when my family came to this country

you're right
did you
your vote is your
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major funding for this program was provided by
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nineteen sixty eight was a time in which the entire
rations
it certainly was going on in Mexico was going on and
it was going on all over the United States with students
of every single state and college in town
demanding that there was and had to be a better
alternative to what was going on in the world
the Vietnam War
everybody
as we were done
twenty
no one was intelligent
so that our contributions to the country and
we saw reflected in the world the people thought
that something could be done
we feel that we have to do what we
could do with our lives as well
that was the time in nineteen sixty
there was never a term like this
it began with a simple protest by students
who wanted a better education
officials in the police
the children were branded as subversive
their lives
all because they wanted
Los Angeles
in the nineteen sixties this was home to almost
a hundred thousand Mexican Americans
it was the largest in the United
growing up in Los Angeles I wasn't actually aware of it
as a young child
soon became apparent that
I grew up in a very isolated very segregated neighborhoods
a community that was totally separate
from the rest of Los Angeles
indication was seen as a way to break down those very
the way for young people to one day have everyone else
I was buying into this whole thing about the American
dream get an education and you can be whatever you
want to be in and I you know read all these books Mr
teachers he went out the back of my mind I see something
going on here you know I really really I see here is
different from what you're saying
something was definitely wrong
only one out of fourteen diamonds completed high school
robbery was really kind of what something will push
out revenues were students who were being pushed
out of school because their needs weren't being met
their culture was out of grass the school
for the
unemployment was almost double the national average
those who were earned about two thirds of
what are the Los Angeles residents are
these conditions the medic impact
on Mexican American children
I started elementary school
early nineteen fifties and I was the only student in my kindergarten
class it was a monolingual Spanish speaking child
and %HESITATION I was immediately led to the front of
the class and %HESITATION I was instructed on how to
create any cone hat out of the construction paper %HESITATION
the teacher painted a word on it and told me I could
take it off when I learned to speak English and the words
painted on that was a weird Spanish
I remember going
rise
email sign up by the other kids in junior high special
to the point where I don't want to take me
the company
that was
I remember you know what my father would go to school
translating for
feeling the shame of being Mexican
what's that this growing anger in me
and I think those 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 schools treating them like children
there was a clear sign
thank
I remember when I was an honest
asked by the white consular what my father did for a living
and telling her well you know %HESITATION he's our labor
you know works with his hands and then she told me and yet
this is what exact words that is a very honorable profession
you should follow in your father's footsteps
my homemaking teacher she would think you know your little
Mexicans you better learn and pay attention this class
is very important because you know most of you are going
to be cooking and cleaning for other people
it was real clear to me that there was a definite tracking
system some students went into %HESITATION the academia
tracking and what word will be prepared to go to college
others were 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 don't have a choice you attract into those areas
students were grouped into the classes generally based
on some kind of ability rating usually was like you
the lower group didn't get same benefits
also didn't get the same quarter going
gradually the students realize they were
not alone in their frustration
I heard that there were many more students who have the
same kind of yearning anger and desire to do something with
their lives and not be stereotyped into paint into
being some sort of commodity for labor
a lot of us had the same sort of complaint about what
was happening in our lives as far as their education
so we decide to take a survey
and that's when we start to gather that information and
start interacting with the school district saying you're
not meeting our needs and look at %HESITATION you know
people are saying they don't get college advisement our
kids are saying that they get pushed out of school that
discipline is not fair they went from better suit all the
way to you know we want to go to college
we have the lowest reading rate any
selling Indian in the fray schools
we have graduates to graduate from high school to graduate
that are in the twelfth grade did graduate not to face
the world and can only read eight in the ninth grade reading
level and we believe there is a crisis %HESITATION %HESITATION
listing because of our age and nothing else so they really
didn't care if we learn how to read are we know how to
spell or anything else like that it was just a matter of
you know okay this call
I think the bottom line is the lack of concern teachers towards
the kids and when the kids were really getting an education
or not %HESITATION the reality set in that there are
teachers weren't really concerned for the kids
students called for bilingual instruction
Mexican American history courses
an end to 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
they presented their demands the Los Angeles school board
J. felt like we were not counting them what we're
trying to have them go under industrial arts well
that wasn't true at all we were trying our best to
get as many go on to a four year school is what
what can we do when we do not have the authority
to control the whole of society is going
