Embedded Files
The purpose of this digital exhibition is to underscore the historical importance of Escuela Tlatelolco for Denverites and Latine-American people, especially those who shared pride in Escuela Tlatelolco, as students and neighbors in the community alike. Even for people who were not enrolled, this school was a source of pride for the Mexican Americans of North Denver, and it deserves to be remembered by everyone living in the barrios of Denver today.
Further, the historical research surrounding Escuela Tlatelolco—and schools like it—deserves to be more fully developed. In order to facilitate that process, the Bibliography below discusses some of the sources that were the most insightful in this research.
Bibliography & Further Reading
Bibliography & Further Reading
Books
Books
Acuña, Rodolfo F. Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. Pearson: New York, NY, 2015. This is the essential, introductory book for Chicane Studies. While it does offer discussion of the importance of education to El Movimiento, it also lends discussion to the different theaters of the Southwest. This might prove insightful to expanding the discussion of alternative educations in other places in the region.
Bebout, Lee. Mythohistorical Interventions: The Chicano Movement and Its Legacies. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnessota Press, 2011. Bebout's text dissects the popular narratives and folklore figures of El Movimiento, such as the Virgin Mary, Joaquín Murrieta. It also discusses distinctive writings, like "Yo Soy Joaquín" and "El Plan Espiritual de Aztlán," and how each shaped the character of the Movement. This text offers a theoretical route into the the thinking of Corky Gonzales, which can help to frame how he approached his activist work.
Cherland, Summer Marie. "No Prejudice Here: Racism, Resistance, and the Struggle for Equality in Denver, 1947-1994," PhD diss., University of Nevada, Las Vegas, 2014. Cherland's work is one of the most thorough studies of the Civil Rights Movements in Denver, CO. While the text gives priority to the activism of Black Denverites, it also lends focus to the work of the Crusade for Justice, as well as Escuela Tlatelolco.
Donato, Rubén. Mexicans and Hispanos: in Colorado Schools and Communities, 1920-1960. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2007. This work is imperative to understanding how education was provided to Mexican and Hispano people in rural Colorado. In order to know why education mattered in El Movimiento in Colorado, Mexicans and Hispanos holds no punches in describing the shortcomings of the education, and how it alienated these marginalized students.
Gonzales, Gilbert G. Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation. Denton, TX: University of Northern Texas Press, 2013. Gonzales (no relation to the activist family) writes about the legacy of segregation in the schools of California. This work is crucial for understanding some of the ways Mexican Americans received substandard educations by omission, as they were relegated to substandard schools as a matter of practice, not policy.
Gonzales, Rodolfo “Corky.” Message to Aztlán: Selected Writings of Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales. Houston, TX: Arte Público Press, 2009. This text is a collection of many of Gonzales works. This entails speeches, poems, plays, a pamphlet for Escuela Tlatelolco, and so much more.
Leonard, Stephen J., and Thomas J. Noel. A Short History of Denver. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 2016. This is a brief and easily approachable text to the history of the Mile High City. While it does not provide ample discussion of the history of Mexican/Hispano/Chicane people, it does provide a great frame of reference for the history of the entire region.
Mérida, C. Mateo. "The Last Calmecac of Aztlán: Chicanecentric Education in North Denver, 1968-2017," MA thesis, College of Charleston, SC. The Escuela of Aztlán is the digital counterpart to this master's thesis essay. For more in-depth analysis of the history of the school, I encourage you to view the essay through ProQuest.
Vigil, Ernesto B. The Crusade for Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government's War on Dissent. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1999. Vigil was once a central figure in the Crusade for Justice, and has written the single most comprehensive text regarding the history of the activist organization. No research regarding the Crusade for Justice is possible without some consultation of this book.
Websites & Digital Resources
Websites & Digital Resources
Colorado News Papers, https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/ This site is a digital archive of Colorado Newspapers as far back as the 1870s. They include newspapers in English and Spanish (such as that of The Denver Post, El Gallo, and La Voz), which is essential for learning about the Chicane Movement in Colorado.
Escuela Tlatelolco school website, https://www.escuelatlatelolco.org/History.html. This is the official website for Escuela Tlatelolco. The website was created back in the early 2000's, and doesn't appear to have been updated since 2014. Nonetheless, the site helps to show Escuela how it desired to be perceived by the general public in its time.
History Colorado, "Latino History & Heritage," https://www.historycolorado.org/latino-history-heritage. This website shows a list of other digital exhibitions pertaining to Mexican American history throughout Colorado. The exhibits underscore several different periods, from the years following the Mexican American War to El Movimiento.
“Nuestras Historias: Mexican American/Chicano/Latino Histories in Denver.” Denver, CO: Mead & Hunt Inc. March 2022. Accessed Feb. 20, 2023. https://www.denvergov.org/files/assets/public/community-planning-and-development/documents/landmark-preservation/historic-context/nuestrashistoriascontext_en.pdf. This is a History Colorado research project, studying some of the most important sites during El Movimiento in Denver. Education is a prominent point of discussion in their research, with some analysis of Escuela in particular.
C. Mateo Mérida
C. Mateo Mérida
My research for Escuela Tlatelolco stems from my love of my home town. I never attended Escuela, but I attended church at St. Dominic's next door with my tía as a child, and became proud of Escuela because of what it meant for the community I identified with.
I was studying at Colorado State when Escuela closed. I would return to a community that felt very different with the shrinking numbers of Mexican Americans in Northside. Escuela was one of the largest of these losses in the gentrifying neighborhood.
To commemorate the understated role of Chicane activists in Denver, I chose to write my master's thesis to celebrate the uniqueness of Escuela. In this way, I use my skills to share with future Latine activists, Chicane or otherwise, that they are continuing to confront the same systemic issues that have existed long before themselves.
You can see my site for more projects I have worked on, and to get in touch with me should you have any questions.
Agradecimientos
Agradecimientos
None of this work would have been possible without ample support from so many! First of all, thank you to all of the individual people who aided this research, namely Nita Gonzales, Cesar Sanchez, and Monica Garcia: this project wouldn't be of much merit without your constructive insights.
A big thank you as well to the Denver Public Library, which provided nearly every one of the primary sources of this project, and in my essay.
Thanks isn't enough for the Avery Research Center, which has helped to finance my masters thesis and this digital exhibition through the Karen Chambers Fellowship. I am also deeply grateful for the excellent mentorship and professional development you have offered me over the years. This would never have been possible without each of your support.
Finally, no thank you stands larger than that for my wife, Aubrie. Frankly, I don't think this exhibition would have looked this good without your helpful eye, support, and input. Thank you for listening to me gripe about editing, helping me to approach this project with different viewpoints, ensuring that I build a project that I can be proud of.
¡Muchas gracias todos!
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