Education researchers protest Trump policies on steps of Colorado Capitol by Jason Gonzales, Chalkbeat Colorado

Friends:

It was so heartwarming being in solidarity at a rally this past week on the steps of the Denver, Colorado, Capitol building held during the AERA Conference protesting book bans, censorship, gag orders, the dismantling of the U.S. Department of Education and so on. It was such an honor to be among such truly awesome friends and scholars. Here is the line-up of emcees and speakers:

Emcees: Karla Hernandez-Mats, President of United Teachers of Dade, Local 1974, FEA, AFT, NEA, AFL-CIO, Florida

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, historian, education researcher, former school board member, Illinois

Speakers List

• Alexandria Flores, Indigenous activist and community organizer born and raised in Denver: Brief land acknowledgement
• Tom Romero, Professor of Law and History at the University of Denver & Director of the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for the Study of (in) Equality – IRISE, member of AAUP
• Jojo Carranza (they/them), Indigenous organizer and former student in Denver
• Ramon Del Castillo, educator, retired Professor and Researcher, co-author of La Raza Report for Denver Public Schools
• Angela Valenzuela, Co-convener of Black Brown Dialogues on Policy; Education Chair, State of Texas League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC)
• Terrell Morton, Race and STEM Education researcher, Illinois
• Mildred Boveda, Teacher Education and Special Education researcher, Pennsylvania
• Nita Gonzales, nationally recognized Chicana community activist, educator, President/CEO of Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios, a nationally recognized model for Chicano/Mexicano and indigenous education, Denver, CO.

Many thanks to Drs. Rebecca Tarlau, Elizabeth Todd-Breland, Alice Taylor, Luis Torres, Chalane Lechuga, and CeCe Jordan for their invaluable contributions to organizing this event. A special acknowledgment goes to Dr. Mildred Boveda, whose inspiration and encouragement helped propel this effort, along with a powerful AERA pre-conference event. It merits mention that many of us similarly attended and participated in the Power of Protest rally at the Comparative and International Education Society Conference in Miami, Florida, last summer, making us quite the team. 

It was Mildred who first reached out to me about the Miami protest of all the same kinds of issues as book bans, freedom to teach, freedom to learn and so on. After Miami, Mildred reciprocated by attending and being an observer at our For the Love of Texas Unity Summit. One of the greatest things about being in the academy is the kind of relationships one gets to form and strengthen over the years.

It would be remiss of me not to highlight the meaningful presence and participation of Dr. Ramón del Castillo, retired professor and former Chair of Chicana/o Studies at MSU Denver. Widely recognized for his advocacy in social justice and cultural studies, Dr. del Castillo's work spans research, poetry, and journalism, with a focus on Curanderismo (healing practices) and Indigenous epistemologies. He also co-edited Indigenous Ways of Knowing in Counseling (2020) and contributes regularly to El Semanario. 

Thanks to the support of Dr. Luis Torres, another luminary and respected scholar and advocate for Chicana/o Studies in Colorado, El Semanario published a full-page ad promoting our event.

Last, but not least was featured speaker Nita Gonzales, the late Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales' daughter and has been instrumental in promoting culturally relevant education in Denver. daughter. Corky was a major Chicano activist during the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 70s.

In 1970, Nita Gonzales co-founded Escuela Tlatelolco Centro de Estudios with her father and led it for over 40 years as president and CEO. The school became a national model for culturally relevant education, celebrating Chicano/Mexicano and Indigenous heritage. In 2012, President Barack Obama honored her as a "Champion of Change." Today, she continues to support youth initiatives. One is "My Spark Denver," which underscores her lifelong commitment to empowering young people.

I really enjoyed learning about Nita Gonzales and the Chicano Movement in Colorado in this video.

We owe much to our leaders and ancestors who paid dearly for the rights we have today—that are, of course, in peril. We must all do what we can to push back against this extremism in every state, everywhere, where applicable. If we don't continue to defend it seriously, higher education everywhere could soon resemble Texas.

