Are Latino Students Better Off, 44 Years After California School Walkouts?
The first time I got to listen to Sal Castro speak was four years ago at UC Santa Barbara during my freshman year of college. Last month, I had the opportunity to hear him lecture again at Cal State Bakersfield, on the topic of education reform, along with professor Mario T. Garcia from UCSB.
Castro, an educator and lifelong Chicano activist, is most well known for his role in the East Los Angeles high school walkouts of 1968. Those historic walkouts were a defining moment of the Chicano movement. At its height, 15,000 mostly Latino students from schools throughout LAUSD left their classrooms to protest social discrimination and educational inequality between white and Latino students in the public school system.
The students back then had a long list of demands, which included: The
2011 Bittersweeet Year for Latino Immigrants in Texas
For activists and defenders of human rights in Texas, 2011 will be remembered for a rash of bills against illegal immigration in the state legislature and, in response, the fight to protect immigrants.
Early last year the legislature was inundated by the innumerable bills punishing undocumented immigration requested by Gov. Rick Perry, who pushed the Republican majority to pass a measure penalizing sanctuary cities.
After months of intense debate, however, none of the almost 40 bills passed.
While the legislative redistricting plan that emerged was blocked by federal judges who accepted the U.S.