if we can distribute everybody equally and have equal
funds everywhere and have equal quality of teachers
there would be no problem
the patterns on the back
and my recollection was that they literally
just threw away the results of our survey
that begins
the students were facing a problem that had for
years cause concern within their community
as early as the turn of the century Mexican American
families called for education reform
the protesting the segregation of their children and so
called Mexicans were teachers nearly 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
the child learn these kinds of things he began to look upon
his cultural background upon his parents
upon his community in a negative way
when you come in you teach from the lowest common denominator
of labor and how to use your hands and you get him
out into the field and into jobs as quickly as possible
that was the Mexican ex school
by nineteen forty six parents in Santa Ana California
they filed suit against local school officials and one
Mendez verses the Westminster school district declared the
segregation of Mexican American children being on lawful
it set the stage for the landmark U. S. Supreme
Court decision brown versus board of education
which declared segregated school
institutional throughout the United States
despite this ruling segregated schools remain and even
in integrated settings Mexican American students still
suffered from neglect and unequal resources
the end result of this fact Mexican children were given
an engineer education which prepares them for me all
kinds of positions and jobs as cheap laborers
our greatest resource
and the vision
everything else
over the next
there's a vast ignorance about the Mexican
consequently there's a there's a miss
at the Mexican is pliable he's not resistance
and if anybody can do anything to him than
anybody which is when this isn't true
another become an urban Mexicans and now that there's a more
numerous generation of Dr and Mrs a long time labor activist
and educator since the traditional perceptions of the Mexican
American community we're about to be challenged %HESITATION
the tensions within the Mexican community are increasing and
they show themselves in their current
despite the earlier efforts to improve education
Centria frustration was about to explode
in the Los Angeles school
this is a time in which I'm not she comes to
gaining mastery of the tools that were
necessary to shake up the system
taken the ideals of the country to heart
and so we protest as far right political evolution or young
LA
in communities like mine and activities
as young business community action
coming culturally aware of their background and history of
the race and become young adults from community action
and asserting their real identity
and then getting longer realizing that the system wouldn't
change unless you became more more direct action
during that time
we were building support we were all talking
other campuses with talking to teachers
people were talking to their parents
%HESITATION we were building support in the community
I was a first year graduate student and I
was involved in the initial organizing
which stands for the United Mexican American students
%HESITATION we have begun to talk with other leaders
in the area of the campus we needed to commit ourselves
has college students to the betterment of our community
and in particular to changing things for the betterment
of our sisters and brothers in high schools for example
in the elementary schools
sal Castro an outspoken history teacher
helped organize the students
four years the schools have rap blame the Mexican
homes for not doing a good job in educating the kids
in other words if the kid doesn't go to school to
Mexican parents Balder the Mexican homes
but I've yet to see a Mexican kids coming to school at
the age of five or six years of age not knowing a language
Castro grew up in East Los Angeles where he learned firsthand
the problems within the schools learning reading mysteries
he's ready to learn when he walks in the school so it's
not a problem is never there has never been the fault
of the Mexican home
his activism was shaped by vivid memories from his U. nineteen
thirty south father was deported to Mexico part of a U. S.
repatriation program provoked by the Great Depression
in the nineteen forties he witnessed right
when U. S. soldiers and sailors attacked Mexican
American streets of Los Angeles
in nineteen sixty eight
clearly what he was up against
most teachers approach next negative attitude and
if you have nothing to give to me I am going to make
your angles come hell or high water and whatever you
have to say about it makes no difference
we have to say the schools are not working they're
taking our taxpayers money the hard money that
our fathers and mothers report and return in any
way we're the only ones losing their
the master broker
what we are doing on
change wasn't going to come from within
it have to come home without
how many people are going to do it
I'm going to do it
for a lot of nine AM
while we were sitting in class
everyone was aware this was
blowout so we went around the store
to come out
it's going on my friends would go down the hallway
yeah and I remember looking at him thinking
my god am I really going to do it
the morning is working
the kids from different
St
with with
by the end of the week sixteen schools were affected with
more than ten thousand students out in the streets
reaction in the community was mixed not everyone
supported the blow out the majority listens to guard
the high school do not do not condone or accept the
method which has been used for me it was
a Santa
I felt embarrassed about the way people were acting
it felt uncomfortable
to watch people acting
%HESITATION rudely loudly %HESITATION
treating people with disrespect
blamed outsiders singling out a group of
young militants called the brown berets
the other is the brown berets were running the show
and getting everybody out do you agree with that or
who's responsible for what's happening is that the
brown berets or Garfield street committee
who organized
we organize our flights to speculate