Alongside my other dear colleagues who organized and spoke at this rally, I’m deeply honored to have stood alongside both Dr. Ramón del Castillo and Nita Gonzales. Thank you both for your leadership, unflagging spirit of sacrifice for the community, and for continuing to pave the way for future generations. 

Glad we got some press. Abundant thanks to all of us for doing this and making our education researchers rally a tremendous success.

-Angela Valenzuela

Education researchers protest Trump policies on steps of Colorado Capitol

By 

Jason Gonzales

 | April 25, 2025, 3:47pm CDT

About 125 people gathered at the steps of the Colorado Capitol on Friday, April 25, 2025 in Denver to protest President Donald Trump’s actions involving K-12 and higher education. (Jason Gonzales / Chalkbeat)

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On the steps of the Colorado Capitol, Terrell Morton looked out on the small crowd of fellow researchers and said they gave him hope.

Less than two weeks ago, the Trump administration canceled two of the University of Illinois at Chicago assistant professor’s grants that involved researching how to help Black students in science, technology, engineering, and math.

“It lets me know that I am not alone in this space when it comes to advancing and fighting for justice,” he said.

About 125 researchers and educators from across the nation — along with a small group of students — joined Morton to signal their opposition to President Donald Trump’s decisions about K-12 and higher education. Trump has sought to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, cancel research grants, and dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

The group was in Denver to attend the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting, which brought together 10,000 researchers from across the country.

Organizers say they saw an opportunity with so many researchers gathered in one spot to hold the rally, which was not part of the AERA conference, in a public space to protest Trump’s efforts to exert control over universities and research.

Elizabeth Todd-Breland, a former Chicago Board of Education member and historian, said with so many researchers in Denver, the hope was to build solidarity at a time when research is under attack.

“It’s going to take all of us working together to push back against those threats,” Todd-Breland said.

Mildred Boveda, who is a Pennsylvania State University associate professor, said researchers typically work behind the scenes to share information and ideas. But now that the federal government wants to limit higher education research and ideas, she said she feels college educators can no longer stay quiet.

“We’re under attack right now by a few who are actually engaging in indoctrination that we’re being falsely accused of,” she said. “We’re trying to set the record straight. We are trying to defend not just educational institutions, but education truth.”

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

"Two Fathers," [Awesome Song] by Metro State University Chicana/o Studies Professor Tony Garcia

"Two Fathers," by Tony Garcia

It gives me great pleasure to share this moving, powerful song by my friend and colleague, Professor Tony Garcia in the Department of Chicana/o Studies at Metro State in Denver, Colorado and founder of Su Teatro Cultural and Performing Arts Center, also in Denver, Colorado.  I did a quick search and came across this website where you can learn more about the history of Colorado's Chicana/o history here. 

Upon sharing the Youtube "Two Fathers" song with me, I reached out to him expressing these exact sentiments:

"The images are so beautiful. The spirit shines through. Our youth need to see these images and get inspired. And the tone, plaintiff and loving. So tender and sincere."

I then asked him to share with me more information about the background to this song so that I could post it, with his permission, to my blog. What you see below is what he shared. 

Thank you, Tony, for your great work, and this beautiful, mystical song of remembrance.

-Angela Valenzuela

***

I actually wrote the song for my buddy and musical collaborator Daniel Valdez, who through his work with his brother Luis and El Teatro Campesino had known Cesar Chavez as a family member. Cesar was like an older brother or a tío to him. He also had been very close to Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales. He met Corky as a teenager and often stayed with the family and saw Corky very much as a father figure. 

 

Although  I met Cesar a number of times, as Su Teatro had performed a number of times at rallies where he spoke. And I knew of Corky’s work and heard him speak regularly here in Denver. I did not really form much of a relationship with him until after he had the stroke 

(actually it was a heart attack, he suffered while running; the loss of oxygen resulted in a stroke that erased much of his memory of the movement). He would come to see Su Teatro perform and we would talk. Okay, he would talk and I would listen.

