Mañana is now !
We need your letters insisting on the expansion of Mexican
American history. The closing date is
May 1, 2015. Mañana is now.
We have a unique opportunity to change the history books in
California K-12 to include
Chicano/Mexican American history- but we must act now. This is the time to get
that letter written and e mailed asking
that Mexican American history be included in the re write of the History/Social
Science Framework for California Schools.
Mexican American/ Chicano history is currently substantially
absent from public school textbooks and curriculum in California- and it has
been since 1986. See the prior post below. A guide to writing
such a letter is here. https://sites.google.com/site/democracyandeducationorg/Home/latino-students-and-civic-engagement/project-plan---mexican-american-history.
The following letter from historian Dr. Lorena Marquez
details some of the important Chicano history that is not covered in the
framework and not covered in California history textbooks.
To the History/Social Science Framework Committee
Dear History Social Science Framework Committee,
I strongly urge you to revise
the current draft of the History/Social Science Framework to include a
more adequate recording of the history of California and the nation by
including the significant contributions of ethnic Mexicans. Exclusion and
omission of this history is a great disservice to the generations of
Chicanas/os who have worked tirelessly to build this country. Latinos comprise
nearly 39% of the state population and now constitute over 52% of the students
in our schools. By hearing their histories in the larger rubric of United
States history, they will feel validated, but most importantly, they will be
empowered to make positive change in their communities.
I recommend extension of
the description of the Chicano movement to more adequately address this issue.
Recommended additions: Line 1959. Page 348.
The
Chicano Movement emerged as an instance in the historical trajectory of Mexican
American political activism. Like its immediate antecedent, the Black Power
Movement, it was constructed in opposition to the pacifist and integrationist
rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1940s and 1950s. By the mid-1960s
Chicano youth challenged the old, integrationist orientations of their
predecessors. The Chicano Movement, however, was not a unified entity. It was multi-stranded and broadly
diverse, with many internal fissures and local correlations. In its idealized
form, the Chicano Movement, hoped to link people through goals, culture, and
perceived notions of community. Chicanos across the Southwest and beyond,
demanded change to their subordinate standing in the U.S. They argued, that
like African Americans, they had suffered discrimination and systematic
oppression. Today, it remains unmatched in its ability to reach an ethnic
population across a vast geographic region.
The
Chicano Movement began in 1965 in Delano, California when Dolores Huerta and
Cesar E. Chávez, founders of the National Farm Workers Association (later it became
the United Farm Workers union), led a national boycott against table grape
growers in the region because they failed to recognize their collective
bargaining rights. Chávez, the president of the farm workers union, and the
farm worker struggle, became the face of Chicano protest and struggles. While
the United Farm Workers union brought national and even international
recognition to the plight of Chicanos for labor rights, it had overarching
consequences. Many young Chicanas and Chicanos felt connected to the farm
worker struggle even though the majority resided in urban areas and had never
themselves worked in the California agricultural industry.
An
entire generation of mostly young Chicanas and Chicanos identified as an
oppressed racial group and unlike their predecessors saw themselves as an
“ethnic minority,” like African Americans. Although they were legally “white,”
Mexican Americans had been subjected to generations of institutional and social
discrimination and racism. They self-identified as Chicanas/os and claimed to
be brown, not white. Copying from the African American slogans, they espoused
“Brown is Beautiful!” This new generation wanted to know why, despite the
wealth and power of the U.S., there was so much poverty, inequality, racism, and
sexism? By 1968, the Chicano Movement had evolved from the countryside to the
cities.
The
first to demonstrate in mass were Chicana and Chicano high school students who
walked out of their schools in protest of poor and inadequate educational
conditions. On March 1, 1968, students from Wilson, Lincoln, Garfield, Belmont,
and Roosevelt High Schools in East Los Angeles walked out of their high school
as they grew frustrated with the administration’s inability to understand their
cultural and educational needs. These were largely segregated Mexican high
schools and had been neglected by the Los Angeles Unified School District
(LAUSD) for some time. By week’s end, 10,000 high school and even middle school
students had joined the Walkouts. The students outlined a list of 36 demands
which they presented to the LAUSD Board of Directors. Some of these demands
included: the hiring of Chicana/o teachers and administrators, formation of
Chicano Studies courses, culturally sensitive teachers, and bilingual education.
Unfortunately, these students were met by a brutal police backlash. When the
parents of these students saw that the Los Angeles Police Department began
beating and arresting peaceful demonstrators it spurred them to action and they
began to add pressure to the LAUSD as well. Up until this point, few young
Chicanas/os had engaged in this type of demonstration. They believed in change
and hoped for a better tomorrow for
those themselves and those that followed.
Thank you for your
consideration.
Please confirm receipt of this
submission.
Sincerely,
Lorena V. Márquez, PhD
Lecturer
Chicana/o Studies Department
Our project to change the
History Framework is described here. http://choosingdemocracy.blogspot.com/2015/04/teachers-we-need-your-letters-on.html
The Mexican American Digital History project.
No comments:
Post a Comment