how did you get the idea
we just
at the group rate organization became involved as we were
fearful of the police you know we're going to come down heavy
on these kids and we wanted to protect them as much as possible
sort of robberies represent the security
the brown berets were a paramilitary group they advocated
direct action and were often confrontational
as such they became a source of great concern
for the police in the local press
robberies and
yes you're gonna students in college and we finally
got together and are aware that that you've got
a mix American and the black man is not benefiting
from this great American society
little by little newspaper the local daily Tribune started accusing
the primaries and outside agitators troublemakers
we would tell everybody is that what you're writing about
as you know who we are we live here and we're still here
the Mexican American students want to leave this protest
approaches which we unfortunately have not had the courage
to lead in the past then we will back to support the Mexican
American students in their efforts
administrators are saying that we're disrupting
the educational process that's not
the educational process of Mexican Americans
for over twenty years and he's not
of course has been disrupted
very near to communicate with a Mexican American that
is the destruction one fifty seven percent of the
year after year there has to be a problem we're
not operating in a vacuum their social lives
they needed to be chills didn't shock as what happened at
Simpson's establishment status quo was surprised at all
the little Mexican kids would be blowing out and one
as
when they come in to him done did they have
a legitimate complaint absolutely
did they bring that complaint to public attention
and the only way they could have probably
but were they right on everything no
striking students gathered at a local park and
demanded a meeting with school board members
hello
if you don't mind dealing all right you
members of the board of education will be happy to
I don't know what I
visitation but I'm also saying that we want to imagine that
we always have to use a related information
I don't remember hearing
wanted to talk to us but he didn't
in singles
and so they were the students got up there and spoke and
%HESITATION there was tremendous energy and for her there
was an excitement that we actually pulled it off
despite opposition walkout leaders from east
side schools forged a 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 with that kind of use in energy and anger
the walkouts continue tensions increase
if they are here
certainly
I
unity leaders and school board members
tried to calm the situation
I was aware 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 that in a
sense we're sitting on a tinderbox
I
California
problems began to escalate police
were called in to maintain order
the police were not our friends
they were there to keep us in certainly
the authorities of the
we were just crazy you know that the Mexicans
were getting out of control
what's right in nineteen sixty
law enforcement began to undergo a lovely called
guard training disaster in riot training %HESITATION
recognizing that you may be
the last
as far as
we always do everything perfectly
and never
overreact there are occasions when individuals
the only thing that happened was that when the gates are late
Wednesday afternoon they couldn't get out of the gate
and one of the of all things a quarterback on the
football team tried to break the lock the police
arrested him and I said you can't you know we need
it now just take it easy he's a quarterback
granting underneath my arms to pull me away
from the main
%HESITATION line is two days
I will
people were just running the streets
I love the people I mean the police would have been
the people on the streets and running after some
of them were just sitting on the longer
first you see such resistance and then to see out right
principality
it didn't matter the the thing that we were doing we didn't
commit a crime we are protesting I thought their job over
reacted somewhat and that might have been because I don't
think that it has such a thing before in their career I'm
trying to R. three hundred high school students are determined
to cross the street that's what amounted to
I think what people saw was that even when kids were
involved in the constitutionally protected activities
such as legitimate protests such as the walkers were
and yet they were abused in jail
police were not
the high school students they treated them in the same way
that the tree department and that was not very good so the
parents were concerned somebody would get hurt
when you put the danger was we can see it
but we also couldn't stop they were already
there they were doing it themselves
so it just spurred on
these reforms going
the school authorities began to
pressure the striking students
the kids are getting now getting calls from from principles
that they're going to be suspended going to be expelled and
anybody that was headed for college and have grants or scholarships
the scholarships were to be taken away we needed we needed some
some public officials say the kids are right
we all went to go meet Bobby Kennedy on the day he
was about to go meet Cesar Chavez who was undergoing
this fast at that point to request that he support
our efforts in which she did and which was very %HESITATION
I guess generous with his words
and very offered us positive support he knew
all about the lockout 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 did
I'm not going
parents concerned for their children's
future became actively involved
we are not going to
all these situations are continuing we
are not going to let young people in
so what
as their children had done they asked to meet with
school officials their request was denied
our voices are not heard
what
all we can do
we
one of the
I wonder if there's a meeting
there are
the place where our movement was going to definitely demonstrators
all potential restaurant was here in the city for the first
time what was more significant number individuals were doing
