Background History

Then

The Lemon Grove Incident

Chicano/a students as a class along with teachers.

  • The Lemon Grove incident was the the first case in which Chicano/a were having their education stripped from them because they were "disruptive" to the white students. Their "solution" was separating the Chicano/a students from the white students and putting them in their own school.

  • However, rather than it being a proper school, it was a small farm. The material they were learning were things you would teach a toddler such as basic mannerisms.

  • The students eventually brought up their situation to their parents who did not know what was going on. This made the parents furious, which led them to refuse to send their kids to school until they were being properly educated. The response from the county was threatening parents by cutting welfare and deportation leaving them defenseless.

  • Eventually enough was enough and the incident landed a County case in which the people fighting for the students were the students themselves. The case ended with the students winning and allowed them to go back to the school with the white students.


East L.A Walkouts

Moments of Protests on March 5,1968.


  • In March of 1968, Chicano/a students from East L.A. walked out to protest against inequality in the education system.

  • The schools around the area of East La consisted of 130,000 Latino students which was around 75% of the student population.

  • Between 15,000 to 20,000 students from 7 high schools walked out of their schools protesting.

  • While students were protesting in peace, the police force used physical violence to student and anyone associated in the movement leading to many people being hurt.

  • The walkouts eventually led to the creation of the Chicano/a movement, also known as El Movimiento, which was the largest and most widespread civil rights movement led by Mexican decent.

Now

Precious Knowledge

  • In 2013 there was a protest in Tucson High School located in Arizona due to the district refusing to allow any form of Ethnic Studies classes.

  • The board of education believed that these classes were "Brainwashing" students by educating them with the Latin X culture.

  • However, the reality was that these classes were actually increasing the engagement in the classroom for students who were projected to not even graduate.

  • With the board refusing to allow ethnic studies to be taught and the students and teachers rebutting, it led to a protest which eventually led the students and teacher to be victorious.

  • This was a huge victory for the Chicano/a's in education because they were able to stand their ground in one of the most conservative states in the country. It led ethnic studies to be a requirement in universities.

Overall

These historical moments that have taken place are what have allowed us to study at a University and specifically this class. If we compare the protest from then to now, we can see the amount of violence and threatening were extremely greater than present day. However the reason why I am showing events that have taken place in the past and in the present is because although it is getting "better" there is still some form of oppression toward the Chicano/a community in the education system. Our community is continuing to break the social stigma of the involvement of Chicano/a in education system, including us since we are in seats that many did not think we could sit in. The previous generations have allowed us to get to this point and we shall continue to prove to the future generation and to our oppressors' that we are not some dumb, disruptive, or brainwashed students, but rather intelligent, sophisticated, and strong group of individuals, we are Chicano/a(s).