blowout blowout and so we went around the stores a blowout blowout Allison kits begin to come out of his classes in the peters and what's going on and I remember looking at them and thinking my God and my really going to do this directions I want to send a champion Begins cheat candlepower a chance, no power Valdosta 3D man change the morning is I want to walk in the school has the bell rang for the kids to go to school into the classroom thing with kids from all over different hallways and everything else thank God in the streets with their heads held high with dignity who was beautiful to be in Chicago 4000 students walked out of 5 Eastside High schools that day by the end of the week 16 schools were affected with more than 10,000 students out in the streets reaction in the community was mixed not everyone supported the blowouts open Dome or accept the method which has been used  for me it was kind of a sad time  I felt embarrassed about the way people were acting and it felt uncomfortable to watch people acting rudely loudly of treating people as disrespect school officials blamed Outsiders singling out a group of young militants called the brown berets some people seem to feel that is the brown Berets were running this show and getting everybody out you agree with that or who's responsible for what's happening is it the brown Berets or Garfield High School how'd you get the idea we just saw that the school was bad Brown Beret organization became involved we were fearful at the police you know we're going to come down heavy on these kids and we wanted to protect him as much as possible so the brown Berets representative these security the brown Berets were a paramilitary group they advocated direct action and we're off and confrontational what sucks they became a source of great concern for the police and the local press  the members of group of young Chicano students in college and weave Vale Oregon together and are aware that the Chicago the mix American and the black man is not benefiting from this great American society little by little newspaper local East LA Tribune started accusing the brown Berets of being outside agitated troublemakers we would tell everybody that look at what they're writing about us the whole we are we live here the crew up here and I we still here set the Mexican-American students want to leave this protest a protest which week fortunately have not had the courage as adults to lead in the past then we will back and support the Mexican-American students in in their efforts who Ministry doors are disrupting is no process that's not sold the educational process of mexican-americans for over 20 years and he's not Angela throughout the Southwest has been disrupted very Spaniard to come kick it with the Mexican American Dad is the disruption when 57% of the students, year after year there has to be a problem we're not operating in a vacuum social injustice  they needed to be jolted in shock and it's what happened I think the establishment the status quo was surprised get all these little Mexican kids would be blowing out and watching on protesting  what they come in to have done did they have a legitimate complaint absolutely  did they bring that complaint to public attention in the only way they could have Tampa Bay  but were they right on everything no striking students gathered at a local park and demanded a School Board  I can until the Board of Education to come my feeling is right turn it into think we'll be happy to come and talk with you I'm also saying that we are demanding that we are only asking you to relay this information I remember the Aryan tried to talk to us but he didn't have anything to say what did he say to us and so they were the students got up there and spoke and there was his tremendous energy and fervor there was an excitement that we actually pulled it off  despite opposition walkout leaders from East Side schools forged united front my decision to walk I was probably the lightest decision in terms of what I probably would have liked to have done at that point would that kind of Youth and energy and anger turn your lights the walkouts continued tensions increased call Pete police officers make play policeman if they are here I should leave the area I think we can take care of things ourselves that Community leaders and school board members tried to calm the situation  travisa nothing at all Iowa where that there was frustration within the minority Community I was aware that there was great political opposition within the majority community and so I knew in a sense we were sitting on The Tender Box the state of immediately problems began to escalate police were called in to maintain order the police were not our friends back that they were there to keep us down  and certainly the authorities of the time felt that we were crazy you know they're good Mexicans were getting out of control  Starbucks Comedy Factory anyone on this and will be arrested following watch when did 1965 law enforcement began to undergo what we call the dark training does turn Riot training I'll recognizing that we may be facing. Of unrest 5 less than truthful if if I sat her and said that we always do everything perfectly and and never overreacted are occasions when individuals do overreact the only thing that happened was it play Gates Satellite Wednesday afternoon they couldn't get out the gate and one of the of all things the quarterback on the football team tried to break the lock and the police arrested him can I show you can if you don't really damn now just take it easy he's a quite a back  SL2 what's my body grab the underneath my arms pulled me away off from the main line of students they assumed I was an outsider from the school  people were just running the streets flipping people I mean the police between the people in the streets and running after them in some of them we're just sitting on the lawn there Grand Avenue at first to see such distance and then to see outright hostility fatality it didn't match the thing that we were doing we didn't commit crime we are protesting I thought they had overreacted somewhat and that might have been pause I don't think they have had such a thing before in their career of confronting two or three hundred high school students determined to cross the street that's what it amounted to I think what people saw was that even when kids were involved in constitutionally protected activity such as legitimate Pro such as the walkouts were and yet they were abused in jail  police were not kind to high school students treated them in the same way that they treated other Mexicans and that was not very good so the parents were concerned that somebody would get hurt when you put the danger was we could see it but we also couldn't stop it they were already there they were doing it themselves so it just Brutus on to get these reforms going so it would cool off please.  