Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation

Chapter 5: The Education of Migrant Children

Chapter 5 The Education of Migrant Children This chapter explores and analyzes an ignored yet crucial topic: the education of Mexican migrant children. In general, most educational historiography has lumped the education of the urban resident child with that of the migrant child.1 It is important to recognize the variation within the educational experience of the Mexican community. We will provide a comprehensive view of the education of Mexican migrant children based upon materials published during the segregation period. Within the educational history of the Mexican community at least three main patterns emerge and take shape according to the regional economy patterns in which educational services are rendered: the urban working class, the occasional migrant class, and the truly migratory class. The first includes the urban working class child whose family integrates him into an industrial, manufacturing, or service economy. This pattern, found in the larger urban centers such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and El Paso, was characterized by a permanency of residence. At the opposite extreme, the migratory pattern involved family integration into a seasonal agricultural economy, and permanency or impermanency of 120 Chicano Education & Segregation residence. Within these two poles lived a semiurban, largely permanent but occasionally migrant community. Although this community existed within an agricultural area, its members also participated in light industrial , manufacturing, or service enterprises. Within these three patterns (each instance influenced by the regional economy), are three noticeably distinct educational experiences. By and large, the urban, permanent resident child experienced segregation in neighborhood schools. Moreover , authorities enforced compulsory education laws as well as policies allowing open entry of Mexican children into secondary schooling. By contrast, the migrant child very often faced exclusion from schooling, both by the policy of Boards of Education and by survival needs emanating from their participation in agricultural production organized on the basis of family labor. The migrant child generally attended an inferior and segregated school with emphasis on Americanization and vocational education. Rarely did the migrant child progress as far as the fifth grade. The contrast appears when comparing the urban and rural migrant child. However, even these patterns did not hold consistently for the entire educational experience for both populations since many children entered into both experiences. Many residents of urban centers, Los Angeles and San Antonio as examples, entered into agricultural and industrial labor markets. A principal of a San Antonio, Texas, school noted the interrelationship between the Mexican community and the surrounding agricultural economy, especially in its effect upon education . “Strangely enough enrollment of the pupils in a Mexican school, even though it is in one of the State’s largest cities, is influenced more by the economic conditions over the farming areas than by the conditions in the city itself.”2 Thus, employers frequently recruited families in urban centers to perform seasonal agricultural labor. Finally, permanent residents in agricultural communities migrated within their counties of residence also to perform agricultural labor. The Education of Migrant Children 121 In areas such as southern California, many Mexican settlements arose to serve local farms. These children normally attended local schools. However, if they migrated from the country they became subject to that educational experience reserved for the “true” migrants. Children of migratory settlements usually attended a segregated school, or a Mexican room, in an otherwise Anglo school. Like the migrant children, true migrants also encountered Americanization and vocational education courses. However, unlike migrant children, permanent residents in agricultural communities had far greater opportunity for participating in the educational process, although this depended upon the child labor demands in the locality. Schooling facilities in agricultural communities adapted to grower demands for child labor and consequently adjusted their schedule to picking seasons. Such schools usually started at 7:00 a.m. or 7:30 a.m. and continued until noon, so that children could join parents in the groves and fields.3 Children seldom attended beyond the fourth or fifth grades and rarely entered high school. Thus, these three variations greatly affected the educational experiences of Mexican children. In order to understand more clearly these variations, let us focus upon those children whose lives and education took shape in accordance with the migration of family labor in agriculture. During the 1900–1950 period a large percentage of the Mexican population either resided in rural villages and towns, or lived in urban centers while working in a rural economy. In 1930, about half of the Mexican population resided...