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

If the Dead Could Speak...My Reflections on the June 28, 1914 Assassination of the Duke of Serbia

My second and final re-posting that reflects on World World I.  Our K-12 Ethnic Studies and Mexican American Studies classrooms could make good use of this important contribution made by Dr. Emilio Zamora.  

It could also be the most amazing field trip to be able to take our youth to France to learn in a personal way like Emilio and I did, about WWI and our communities' wartime sacrifice for democracy and freedom.

Enjoy! 

-Angela Valenzuela

This day 98 years ago on June 28, 1914, the Duke of Serbia Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife Sophie, the Duchess of Hohenberg, were killed in Sarajevo, the capital of the Austro-Hungarian province of Bosnia and Herzegovina, leading to a chain of events that served as a catalyst for the first World War. Staggering numbers of Americans, including many from Texas, lost their lives. 

Today, my husband, UT History Professor Emilio Zamora and I visited the graves at the largest American cemetery in Europe located at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon and honored the memory of individuals like Simón Gonzales from Martindale, Texas, and so many others that gave their lives in the Allied Cause against Germany—and as captured in the singular, very graphic and moving WWI Diary written by former school teacher from Realitos in South Texas, José de la Luz Sáenz. 

Austria-Hungary commemorative postage stamp

Luz Sáenz joined the war effort with the specific intention of paying the ultimate sacrifice in order to be able to return to the U.S. and make the specific claim for civil rights for Mexican Americans back home in the U.S. 

Amazingly, Luz Sáenz not only survived the great war but also produced this fascinating and exceptionally written war diary that is a very detailed and unblinking, day-to-day account of what he experienced as an American soldier.  (Note: Emilio translated it into English and interpreted it and Luz Saenz' life and contributions in an opening chapter.)

Luz Sáenz ended up returning to the U.S. and becoming one of the founders of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), that today is the oldest and largest Latino civil rights organizations in the country.  I myself am a member of LULAC and have been so for many years.  Looking backwards through time, we might easily say that his strategy for inclusion worked, making him in so many ways a precursor to the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.

Located northeast of Paris and otherwise termed "The Western Front," the The Meuse-Argonne Cemetery located roughly where the Meuse-Argonne Offensive took place is where we visited today. I came to appreciate in a tangible way just how important this specific offensive was to the ultimate defeat of Germany despite it's incalculable toll within and across time—indeed generationally, in particular, for the French, British, and so many others that experienced the brunt of this war. 

It was moving to see the headstones of the 14,246 fallen that were never repatriated to the United States.  It was similarly moving to traverse the towns, hills, and rivers where so many fought bravely, shed blood, and lost their lives. 

We located the grave of individuals like Simón Gonzales of Martindale, Texas, who was a good friend of Jose de la Luz Saenz and according to his recounting of his personal story, was well liked by all but sadly fought courageously but lost his life. 

For some unknown reason, Simón Gonzales' body was never repatriated to the U.S.  Of course the bodies of so many others remained as you can see from this image that doesn't even come close to capturing the thousands that lay silent and to some extent "unmissed and unremembered" there today.  And this despite the literally thousands of American bodies returned home upon request by their families. What we do know is that this issue of repatriated bodies was a hotly debated issue since it also made sense for some for them to simply remain on the sacred ground for which they fought so hard. More research on all of this needs to nevertheless be done in order to know why specific individuals like Simón Gonzales lay silently on the bucolic slopes of this cemetery, "Americain." 

Perhaps most striking and interesting for me was to contemplate on this day, the 98-year anniversary of "the shot heard round the world"—the killing of the Duke of Serbia—that even in France where the stakes were exceedingly high has subsided into the deep recesses of memory to the point of little, if any, noticeable recollection of this momentous event on such a day like today.

If the dead could speak, my guess is that they would ask us for their sacrifice to have meant something to us and for us.  Of course, we all know at some level what it meant, however, I think that they would have liked for it to have been a more personal memory or thought process regarding the war that Luz Saenz and others hoped would end all wars.... 

I can certainly say that reading Emilio's book and coming here—and doing both simultaneously today—resurrected a painful, albeit collective, memory that brought healing to a wound that I myself didn't quite know I had.

Angela Valenzuela

c/s

Let's not let Trump get in the way of remembering World War I

Let's not let Trump get in the way of remembering the incredible sacrifice made by so many during World War I.  

I re-post this June 29, 2016 blog that reflects on what was supposed to have been "The War to End All Wars," one of the names given to the war. Too bad that it wasn't.