School of is began to pressure the Striking students the kids are getting now getting calls from from principles that they're going to be suspended that they're going to be expelled that any play that was headed for college and had grants or scholarships the scholarships were to be taken away we need it so we need it some some public official to say the kids are right we all went to go meet Bobby Kennedy on the day he was about to go meet Cesar Chaves who was undergoing as fast at the point to request that he poured our efforts in which he did and which was very generous with his words and very offered us positive support he knew all about the walkouts he had had a list of our demands  he asked us a couple of questions  and he told us that he supported everything that we are not going to play games parents concern for their children's future an actively involved we are not left young people below the age of 18 do the work that belongs to us as their children had done JS to meet with school officials their request was denied are not hurt  what else has a left for us to do all we can do is support where to find one and you cater to understand the meaning of lack of respect give me the tablet surreal place where our moon was going to definitely demonstrate his full potential and strength was here in the city for the first time what was more significant individuals were doing about what masses of people were doing and that's what the walk has demonstrated our moon was not a movement a Cadre of individuals of organization but of mass involvement three weeks later the school board bowed to pressure and agreed to meet with parents sick for too long the students return to school hoping things would work out parents and teachers from East LA began meeting regularly with the school board to implement the students demands who said not only taught their parents about education they'd also expanded the concept of what civil rights men in America  my early June thing seemed back to normal 2:30 in the morning Daniel the door bang bang bang and I go to the door and the door comes down the LAPD Sheriff's County Sheriff's with their weapons come right in with a weapons pointed in my head he grabbed me threw me into a car pull this gun  handcuffed me and I asked what am I being arrested for the next thing I knew I was downtown in The Glass House you put the cuffs on me and it says you don't want to take him off and took him up again and we're going to give you 10 steps  but you can make a run for it  I knew what is a coruna to myself this is really serious business you know and I was scared for my life and I walk remember thinking with my children My Two children what's going to happen to them after they kill me put my hands back again you better come and take me in  13 Chicano leaders involved walkouts were arrested and indicted on conspiracy charges one of them was Sal Castro  is convicted defendant face 66 years in prison reality it's not us there are indicted it's not us  Citgo song Run the indictment will be on the board of education  the convictions will be an individual members of the Board of Education principles find principles  counselors we've been completely negligent stop for years and years and years and it's not only an indictment of the Los Angeles School of all the schools in the Southwest Chicanos have gone to for years and where the schools are failing miserably and teaching you they will be invited and they will be convicted Mexican Berwyn United States woman always precious I told what you were arrested for we were shocked because in particular they created a felony indictment disrupting Public School zoning what's a conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor was a felon Eastside 13 with the first political trial that you got a movement now we had a real Prada hand that we had some very very good dedicated people that were going to be given a terrible time in the courts and possibly a criminal record for trying to make the city and the state do its job better I think it's a community recognize that that arrest was designed to stop this movement and so we knew that we had to come to there since it was just another thing you were throwing at us that we have to surmount the reason for the American Civil is that the indictment charges no more than an act of letting others princess to engage in a boycott of the schools in an hour of you such a can you fully protected by the First Amendment and the prosecution violate the constitution  the apparent Honda today's proceedings has been there medical Harrison it's in the it's an outright attack on the entire American community directly and indirectly on all of the rest of us because turn volume to the demonstration is a poor man's printing press and that his right to use it as got to be as involved as the rich man's right to put his newspaper are how to talk about three features of democracy  Lisa Rossman on Rasmus is not new to the bound Brave Grattan and Los Angeles Police Department have mistook Community settlement the LA 13 will released on bail on Monday June 3rd 1968 but their release was overshadowed by the assassination of Robert F Kennedy two days later open restaurants in charge of Chicano movement was suddenly on the defensive against the police and even the FBI  the day that we were at link preschool for the first blowout they were guys with suits on with cameras taking our pictures it was part of I learned later on part of FBI counterintelligence program or cointelpro that have been created to deal with the civil rights movement and the and documents that I God also showed the infiltration of womans and Chicano student organizations the change the political landscape for the movement and it changed my life because instead of  pushing for social justice we had to come pletely reverse into defending ourselves  so that the political struggle became a struggle to keep  some of its own leadership out of Jay can I remember you know just beginning to have this sense that I was being watched  and people started talking about it go to talking about the prologue Couture's and infiltrators and certainly after these arrest everyone is paranoid the brown Berets were a special Target daily PD at that time was surveyors were taking a lot of photographs we didn't realize this till way later on when we were arrested  the song was an attempt to try to stop the move I'm going movement and a little did we know that the Berets by then had already been infiltrated by the sheriff's and the LAPD  one of the Walk leaders who said he was from Wilson High School  turned out to be an LAPD and these various organizations were police officers or informants many of them were actually the people for proposing violent Acts officials were keeping tabs on certain individuals which were then being referred to the FBI super spec tivities in which I was one of those people who was listed as one of the hundred most subversive individuals in the United States in 1970 why I started to see