both with masses of people were doing and that's what the walk
because they mustered arm was not a movement of
hundreds of individuals and organizations
but a mass involvement
and when the Mexican Americans three weeks later the school
board bowed to pressure and agreed to meet with parents we
our young people yeah
your
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
students have not only talked about education it also
expanded the concept of what civil rights in America
by early June things seem to factor
two thirty in the morning
door bang bang bang and I go to the door door comes down %HESITATION
the LAPD sheriffs county shares with their weapons drawn coming
right in with our weapons pointed at my head
he grabbed me threw me into a car pulled a gun
and trust me
and that's what I might be arrested for they
would tell me you know so the next thing
I knew I was downtown in the glass
because on the you said you don't want to take a moment
to come up again and we're gonna give it ten steps
you can make a run for
I knew what they wanted to do
our government so this is really serious business
and I was scared for my life and I walk onto river
thinking with my children and my two children what's
going to happen to them after the killing
with respect to give you their company
thirteen she got a leaders involved in the walkouts
were arrested and indicted on conspiracy charges
one of them was self Castro
if convicted each defendant faces sixty six years in prison
you don't
in reality
it's not
there are that are indicted
thirty three
because in the long run
the indictment working
on the board of education
the convictions were going
on the individual members of the board of education
principal
right
and because we've been completely negligent of their jobs
for years and years and years
it is not only an indictment of the Los Angeles
the one who's in the southwest
but you cannot have gone to for years
and what is your
the thinking of
they will be invited and they will
be convicted and in the long run
our kids will win
amid growing
United will win
hello
listed
we we sure
because in particular they created a felony indictment
disrupting a public school was only a misdemeanor
but the conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor with
Tuesday thirteen with the first political psychology from
hello Sir now we have a real problem that we have some very
very good dedicated people that we're going to be given a terrible
time in the course and possibly a criminal record for trying
to make the city and the state do its job better
the community recognizes that arrest was designed
to stop these movements in so we knew that we had
to come to their defense and another thing they
were throwing at us we have to surmount
the reason for the interest of the American civil liberties
union in this case is that the indictments charges no
morals an actress working others prisons to engage in
a more part of the schools in our vehicles such urging
is fully protected by the first amendment and the prosecution's
violates the constitution's
hundreds of these proceedings has been a political
times it's a it's an outright political exactly
you know this directly and indirectly on all of the rest
of us because of our civil rights or involves him
demonstration as appointments printing press and
then it is right to use it is not to be as inviolable
regimens right defenders newspaper
or else are about free speech or system on
the round
this is not new to the bone right
she threatens and Los Angeles police department had Mr
community center
the only thirteen were released on bail on
Monday June third nineteen sixty eight
with the release was overshadowed by the assassination
of Robert F. Kennedy two days later
she got a movement was suddenly on the defensive
against the police and even the F. B. R.
the day that we were at Lincoln High School
there were guys was taking pictures it was hard I learned
later on part of the espionage counter intelligence program
or COINTELPRO that has been created to deal with the civil
rights movement and the black power
in documents that I can also showed infiltration
and general student organizations
to change the political landscape of the movement
and it changed my life because instead of
pushing for social justice
we have to completely reverse into defending ourselves
some of the political struggle became a struggle to keep
some of its own leadership out of jail and I remember
you know just beginning to have this
since I was being watched
and people started talking about
we started talking about the
provocateurs
and infiltrators
and certainly after these around everyone's
the brown berets were a special target
yeah we need dean at that time was doing surveys
were taken out of photographs we didn't realize
it until way later on we were arrested
this call is an attempt to try to stop
the movement and growing movement
and %HESITATION little they we know that the parade by Dan
had already been infiltrated by the sheriffs and yelling
one of the local leaders said he was in high school
turned out to be an LAPD everyone was what good reason
it turns out that a significant number of the people in
these various organizations were police officers or appointments
many of them were actually the people
we're proposing
officials were keeping tabs on certain
individuals which were then
search the FBI and subversive activities in which I was one
of those people was listed as one of the hundred most subversive
individuals in the United States in nineteen seventy
when I started she was a series of our grass and and threats
%HESITATION against me personally and other parades you
know in general making you're making our people look bad
and lose you know we're gonna we should spend the rest
of your life in prison or you end up dead
in the beginning of these documents as the years
went on in doing my research and sure enough
I got a bunch of documents on myself
and then and then I realized why it was that that
meant that I was arrested early morning that I
was arrested when 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 subversive
dangerous armed so versus
