LA Walkouts

by Kara Rivas·5 views·Updated May 23, 2024

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Hi, my name is K
and I'm gonna be talking about the L A walkout slash blowouts.
Um This is actually gonna be my third attempt at recording this
because apparently I talk too much like over 15 minutes
and pre
has a limitation, I guess I'll try to be a little bit quicker on this one.
Um So a brief overview of what I'm gonna be talking about
and the mythology discussed within cultural capital are linguistic,
navigational, social and resistance.
And for tenants of critical race theory,
I named the commitment and there is an I in my version,
I don't know why the I and the M and T and the commitment isn't included anyhow,
the commitment to social justice centrality and the intersectionality of racism.
I also see that typo too, but I, I promise you there's an e in my version
and in lacked example.
Um So history.
Um
there is a lot happening in the 19 fifties, 19 sixties
mainly um based on the Depression.
Um There was a lot of people
and white people, I mean, mainly white people blaming
the Depression on a lot of Hispanic and
Chicano workers
just because
a lot of the production shut down
and businesses
went downward as well.
Uh
So
in turn, the racism and discrimination against
just
Latino people in general was really, really bad.
Yet there was over 100 and 30 young Latino students which accounted
for 75% of all students located within East L A area.
Um
But something
really disheartening that stuck out to me was that
I found,
well, after researching, I found that a lot of the,
the teachers and the instructors that the students were being taught by it,
they weren't even
qualified
or Underqualified
and
the school itself lacked maintenance.
Um, the classrooms were run down, they lack certain supplies.
The students curriculum curriculum was geared towards vocational
training which means production work pretty much.
So
it was almost like they were
already being brainwashed to just be production workers
like that's all they were good for,
which is
insane.
Um
I said the
Chicano students weren't even allowed to speak Spanish.
So again, they, they had mainly at
the time, they had a lot of teachers and professors that were white
and a white that
and they would actually get in trouble for speaking Spanish amongst
one another because it just because the teacher couldn't understand.
So
I
don't know if the teacher is paranoid or just the district in general too.
They permitted the teacher to not allow them to speak Spanish
and that was horrendous as well.
But at the heart of it all the Latino students weren't being offered
the same educational knowledge and training as
the white students within the same area
um of East L A
or, or just L A in general too.
And I noted that the inequality and systematic racism
and the racially charged discrepancies within the school system
is what add to the L A walkouts.
It happened on March 6th of 1969 but it did last a total of eight days.
And during
that time, the person that kind of sp spread pretty much spread.
The word was also a student of the time later on who would become a teacher.
And his name is not listed on this particular slide,
but I'll talk about him a little bit later on, his name was
Castro. And he also
um came from a family of production workers and he said growing up,
he'd get told that he should be a
production worker as well and they're greatly needed.
Um But he didn't,
he knew something was wrong and it wasn't right and
he also knew how the other students were being treated.
Um
So
he pretty much took a stand also with them.
And then
when the does this actually happened in the walkout,
there was about 15 to 20,000 students
and a lot of them came with their family
and even members of the surrounding community to sup to
support the cause
and the leaders of change that I wanted to know were Vy Castro, Bobby
Goo
and Paula
Crystal.
Cry
Tome.
I, I'm still trying to learn how to pronounce her name but you your family.
So Vicky Castro
and Paula
or Vicki and Paula, they, they pretty much went to the school board
um asking for
proper knowledge and skills and better training, better,
better teachers just like a an overall better experience while being educated,
not for them, not just for themselves but for their classmates as well.
Um That were also of Latino
Chicano descent.
And the school board had replied that
they'd not have the authority to control what the whole society was doing,
which implied that this was
like an everyday thing like for society at the time.
And the school board didn't really think it was that big of
a deal since it had been happening for so long already,
they had kind of just gotten used to treating the students a certain way
the Latino Chicano
students,
which was greatly disheartening to hear
someone else that I wanted to bring up is Bobby Verdugo.
And he was another student at the time that helped lead the lockout.
He ended up
on finding
the
Chicano student movement, which would in turn bring bilingual
and a lot of the Chicano culture
um to schools and programs. So students can learn a
little bit more about their background and even feel a greater sense of identity
since a lot of Latin
or Chicano based
schools or um schooling or study,
um wasn't provided in the schools, it was mainly geared towards their white
students and their
performance and outcome was top priority.
