Marching Students: Chicana and Chicano Activism in Education, 1968 to the Present

Preface

xiii p r e f a c e This book seeks to commemorate the 1968 Chicana/o student walkouts, or blowouts, that occurred throughout the Southwest. Birthed from the Chicana/o movimientos, the student blowouts in East Los Angeles were a visible social critique of the ways traditional education underserved and marginalized Chicana/os. With careful planning led by students, approximately ten thousand Chicana/o students walked out of classes on March 1, 1968, to protest educational inequity. Within the process of protest for a more inclusive pedagogy, the student blowouts served as a reminder that identity politics continue to mediate the quality of education students receive. This is a timely book that not only presents an analysis of the walkouts of 1968 but also traces a development in various sectors of education to the present. This edited volume highlights and draws parallels between the students who marched in 1968, 2006, and the present. Most importantly, the essays explore what these kinds of student movements indicate about the state of our society. As a result, the contributors in this volume ground their scholarship in critical resistance, queer, critical race, and Chicana feminist theories to frame and to ask new and provocative questions on Chicana/o identity and activism as they relate to education and the student protests of today. We explore Chicana/o identity and activism through student and community marches, flag waving, and chanting that have been stereotyped as radical instead of progressive. Oftentimes, this portrayal has impeded dialogue and the exchange of potentially beneficial ideas. In terms of theories and pedagogies in education, highlighting the transformative contributions those with a Chicana/o consciousness have made, and continue to make, is long overdue. As the fortieth anniversary for the “East L.A. Blowouts” approached, we thought it timely and necessary to collect the stories and work of our colleagues to show that the struggle for better education for Chicanas/os and Latinas/os is constant and fierce. Lastly, we would like to acknowledge how the idea for this book developed . We presented our work with colleague Luis Urrieta at a panel at the American Educational Research Association conference titled “Chicana/o xiv p r e f a c e Activism and Education: Theories and Pedagogies of Trans/formation.” The panel was part of the Critical Educators for Social Justice Symposium, and it was chaired by Dr. Antonia Darder, a scholar who has led the way and mentored many of us on this path toward creating social change with education . After the presentation, it was solidified. Even though we come from many walks of life with similarities and differences across gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, age, and citizenship/immigration, it became critical that as educators we unite with the same intent—to use education as a tool for transformation. Thus we were inspired to share our stories and research collectively and publish this work. We would also like to acknowledge Urrieta’s early contributions to the project. He brought about a conceptual framework that guided this work. Our belief in this project compelled us as volume editors to bring it to fruition upon his departure. Marching Students ...