you know and my car over doing was nonviolent protest
as schools opened in the fall the east LA thirteen
%HESITATION impact
I walked in this morning and they told me I could not
I would have to go down
that I could not teach
there was only part of the education
code if you are arrested
cannot be in the classroom our engine
because I was I was in and
for sure I could not be on in the classroom so I was gonna
problems as well as teaching the struggle in the East Los Angeles
Kings system came down to a single defining moment
some parents to get cell Castro reinstated
this is interesting on the line in his community came to support
us and at that point whether you like him you didn't like
it wasn't even the issue the issue was is that this community
that you gonna community in Los Angeles how to have a role
in what the schools yeah what do you think it will take to
get people to pay attention to the demands of the Mexican
American communities well you know that's a good question
actually looking in retrospect there about fifteen thousand
kids out in the streets are in that week of March they were
about sixteen schools involved not only
senior highs throughout East Los Angeles but also in West
Los Angeles in support of the kids in the family with
union high schools involved there about the forty five
high school students arrested there were about twenty
five adults and you know the majority community seem like
I wasn't concerned about business as usual
we check in with that high school every day with a contingent
of people to call for southwestern we returned to Lincoln
between our daily practice at Lincoln we also went to the school
board meetings which were on Tuesdays and Thursday afternoons
to address them and ask them to return to Lincoln
I would rather die on my
we
thank you might have on your
good luck with the Mexican American community
after ten days of picketing without results
Chicano activists resorted to a new tactic
instead of walking out they said in
what we're talking weeks and we'll sit here and we'll
stay here until you make the decision that our needs of
the check on the community and the city are taken care
of and the community has the right to make decisions about
the kinds of people who teach in our schools
it just seemed like the next logical step you know that
we have to to kind of apply a little bit more pressure
Germans occupying the room there was I
mean I mean function we slept there
check the room occupied
I've never done anything like that
the convenience of the
if you're
so we knew what they were but we don't have to do
at one point they turn up the air conditioning or hard to
turn off the phones at one point they turned off the heat
when it made all these interesting things to make us uncomfortable
but there were things you read a lot
we had
it's a time to talk about what we're gonna do next
and every day you know we thought was good and everything
without okay it'll be over there to listen
our people one
in the school system
thanks to have respect for the dignity of
the person regardless of cultural background
regardless of his economic powers
we live in a society that respects money
and we in the Mexican community are insisting
that the schools learn to respect means
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 them come into my office or come into
the board and executive session and see all of the problems
then they would understand that we didn't want to do to
them what they thought we were doing to them
after seven days the board agreed to
vote on cell Castro's reinstate
but they demanded the protesters in the city for the arrest
that last night the officers came in and made
the announcement that there would be arrests
and those of us who didn't want
to be arrested have to leave
thirty five demonstrators refused to leave
you are hereby notified this building
any permits
implied or otherwise remain on the
premises is hereby revoked
you will be considered trespassing and violation
of California penal code section
it was clear was that we did not
and that's a good question if they decided to
certainly they had crossed many other movements
the next day as the board prepared to vote
she got a leaders made a final appeal
%HESITATION
you
your
your
principal
when water in the middle of the street
one man
all
Los Angeles school board began to
vote as the community watched
yes
yes
troublemaker a rabble rouser and
everything else are you that
former education what does that mean
there are many changes that have to be made
because at this point education is not relevant
issues in general and Mexican
sal Castro in the other LA thirteen defendants won
their battle with the school district but they still
face the possibility of long prison terms their legal
battles would continue for two more years
please delete thirteen which was of course
the case coming out of the water
it was ultimately thrown out of court on appeal
again based on the bill of rights
freedom of speech freedom of assembly freedom to petition
the government for a redress of grievances
what comes with the first
significant urban struggle of the Chicanos
our kids were trying to do was to make schools work better
with the walk ons did it get so close the attention now on
the G. caramels in the city because these kids were serious
these kids and went to school from the time they were going
to do something they were going to change the world
Los Angeles was only the beginning
soon after the blow out you got to students across the country
staged similar protests igniting a movement for educational
reform that would continue for many years to come
there is
for serious conditions were
also in getting our parents
I mean the people involved
what made us all realize how collectively
we have a strong voice
all right and we didn't realize we had
and we knew that we were gonna win
another
to learn more about the Mexican American
civil rights movement visit us on the PBS
homepage at the address on your screen
major funding for this program was provided by
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the John D. and Catherine T. macarthur foundation
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