 

Nonetheless, there is no doubt that I was influenced at a young age by the words and actions of these great men. My father was pretty much absent and I spent a lot of my early years in search of a male figure to emulate and grow from. When I played the song for Danny, he said this is about me. And I guess what I did was meld the two ideas, taking Danny’s experience and making it my own.

 

Danny marched from Delano to Sacramento not me. He stayed in Corky’s house and worked to build the music for the film production of, “I am Joaquin.” I guess I then realized that I had learned the deep foundational values from two men that had taught me how to be a man and a father and eventually a teacher.

 

I did sing the song originally for the benefit of my actors, and then they took over. I have a number of musicians and friends, I have sent it to them and we are all waiting for the opportunity to sing it en masse. It is really is a choral song that is very personal. 

 

I worked on it for a couple of years, and finished it right before the last election, because I believe that it is people of color who will actually save this country from itself. It is the immigrants and the marginalized that have historically made the sacrifices for the betterment of all, and at some point we will be successful in creating better conditions for our communities.

 

My daughter did the video. Mica is very talented. She has an incredible sense of timing and perspective. She is able to combine movement images because she understands the historical significance of each of those images. 

 

This was a Zoom recording, which is why there are some weird hiccups in the recording, but we look forward to the different iterations as we are able to improve the technical quality. 

I am hopeful that it will have a longer life. I very much see it as an anthem for people to evolve it and share it.The song has the kind of weight, a foundation that will allow it to grow musically. I mean that it is simple enough that it can be learned easily. The melody calls for choral and group arrangements. We have already been messing with a more blues and gospel-oriented version of the song. 

Lyrically, it might be more difficult, as it is story-specific, but who knows what I have missed. We (the musicians at Su Teatro) have played a bit with lyrics in Spanish and perhaps adding a third movement.  I, of course, would like people to examine and expand their connection with it. If that results in a progressive evolution, that would be wonderful. But I wouldn’t be so presumptuous as to believe that my song would represent an immediate transformation of thinking and information gathering, as it is only a step along our journey and a personal and melodic bridge in that conversation.

 

Tony Garcia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iy_H0IsSi9g

Reclaiming Schooling/ Recuperando la Eseñanza: Radically Reimagining the Work of Education by Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

Free and Open to the public. I am very honored to be this year‘s Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visitng Professor at Metropolitan State University in Denver, Colorado. 

As you can see from my schedule below, my public speaking takes place across the two days of Wednesday, October 7 and Thursday, October 8.  GO TO THIS PAGE TO VIEW THE ENTIRE EVENT.

On Wednesday evening, I will be accompanied by members of Nuestro Grupo here in Austin, Texas, that organizes the activities of Academia Cuauhtli, our Saturday school that is itself a cultural and linguistic revitalization project.  

In addition, Texas State University Curriculum & Instruction Professor Dr. Chris Milk—who works closely with our Austin Independent School Bilingual/Dual Language teachers that teach in our academy—will provide a professional development opportunity for community members, students, and faculty in the School of Education at Metropolitan State University. 

The following day on Thursday from 12:00- 1:30 p.m. CST, I will deliver a keynote that addresses the idea of Ethnic Studies and Liberating Ways of Knowing that builds on my presentation from the evening before.

Muchísimas gracias! Many thanks to Associate Professor of Chicana/o Studies Dr. Chalane Lechuga for making this possible. I am deeply honored to have been selected as this year's Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visitng Professor. 

-Angela Valenzuela

Reclaiming Schooling/ Recuperando la Eseñanza:

Radically Reimagining the Work of Education

Angela Valenzuela, Ph.D.

In 1969, Chicana/o students marched out of West High School in Denver, Colorado, demanding changes to the public school system, including an increase in educational opportunity, the inclusion of Chicana/o culture, history, and perspectives in the school curricula, an increase in Chicana/o teachers, and relief from the racism that they experienced in school.

Forty-one years later and in the midst of a global pandemic, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x communities continue to negotiate inequitable conditions in schools compounded by the current social and political climate that has brought educational inequities into sharper focus. Yet, in the face of this adversity, just as Chicana/o communities did forty-one years ago, Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x communities today are resilient and strategic in the ways that they negotiate these new barriers and actively work to dismantle long-standing systemic inequities. 

