WEBVTT

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Yeah.

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One of the first areas in which La
raza began its fight was in the field

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of education or in this country.
Education is a chief means of upward

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economic and social mobility. What's
the story behind the struggle for

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education? Well, the story began with
a school system that wasn't prepared

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to meet the specific needs of spanish
speaking students. It's a story of

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school segregation for in many areas,
mexican american Children must

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attend separate schools or classrooms.
There are several supposed reasons

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for this segregation.

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It's partly a result of residential
segregation of prejudices which forced

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mexican americans to live in separate
and well defined sections of cities

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and towns.

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And residential segregation is partly
a reaction of the anglo american

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community against the poverty they see
among many mexican americans hope

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that if something disagreeable is
removed from view, it'll go away.

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Some people still believe that school
segregation is a better educational

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policy in the past, educators
theorized falsely that mexican american

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Children were less intelligent, harder
to control and had less ambition

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than anglo americans. This policy
began in the years following the signing

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of the Treaty of Guadalupe, hidalgo,
Anglo American Children were sent to

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one school mexican americans to
another. Such formal segregation was to

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last. In some parts of the southwest.
For nearly 100 years In Texas,

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students were separated by law,
prompting the government of Mexico to

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protest as late as 1943

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elsewhere, students generally were
separated by customs rather than law.

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It was against this background that
mexican americans began to protest the

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inequalities of the educational
system.

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The protest began in 1930 when a Texas
father charged that separate

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schools such as this one denied
Children equal protection under the law.

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The court upheld segregation in texas
schools, but a new trend of protest

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had begun as mexican americans began
to argue their case through legal

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channels. And because of this sign of
awakening, Some reforms were

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undertaken voluntarily. During the
1930s, the government of New Mexico

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made certain changes in the
distribution of school funds. Changes which

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benefited areas of concentrated
Mexican American population, public health

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facilities were improved, workshops
were held for teachers of spanish

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speaking students, scholarships were
provided, but these were isolated

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cases. It wasn't until near the end of
World War Two that the legal

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contests began to pay off In 1945 on
behalf of 5000 mexican american

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residents, Gonzalo Mendez filed suit
in federal court against the school

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officials of Orange county California
and the court ruled that segregated

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schools violated the 14th Amendment to
the United States Constitution and

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California law. Similar decisions
followed local decisions which were to

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pave the way for eventual action by
the United States Supreme Court.

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Mm The fight for equal education was
pursued by mexican american veterans

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of World War Two. These were men who
had served their country with

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exceptional bravery, in fact, in
proportion to their numbers more mexican

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american soldiers had been awarded the
congressional Medal of honor than

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any other group during World War Two.
These soldiers had experienced an

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awakening. They'd come to realize that
equal rights, the very rights for

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which they had been fighting should be
theirs. And after the war, they

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returned to the United States,
determined to achieve equal status above

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all in education. They demanded in
education for themselves. And many

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mexican american veterans use the GI
bill of rights to pursue this

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education. And their extensive use of
the GI bill marked the turning point

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for mexican americans. They received
their education. They also demanded

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the right of an equal education for
their Children, an opportunity. Most

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of the veterans had been denied and
they were willing to fight for this

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right. But mexican americans were not
fighting alone. In the years of

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World War Two, black americans
experienced a similar awakening. A great

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new civil rights movement was
underway. One of the first demands of negro

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civil rights leaders was equality in
education, an end to so called

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separate but equal schooling and
building its case on decisions. One by

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mexican americans and black americans
throughout the country. The United

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States Supreme Court ruled in 1954
that separate schools did not provide

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an equal education, that the nation's
schools must be integrated. All

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minorities, all who had suffered from
discrimination in education were to

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benefit from this decision, but the
fight was far from won.

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Let's look at the example of the
schooling of Children of migrant farm

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workers. More than 50% of these
students are from 1-4 years behind in

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school and few have the opportunity to
finish high school. Why? Well, one

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reason is that these families move
frequently following the crops and

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their Children must attend several
different schools during the year if

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indeed they attend school at all. For
many of them join their parents in

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the fields. Only if the Children work
can the family earn enough money to

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sustain itself,

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But the fault really lies with the
school systems. The inability of the

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various schools to cope with an influx
of migrant students. The schools

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haven't the facilities or the teachers
to handle large numbers of

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temporary students. Many of the
teachers pay little attention to these

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Children. Children with meager or
nonexistent school records. Children who

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more likely than not will be in the
classroom for only a few weeks.

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Mm The sons and daughters of settled
mexican american families also face

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discrimination in schooling less
formal than in the past. It generally

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takes the form of de facto
segregation, segregation caused by carefully

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defined residential areas. Now, you
remember that we talked about the

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segregation in housing, which has
caused many mexican americans to live in

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colonias or barrios. The Children of
course attend school in the

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neighborhood and these schools are
often inferior, both in terms of

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building facilities and quality of
teaching. The curriculum followed in

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the school is not adapted to the
cultural background of mexican americans.

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So students often fail to understand
their lessons then too. There

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usually forced to work in english.
Even though in 18 48 the Treaty of

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Guadalupe hidalgo guaranteed mexican
americans the right to retain their

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mother tongue spanish. As a result,
many spanish speaking Children never

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have the chance to master either
spanish or english. Many of these

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students eventually drop out of
school. The picture may look bleak, but in

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spite of the difficulties in spite of
continuing discrimination, progress

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is being made more and more Mexican
american students are finishing high

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school, going on to college, working
for advanced degrees then to the

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government and the public are becoming
increasingly aware of spanish

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speaking students. A bilingual
education act was passed by Congress under

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the law classes for spanish speaking
Children now can be held in their own

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language and english is taught as a
second language. School districts

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throughout the Southwest have begun to
implement the requirements of the

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bilingual education act to attempt to
meet the needs of spanish speaking

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Children. Then to mexican american
parents are becoming increasingly

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interested in their Children's
education. They are actively involved in

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school functions through their
interest. They will win for their Children

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an equal education. And so they're
joining parent teacher associations and

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many are serving on school boards and
this activity is a new experience, a

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part of a broader awakening of
interest, interest in equal rights for

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mexican americans interest in sharing
in the government of their country.

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A true political awakening

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that was when I went to.

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Mm hmm. Yeah.