Um
I put in the quote,
I was never told I was college material or capable of aspiring for something better.
Um This was told to him by one of his teachers also
really, really
just
horrible to hear but
Paula heard something,
um,
not exactly similar,
um, but
close within the context of it being just a really sad and
awful thing for a teacher to say to a student.
And
so for Paula and her quote is based on something that I watched
within the video and I did list the video in the bibliography,
but she pretty much mention that a
geometry teacher
had a question that he was asking the students,
she raised her hand and asked about a particular point in the question.
And the teacher replied, oh, Paula, why are you even bothering?
We all know you're not gonna go to college,
you're not just gonna get pregnant by the end of the summer,
just like the rest of your girlfriends.
And when I watched the video,
despite she, you know, she had grown into a beautiful woman.
She, she was still
traumatized by
and that was very,
very hard to hear because she was almost moved to tears still as well.
But the passion in her eyes were still undeniable and
she
um Bobby and Vicky, they ended up working
as teachers. I mean, Bobby even like founded um the Chicano movement.
Uh
Both Vicky and Paula
worked in the Unified
School District and the L A Board of Education
and Paula is still
teaching at UC Berkeley to this day.
Well, based on what the, the, the article that I read because that was,
I think that was like a year and a half, two years ago was the most recent article.
Um
But yeah, that's the, that's the beauty that kind of,
you know, like the perspective that shift and grown so much.
The the people that let them down when we were in school,
they wanted to make sure that they didn't
let the people that looked up to them down and
wanted to inspire their voice and be activists and
the movement of leading Latino and Chicano students to their greatest potential.
So it, the outcome of the lockout
pretty much led to a lasting impact
um
because the Chicano community knew that their voice was heard,
their collective voice
would no longer be silent
and I put the first part as resistance.
Um because the whole walkout in general,
it's pretty much the protest. Um them
telling the school that it's not right.
They did not use violence, they did not do anything
to hurt anyone. They simply
um took a scan for what wasn't right.
And I listed a commitment to social justice
because this was happening to a group of people,
group of people being Latino and Chicano community.
So it was,
it did seem like it was targeted
and they sought justice for
inequality they have been facing.
I also wrote navigational
um because within the educational issues
uh issues coordinating committee was created,
this committee was actually created by students
and it was once started and
it was pretty much a safe committee where
students could voice their opinions and concerns about
what was taking place on or around campus that they were not in agreement with.
Um Also the centrality and intersectionality of racism was noted
because
within the
um
Chicano movement, um the foundation
um pretty much how I had mentioned.
Um Bobby created that and he would help bring
the bicultural and bilingual programs to the schools.
And
within that they, the schools will also have to hire chic Chicano educators
to better uh instruct the kids. Uh These new
um instructors were educated,
uh They were qualified.
Uh I did also list social
um
because it would become illegal to not
educate students who would not speak English.
So
in that regard,
Sal and all the leaders made sure
that all students
especially of Latino and Chicano descent
could have the education that they deserved
and the enduring impact that this had.
Um
So
this is Sal
Castro as he is older, to the right side
and to the bottom, left side was actually his funeral, over 1000 people attended.
And within the attendees and included professors um prominent figures within
a
just as a whole.
Um He was honored at the Cathedral of Our Lady
uh the angels on a in April 2013.
And I listed resistance
slash a commitment to social justice
because after, even after uh
oh when Sal
was still around
and after the walkout happened, he was charged with conspiracy,
um charges were eventually dropped and he was let go.
But
this didn't stop him from wanting to become an educator
and wanting to work with the community and
the students and the families that were also
impacted by the discrimination
and the systematic racism
that
was evident at the time and still is in a lot of different parts
of the States and the world in general.
But despite this,
I still felt motivated and passionate enough to continue
educating
his students and teaching people that it's OK
to love who you are
and be proud to be Chicano and Latino.
The in luck ish
quote that I included was something that Saul had said
and he
says,
cultural pride and knowledge of your own
history leads to respective self and others.
And I think this can apply in all aspects
of
not just just teaching
but interacting with people
and making sure that there's always love and unity between one another
and
nothing pe having
wonderful people around you that can help educate you.
So thank you so much for listening and I hope you have a.