Yeah.
One of the first areas in which La raza began its fight was in the field
of education or in this country. Education is a chief means of upward
economic and social mobility. What's the story behind the struggle for
education? Well, the story began with a school system that wasn't prepared
to meet the specific needs of spanish speaking students. It's a story of
school segregation for in many areas, mexican american Children must
attend separate schools or classrooms. There are several supposed reasons
for this segregation.
It's partly a result of residential segregation of prejudices which forced
mexican americans to live in separate and well defined sections of cities
and towns.
And residential segregation is partly a reaction of the anglo american
community against the poverty they see among many mexican americans hope
that if something disagreeable is removed from view, it'll go away.
Some people still believe that school segregation is a better educational
policy in the past, educators theorized falsely that mexican american
Children were less intelligent, harder to control and had less ambition
than anglo americans. This policy began in the years following the signing
of the Treaty of Guadalupe, hidalgo, Anglo American Children were sent to
one school mexican americans to another. Such formal segregation was to
last. In some parts of the southwest. For nearly 100 years In Texas,
students were separated by law, prompting the government of Mexico to
protest as late as 1943
elsewhere, students generally were separated by customs rather than law.
It was against this background that mexican americans began to protest the
inequalities of the educational system.
The protest began in 1930 when a Texas father charged that separate
schools such as this one denied Children equal protection under the law.
The court upheld segregation in texas schools, but a new trend of protest
had begun as mexican americans began to argue their case through legal
channels. And because of this sign of awakening, Some reforms were
undertaken voluntarily. During the 1930s, the government of New Mexico
made certain changes in the distribution of school funds. Changes which
benefited areas of concentrated Mexican American population, public health
facilities were improved, workshops were held for teachers of spanish
speaking students, scholarships were provided, but these were isolated
cases. It wasn't until near the end of World War Two that the legal
contests began to pay off In 1945 on behalf of 5000 mexican american
residents, Gonzalo Mendez filed suit in federal court against the school
officials of Orange county California and the court ruled that segregated
schools violated the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution and
California law. Similar decisions followed local decisions which were to
pave the way for eventual action by the United States Supreme Court.
Mm The fight for equal education was pursued by mexican american veterans
of World War Two. These were men who had served their country with
exceptional bravery, in fact, in proportion to their numbers more mexican
american soldiers had been awarded the congressional Medal of honor than
any other group during World War Two. These soldiers had experienced an
awakening. They'd come to realize that equal rights, the very rights for
which they had been fighting should be theirs. And after the war, they
returned to the United States, determined to achieve equal status above
all in education. They demanded in education for themselves. And many
mexican american veterans use the GI bill of rights to pursue this
education. And their extensive use of the GI bill marked the turning point
for mexican americans. They received their education. They also demanded
the right of an equal education for their Children, an opportunity. Most
of the veterans had been denied and they were willing to fight for this
right. But mexican americans were not fighting alone. In the years of
World War Two, black americans experienced a similar awakening. A great
new civil rights movement was underway. One of the first demands of negro
civil rights leaders was equality in education, an end to so called
separate but equal schooling and building its case on decisions. One by
mexican americans and black americans throughout the country. The United
States Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that separate schools did not provide
an equal education, that the nation's schools must be integrated. All
minorities, all who had suffered from discrimination in education were to
benefit from this decision, but the fight was far from won.
Let's look at the example of the schooling of Children of migrant farm
workers. More than 50% of these students are from 1-4 years behind in
school and few have the opportunity to finish high school. Why? Well, one
reason is that these families move frequently following the crops and
their Children must attend several different schools during the year if
indeed they attend school at all. For many of them join their parents in
the fields. Only if the Children work can the family earn enough money to
sustain itself,
But the fault really lies with the school systems. The inability of the
various schools to cope with an influx of migrant students. The schools
haven't the facilities or the teachers to handle large numbers of
temporary students. Many of the teachers pay little attention to these
Children. Children with meager or nonexistent school records. Children who
more likely than not will be in the classroom for only a few weeks.
Mm The sons and daughters of settled mexican american families also face
discrimination in schooling less formal than in the past. It generally
takes the form of de facto segregation, segregation caused by carefully
defined residential areas. Now, you remember that we talked about the
segregation in housing, which has caused many mexican americans to live in
colonias or barrios. The Children of course attend school in the
neighborhood and these schools are often inferior, both in terms of
building facilities and quality of teaching. The curriculum followed in
the school is not adapted to the cultural background of mexican americans.
So students often fail to understand their lessons then too. There
usually forced to work in english. Even though in 18 48 the Treaty of
Guadalupe hidalgo guaranteed mexican americans the right to retain their
mother tongue spanish. As a result, many spanish speaking Children never
have the chance to master either spanish or english. Many of these
students eventually drop out of school. The picture may look bleak, but in
spite of the difficulties in spite of continuing discrimination, progress
is being made more and more Mexican american students are finishing high
school, going on to college, working for advanced degrees then to the
government and the public are becoming increasingly aware of spanish
speaking students. A bilingual education act was passed by Congress under
the law classes for spanish speaking Children now can be held in their own
language and english is taught as a second language. School districts
throughout the Southwest have begun to implement the requirements of the
bilingual education act to attempt to meet the needs of spanish speaking
Children. Then to mexican american parents are becoming increasingly
interested in their Children's education. They are actively involved in
school functions through their interest. They will win for their Children
an equal education. And so they're joining parent teacher associations and
many are serving on school boards and this activity is a new experience, a
part of a broader awakening of interest, interest in equal rights for
mexican americans interest in sharing in the government of their country.
A true political awakening
that was when I went to.
Mm hmm. Yeah.