The Texas Bilingual Education Story: Celebrating our Legacy [video]

Friends, 

Re-posting this video and blog from 2019. History doesn't go stale after all. In contrast, it's very much alive and must be re-told to each generation so that we do not take for granted the sacrifices, wishes, desires, and accomplishments of our forbears to whom we owe so very much. 🙂

-Angela Valenzuela

Thanks to Dr. Rudy Rodriguez who reminds us that 2019 is the 50th anniversary of the original Federal ESEA Title VII legislation.  Texas A & M University Professor Carlos Blanton cites the importance of bilingual education to European-origin groups like Czechs, Germans, and Poles in Texas, dispelling the myth that bilingual education was or is only for Latinas/os in Texas.  

Dr. Rodriguez' email correspondence explains the importance of the original Federal ESEA Title VII legislation:

Why is this legislation important???  This federal act provided the impetus for the implementation of the original federally funded 76 bilingual programs in the U.S.  Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, El Paso were among the 17 original programs in Texas. It also led states such as Texas to repeal the English-only laws approved as early as 1918. 

In the 1976, the legislation was amended to include federal funds for teacher training, including the fellowships for master’s & doc study in bil ed- related specialty areas.  For more on the history of the legislation & Texas bilingual ed, click video link below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWbN_Y8aa5k Please distribute further to interested colleagues.  RudyR Rodriguez

Glad to see the late Senator Carlos Truán, the late Dr, George I. Sanchez,  the late Senator Ralph Yarborough, Maria Seidner, Dr. Guadalupe San Miguel, José Ángel Gutierrez,  Dr. Ángel Noé Gonzalez, Dr. Cuca Robledo Montecel, Dr. María Gonzalez Baker, among others, in the video, too. Crystal City also gets featured as a pivotal point in the bilingual education movement.  The Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) is another important institution that has been instrumental in leading the struggle for bilingual education.

You will also hear expressed support for culturally relevant curriculum, too—which is what we term, Ethnic Studies today.  Pride in one's heritage, as well as Spanish language maintenance is what the Mexican American community has sought after forever and a day.

Great video!  Thanks to Rudy Rodriguez for this important reminder of our embattled history for bilingual education.

-Angela Valenzuela