National LULAC Conversation on Ethnic Studies and Critical Race Theory with Drs. Angela Valenzuela, Theresa Montaño and National LULAC Policy Director Bill Moreno

 Friends,

Happy to share this discussion on Ethnic Studies and Critical Race Theory from today's National Virtual LULAC Conference with Dr. Theresa Montaño and National LULAC Policy Director Bill Moreno serving as our moderator. You can hear our conversation here. 

The 2021 Virtual Summit itself is excellent! You can watch all LULAC Virtual Summit recordings here:

Virtual Summit Video Gallery

I want to highlight a statement made by Dr. Montaño who reiterates a research-based perspective out of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on how it is healthy for us to discuss racism in society because it is a "social determinant of health that has a profound impact on the health status of children, adolescents, emerging adults, and their families." You can read the AAP policy statement here: The Impact of Racism on Child and Adolescent Health.

It was awesome to hear Dr. Montaño underscore the importance of LULAC— founded as a civil rights organization in 1929—pointing to the teaching of one of our LULAC co-founders, Jose de la Luz Saenz, in a California Ethnic Studies classroom of which she was aware.

I was pleased to hear this as her mention of this gave me a chance to reflect on UT History Professor Emilio Zamora's translation of Luz Saenz' World War I Diary as per these June 28 and June 29, 2016 blog posts, respectively, written when Emilio and I were in France:*

• If the Dead Could Speak...My Reflections on the June 28, 1914 Assassination of the Duke of Serbia
• My Reflection this Evening on the WWI Battlefield Sacrifice of José de la Luz Sáenz, a Critically Conscious Educator

I like how we squeezed a lot of great information and ideas into a little bit of time that, despite all the anti-CRT rhetoric and bill proposals, most should find encouraging.

Thanks to Bill and Theresa for a great conversation! And thanks to Dr. Zamora for his own contributions and sacrifices to furthering an awareness of our own intellectual and social movement history. Clearly, despite the politics of erasure, we will not allow for this to happen. And thanks to National LULAC for highlighting our session.

Sí se puede! Yes we can!

-Angela Valenzuela

*Source:  Zamora, E. (2014). The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz. College Station, Tx: Texas A & M Press.

Highlight-Erasing Latinos in Education

 LULAC Virtual Summit 

September 3, 2021
Moderator:
Bill Moreno, Director for Policy & Legislation, LULAC

Speakers:
Theresa Montaño, Professor, California State University Northridge
Angela Valenzuela, Professor, University of Texas