Richard T. Castro Distinguished Visiting Professorship welcomes, Dr. Angela Valenzuela. 

Dr. Valenzuela has a long history of research and teaching in the sociology of education, minoritized youth in schools, educational policy, urban education reform, culturally relevant curriculum, Ethnic Studies, and Indigenous education. Her foundational book, Subtractive Schooling: U.S.-Mexican Youth and the Politics of Caring, carefully documents how schools “…rather than functioning as a conduit for the attainment of the American Dream, subtract resources from Mexican youth.”  This work along with numerous other publications, including her most recent publication, Growing Critically Conscious Teachers: A Social Justice Curriculum for Educators of Latino/a Youth, has culminated in the co-founding and directing of Academia Cuauhtli, a partnership-based, community-anchored Saturday school that centers Mexican American and Indigenous knowledge and has had district-wide positive impacts in Austin, Texas. 

Valenzuela differentiates between education and the form it often takes, schooling. Schooling processes that lack the critical aspects can divest Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x students of their cultural wealth and lead to alienation, disengagement, and lack of academic success.  Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x communities deeply value education and all the possibilities of its promise.  Thus, the theme of this year’s professorship asks us to reflect on the ways that Chicana/o/x and Latina/o/x communities have reclaimed and continue to reclaim schooling to radically reimagine the work of education. 

RSVP FOR THE CASTRO EVENT

Schedule of Events

All events will be virtual

 

Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Re-centering the Identity, Knowledge, and Literacies of Latinx Youth

5:00 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. MST / 6:00p.m.-8:30p.m. CST

Please join us for a professional development session for students, student teachers, educators, and community featuring Dr. Angela Valenzuela and Dr. Chris Milk of Academia Cuauhtli. Rooted in the development of Academia Cuauhtli, a Saturday school in Austin, Texas that offers Mexican American Studies and Tejano history and culture in Spanish to 4th graders from Sanchez, Metz, Houston, Perez and Zavala Elementary Schools, this session will challenge hegemonic practices, knowledge production and literacy in schools. By centering the experiences of Latinx students in spaces where they have historically been ignored and silenced, Dr. Valenzuela and Dr. Milk will inform how we can shift our classroom practices to elevate Latinx youth, family, and community knowledges to academically support and enrich student learning. 

 

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Welcome and Keynote Address

11:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. MST / 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. CST

  

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Community Discussion: Reclaiming schooling through the transformational work of ethnic studies

5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. MST / 6:00p.m.-8:00 p.m. CST

Ethnic Studies emerged out of the 1960s civil rights movement and demands from students of color for better access to higher education, the inclusion of their history, culture, and perspectives in the school curricula, an increase in professors of color, and the implementation of ethnic studies programs that centered the interdisciplinary study of race, ethnicity, and Indigeneity (Hu-DeHart, 1993). Since then, ethnic studies programs have proliferated across the country and into K-12 curricula with many states now requiring ethnic studies to graduate from high school.  Research has documented the powerful impact of ethnic studies on school engagement and connection, retention, and ultimately graduation.  Moreover, ethnic studies foster critical thinking and on “students’ understanding of and attitudes about race and/or people who differ from themselves” (Sleeter, 2011). Please join us for a community panel discussion on the transformational work of ethnic studies.   

  

Thursday, October 8, 2020

Closing Virtual Happy Hour

7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. MST / 8 p.m.-9:00 p.m. CST

Community Conversations with Angela Valenzuela on Ethnic Studies for Colorado, Wednesday, October 3, 2018

Giving a couple of talks tomorrow here in Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Colorado. If you can't make it at the noon hour, we're having another community conversation—referred to as a Town Hall Meeting at 7PM. For the lunch-hour presentation, you must call to reserve a space, as indicated below.

The evening lecture takes place at the Cornerhouse Screening Room at Colorado College. Here is an online campus map.

It's always wonderful to be back in Colorado.

Angela Valenzuela

https://www.coloradocollege.edu/newsevents/calendar/details.html?EventID=23940&booking=1