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2. Contestation
- Texas A&M University Press
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During the post-1960 years, ethnic Mexican responses to educational inequality intensified and diversified. In the first half of the twentieth century, activists engaged in a variety of actions aimed at contesting the exclusionary, discriminatory, and subtractive character of American public school systems. These actions challenged the many ways in which school systems excluded Mexican origin individuals from positions of power, mistreated them on the basis of race and ethnicity, and sought to stamp out or “subtract” their cultural identity.1 These expanded in the post1960 era. As in earlier decades, activists and educators pursued several major strategies . The most well known was that of contestation. Ethnic Mexicans contested or actively challenged those policies and practices perceived as detrimental to their cultural, academic, or political interests. They used a variety of methods to achieve their goals. The most dramatic were the political actions parents, students, and grassroots individuals took. The most enduring were the legal ones initiated by community-based organizations. The following provides an overview of the multiple ways in which these activists contested the various forms of discrimination in the schools during the post1960 era. PROTESTS, PICKETS, AND WALKOUTS In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Chicana/o student, parent, and grassroots activists used a variety of direct action tactics to protest an array of exclusionary and discriminatory school practices at the local level. High school students protested inadequate and inferior conditions by TWO Contestation contestation 25 walking out of the schools. The first and largest walkout took place in Los Angeles in 1968. In March thousands of Mexican American students walked out of the public schools in East Los Angeles to challenge their second-class treatment by educators. The boycotts dramatized some of the most blatant forms of discrimination against students. Among the key policies and practices they challenged were prejudicial and insensitive teachers, the existence of no-Spanish-speaking rules, the exclusion of Mexican culture from the curriculum, the failure to hire Mexican American teachers, counselors, and other professional staff, and lack of student rights.2 The walkouts, or “blowouts” as they were called, were inspired by Sal Castro, a charismatic history teacher at Lincoln High School. He encouraged students to challenge authorities and to take a risk in improving their schools.3 These actions, as Carlos Muñoz noted in the early 1970s, had a profound impact on the politics of the Mexican American community and ignited the urban aspect of the Chicana/o movement. The blowouts also significantly impacted students. Those who participated in them acquired a renewed sense of empowerment and of faith in their abilities to promote social and educational change.4 School walkouts soon spread to other parts of the country, such as to Denver , Colorado, and Chicago, Illinois.5 The majority of them took place in Texas. From 1968 to 1972, for instance, high school students conducted over thirty-nine walkouts in that state.6 The walkouts took place for several reasons. Among the most important were underlying patterns of racial discrimination, inferior school conditions, and exclusionary school policies and practices. Active mobilization by community political organizations, as several authors have noted, also played an important part in encouraging students to walk out of the public schools.7 Although aimed at bringing about important changes, not all of them were successful in accomplishing their goals. Those in Kingsville, Texas, for instance, did not lead to any significant reform of the schools.8 Those in Los Angeles, California, had mixed results. The student protests in this city served to publicize the plight of Chicana/o schooling and to momentarily encourage community militancy and political mobilization, but they failed to produce significant structural change in education. After the walkouts Mexican Americans continued to be powerless and the schools continued to be inferior. The walkouts in Los Angeles then led to short-term significant changes in the Mexican American community but not in the public schools.9 Finally, those in Cucamonga, California, as well as Crystal City, Houston, [54.234.6.167] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 11:49 GMT) 26 chapter two Uvalde, and Elsa, Texas, did lead to significant changes in the schools and in the social and political environment.10 Despite the mixed results of student actions, the walkouts of the 1960s and 1970s served to inspire thousands of young people to envision a world where their heritage was recognized, their academic needs met, and their dignity respected. Student walkouts might not have...