The Legacy of Teachers in Resistance and the East Los Angeles 1968 Blowouts

• In Event: zzzzzz Withdrawn per 4/23 Emergent Historical Methodologies and Pedagogies: Chicana/o/Latina/o Movement-Building Researchers Disrupting Supremacist Educational Infrastructures

Abstract

Objectives
The East Los Angeles 1968 Blowouts in many ways represents a historical juncture that became a catalyst for change within the Chicana/o community in the struggle for a dignified education. One of the central demands of this youth movement was to train and hire teachers that were culturally and linguistically competent to meet the needs of the community (García & Castro, 2011; Delgado Bernal, 1997). At Roosevelt High School, one of the central schools of the Blowouts, only about 10% of the teachers and staff supported the Blowouts. One of those teachers was Tony Ortiz, who was the United Mexican American Students (UMAS) sponsor at Roosevelt. In 1973, Tony was recruited by Rudy Acuña, to become the first director of Operation Chicano Teacher, a teacher credentialing program that intentionally trained K-12 teachers of color for two decades at CSU Northridge (Sánchez, 2015). Operation Chicano Teacher, graduated close to 800 teachers, making a significant impact on the cultural experiences of children and youth across Los Angeles (Acuña, 1994).

Theoretical Framework, Methods & Data Sources
Critical Race Educational History guides this research, as this methodology upholds the principles of Critical Race Theory (Solórzano, 1997), while engaged in the task of developing counternarratives from the viewpoint of people of color (Santos et al., 2017). To locate, corroborate and uplift the histories of critical educators of color, this paper is built on several archival holdings including the Acuña Collection, LAUSD Board of Education records, and the general archives and yearbooks held at Roosevelt High School. Furthermore, the silences found in institutional archives serve as a guide for critical scholars of color as we look for innovative ways to produce and communicate the histories and stories that are essential to generating possibilities beyond the dominant discourse (García & Yosso, 2020).

Results & Scholarly Significance
The initial drive behind this study, written by a former Roosevelt High School teacher, was to find out how and to what degree educators assisted in mentoring, encouraging, and fostering critical consciousness among students involved in the East LA 1968 Blowouts. While there is a wealth of information regarding the participation in this movement of Sal Castro, a teacher at Lincoln High School who worked closely with students, this paper details the efforts of other educators who responded to the 1968 Blowouts' call for more educators of color who were culturally competent. As school districts in California contend with Ethnic Studies as a high school graduation requirement starting with the class of 2025, the need to train educators in the discipline and pedagogy has become alarmingly evident (California Department of Education, 2022). However, the Mexican community has a long history of resistance in schools (Barragán Goetz, 2020) that can inform how policy and teacher training unfold to meet the Ethnic Studies requirement in California public high schools. By uplifting the history of Mexican educators, like Tony, the next generations of educators of color have the tools to engage in and create the pathways towards building an education for liberation (Curammeng, 2020; Sacramento, 2019).

Author

• Mariana E. Ramirez, University of California - Los Angeles