was a series of arrests and and threats against me personally another beret you know you guys are trouble makers are making our people look bad and you know we're going to be sure that you spend the rest of your life in prison or you end up dead can I begin to get these documents as the years went on and doing my research and sure enough I got a bunch of documents on myself and then I realize why was it that night that I was arrested that early morning that I was arrested while I was almost killed because in those documents the FBI J Edgar Hoover himself had identified me and the rest of us you know conspirators and protesters as some verses dangerous armed services you know and my cat Oliver doing was non-violent protest schools open in the fall the east LA 13 felt the full in they're indictments the principal it was a part of the Education Code if you are arrested you cannot be in the classroom and then because I was invited I wasn't in Thai spelling for sure I could not be out of me in the classroom so I was going to have problems as far as teaching the struggle in the East Los Angeles school system came down to a single defining moment students and parents fought to get Sal Castro reinstated this was a person who put himself out on the line and his community came to his support and it. play whether you like to me you didn't like him wasn't even the issue the issue was is that this community that you got a community in Los Angeles had to have a role in the school's did what do you think about people to pay attention to the demands of the Mexican-American community in retrospect there about 15,000 kids out in the streets in that week of March are they worried about 16 schools involved not only Senior High throughout the East Los Angeles but also in West Los Angeles in support of the kids involved by 25 adults and you know the majority community  we pick it at that high every day with a contingent of people picketing to call for South has to be returned to Lincoln and in between our daily pickets at link and we also went to the board meetings which were on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons to address them and ask them to return Sal to Lincoln I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees Dominican High next week the crippled and the blind rated so that you might have eyes to see it on your feet in good faith with a Mexican after 10 days of picketing without results Chicano activist resorted to a new tactic instead of walking out they sat in add will sit here and will stay here until you make the decision that are needs of the Chicano community in the city are taken care of and the community has the right to make decisions about the kind people who teaching their schools  I just seemed like the next logical step you know that we had to too kind of apply a little bit more pressure George tremadoc you Pi that room and that was our main our main function we we slept there we kept that room occupied through that hole. but everything like that before and it was Civil Disobedience and Civil Disobedience means that you have to so we knew what the stakes were but we knew he had to do it at one point they turn up the air-conditioning it one point they turn off the phones at one point they turned off the heat what and I did all these interesting things to make us go to pop but there were things you read a lot of pucks we saying we had Mass it was it was a time to talk about what we were going to do now and everyday you know we thought was going to end every day we thought okay it'll be over there going to listen the school system to respect Integrity to have respect for the Dignity of the person regardless of his cultural background on regardless of his economic power we live in a society that respects money and we in the Mexican community set that the school learn to respect fees I still have a very vivid memory of the people sitting on the floor as I walked in my office I wish I could have had them come into my office or come into the board executive session and see all the problems then they would understand that we didn't want to do to them what they thought we were doing to them  the dirt after 7 Days the board agreed to vote on South Castro's reinstatement  what they demanded that protesters end the sit-in 4B arrested  that last night the officers came in and made the announcement that they were going to begin arrests and and those who didn't want to be arrested had to leave  35 demonstrators refused to leave you are hereby notified that this building will be closed at 10 p.m. got any permit implied or otherwise to remain on these premises is here by repulse  you will be considered trespassing and in play from the California penal code section 602 m  it was clear to us when did not have the power and that they could crush us if they decided to as certainly they had crossed many other movements the next day as the board prepared to vote Chicano leaders made a final appeal what's a gastro mean to every teacher play Freedom show me we are here to express to you accepting a Mexican teacher who says that is good to be Mexican you're also accepting a principal  find me Governor City without power fire  in the middle of the street  car out of one place as garment as God made  call Matt Los Angeles School Board began to vote as the community watched phone call please try to talk to her again Peppa Pig Kelly you a troublemaker a rabble-rouser and everything else are you that no I don't think so what does that mean is point education is not relevant kids in general in Mexicans in particular Sal Castro and the other La 13 defendants won their battle School District but they still face the possibility of long prison terms their legal battles would continue for two more years  please play 13 which was of course the case coming out of the walkouts was ultimately thrown out of court on peel again based on the Bill of Rights freedom of speech freedom of assembly freedom to petition the government for redress of grievances what colors were the first significant Urban struggle of the Chicanos and all that I kiss with trying to do was to make the schools work better what the walkouts did hit it focused the attention now on the Chicanos in the city because he's was serious East kids and went to school for that time they were going to do something they were going to change the world  Los this was only the beginning soon after the blowouts Chicano students across the country stage similar protests igniting a movement for educational reform would continue for many years to come  when we were very festival at informing the public about how serious the conditions were  also in getting our parents and Community people involved laws Play the song realize it all collectively we have strong voice and it gave us a power that we didn't realize that we had before it and we knew it we were going to win in one way or another

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