1987 La Voz de Aztlan

              California State University, Fresno
Monday, March 9,1987
Chicano
education
reviewed
By Jaime Perez Rodriquez
Staff Writer
Yes, as Chicanos, we all understand
what we want and feel the need to achieve
by the twenty-first century, when a great
proportion of the state population is
estimated to be of Hispanic origin. There
is more minority enrollment in colleges
and universities across the country now
than ever before and increasing every year.
But before Chicanos can look into the
future of this vast impact to society cause
by this educational phenomena, a look
must be taken into the history of
Chicano education.
The history of Chicano education is
just starting to unfold. There are aspects
yet to be detailed or explained. It is true
that Mexicans have been situated
throughout the Southwest long before the
Anglos arrived from the East. But how is
it that only the Anglo's were getting
educated and not any other particular
ethnic group. How was it that Chicanos
fell behind to the Anglos? And what can
be learned from looking at the past of
Chicano...?
Public education was taken throughout
the country by the 1900's, although on a
very limited basis.. One example is the
Anglo territorial authorities, who were in
the minority, of New Mexico. They
willingly failed to iniate serious efforts to
establish public schools during the 19th
century in order to deny the dominant
Mexican American population an
education. Two other states of the
Southwest, Tejas and California, applied
the law excluding Indians from the public
institutions to Chicanos or else
prescribed English as the only official
language for instruction. It was until
the late sixties that these English only
laws were repealed as a result of the
changing political atomosphere and the
enactment of the federal Bilingual
Education Act of 1968.
In perceiving the history of Chicano
education one finds a distinct discriminatory character of public school
pertaining to their administrative practices. Arguments are that the pre-judiced
attitudes of Anglo school leaders
influenced their decisions regarding the
establishment of segregation during the
latter 19th and early 20th centuries. The
segreation had negative consequences on
Chicanos. Segregation descouraged
cultural understanding and encouraged
Chicano children to leave school. School
officials, by ignoring and suppressing the
language and culture of Chicanos and
failing to encourage the intermingling of
different racial and cultural groups in the
classrooms through the policy of
segregation, discouraged Mexican
Americans from learning English and
helped to maintain Spanish language use
among Chicano students. The segregation
policy led primarily to detrimental
consequences on the education of Chicanos.
There were still other discriminatory
educational practices which have had their
impact on Chicanos. San Miguel in a
forthcoming book describes how local
school officials in Tejas during the 1920's
and 1930's hired only Anglo teachers,
failed to enforce rigorously the com-
Georgina Maldonado (left) encourages Ruben Fuentes (right) to stab "Cyclone" (middle) in a mock fight which was one
of El Teatro las Cucarachas' plays aimed at stopping gang warfare in the Chicano community. This play entitled
"Stopwatch", froze the action so that the narrator could explain the foolishness of fighting. See Story Page 3
pulsory school laws in Chicano communities and underfinanced Mexican
schools.
In California, a mixed group of
American citizens of Mexican descent and
Mexican nationals were responsible for
taking judicial actions to end school
segregation of Mexican children. The
local California court on March 13, 1931
ordered the Mexican children readmitted to
the regular school. Despite this ruling,
segregated schools for Mexican children
continued to flourished during the second
and third quarter of this century in the
state and throughout the Southwest
Once administrators accepted Chicanos
into the school system they placed them
on a vocational curriculum to Chicano
instruction. This type of curriculum was
not an opportunity for advancement but a
specific method for training the Chicano
school population for predetermined
occupations in the economy, usually in
the lowest paying categories, which most
of their parents had entered upon
immigrating.
The struggle for educational equality
was emerging during the years of WWII.
Chicano individuals developed anti-
segregation educational policies for state
school leaders in Tejas. The policies
modified the curriculum of the public
schools to include a Mexican heritage,
and developed workshops to train
hundreds of teachers to work with
Spanish speaking children. Also it was
during the Civil Rights Movement of the
sixties that Chicano students were a key
role in the development of Chicano
Studies programs and curricula in the
institutions of higher learning during this
period.
These were the students who opened
the door for Chicano people and allowed
them the opportunity to broaded their
awareness to society. In these last twenty
years studies have increased the
understanding and process of immigration, clarified the nature of conflict
in the Chicano community and provided
data on the origins of Chicano barrios
throughout the Southwest. But despite
all of the advancements Chicanos have
made over the past twenty years we have
still not made the impact that can carry us
into the 21st century.
By looking at the educational past of
Chicanos, as well as all ethnic minorities, an equal amount of educational
opportunity must be given to the new
incoming migrants who wish to achieve a
better way of life here in the U.S.
Guadelupe      San      Miguel,      Jr.
"History of Chicano Education"
Associate Professor
School of Education/Chicano Studies
UC Santa Barbara