If you're ever in France, I strongly recommend visiting the U.S. cemeteries where thousands of loved ones are buried.  They are so incredibly moving.  And for Mexican Americans, do consider reading and following, like Emilio Zamora and I did, the well-documented story and trail of Jose de la Luz Saenz via his written, published account that with Emilio's many years of hard work, culminated in a translated war diary that leaves us with a connection to the past that helps explain and give rise to the struggle for civil rights today.

-Angela Valenzuela

The French countryside near Montaville, France

Enjoying the evening, the French countryside, far, far away from Texas near a village named Montaville whose peaceful, scenic views belie its history of unspeakable horror during the First World War.

As per the World War I Diary authored by Jose de la Luz Saenz (and translated by Emilio Zamora [see previous post]), the town was obliterated by the Germans with 12 large projectiles.

Shortly thereafter on Monday, September 2, 1918, "Luz"—as he referred to himself—and the other U.S. soldiers that accompanied him from the 90th Division discovered 50 German supply horses—yes, 50.  With the aim of thwarting their usefulness to the nearby German army, French forces mercilessly bombed them, decimating them all.  At least up until that point in his war diary, Luz described this as one of the "ugliest, most difficult scenes" that unfolded before their very eyes. 

After this, a 150-millimeter cannon began to bomb Luz and his fellow soldiers with him writing his concluding thought that day:

It was a horrible day for the soldiers. The shells were flying over our heads, howling like souls from hell. (p. 195)

Without a doubt, Luz was an extraordinary person.  He voluntarily joined the military in order to be able to return home and make the case for civil rights for Mexican Americans, having paid with others the ultimate price of wartime sacrifice on behalf of the homeland.

Particularly between September and November, 1918, they endured the fiercest fighting in this territory of northeastern France where thousands of American—and of course French, British, Scottish, Irish, and Welsh—soldiers lost their lives.  

The relative few like Luz that survived, endured the cold, rain, gas warfare, bombs, sniper fire, sleepless nights, and hunger as a result of their continuous strategic movements against the unrelenting German army that sought to reach Paris.  

Yet Luz managed to write on napkins, paper, and and whatever he could get his hands on in order to produce an intimate record of the war that not even the French of this very area are likely to have.  Or if any survived, it would still be a different one from another perspective.

Luz was a former school teacher with a critical consciousness and social justice ethic. He sought to leave a record that Emilio Zamora has miraculously recovered.  

Even as we trace Luz' steps through this theater of war, we discuss and ponder its larger significance in our lives and in our history as Mexican Americans in the U.S., as the progeny of a subject people whose ascendancy—however uneven, incomplete, and ever evolving—was purchased with the sacrificial hardship and blood that was shed on the battlefield in places like Montaville and beyond.

Angela Valenzuela

c/s

Source:  Zamora, E. (2014). The World War I Diary of José de la Luz Sáenz. College Station, Tx: 

Texas A & M University Press.

Open Call for Submissions: Wit, Verse and Wisdom in Mexican American Studies

This comes from the Responsible Ethnic Studies Textbook Coalition that has formed surrounding the potential adoption of—by all accounts— a thoroughly and profoundly flawed and racist text, Mexican American Heritage, which is under current consideration by the Texas State Board of Education.

What Coalition member, hubby, and UT History Professor extraordinaire,  Dr. Emilio Zamora, did in pulling this together is exquisite. 

Consider sharing in this wonderful opportunity to impart wit, verse, and wisdom in Mexican American Studies.  Instructions on the selection of excerpts or passages, as well as on criteria for consideration appear below.

Angela


  Wit, Verse and Wisdom in Mexican American Studies

The Responsible Ethnic Studies Textbook Coalition is overseeing the preparation of critiques of a textbook entitled Mexican American Heritage to dissuade the Texas State Board of Education from adopting it for use in our public schools. Aside from pointing out the numerous factual errors, polemical tone and the recurring offensive statements, we accuse the authors of an obvious lack of familiarity with the vast Mexican American Studies literature published during the last forty years. 

César E. Chavez

To address this issue, we wish to initiate an electronic counter-story to help shift the paradigm on how we are seen and described. We're shifting the paradigm on how Mexican-Americans are seen and described. We wish to show the wit, verse and wisdom in Mexican American Studies to underscore the dismissal of Mexican history and challenge the flawed and stereotypical depictions in the proposed textbook. 

Simply put, we seek to demonstrate the wealth of rich and important information a textbook on Mexican Americans should include. We also want to give other like-minded persons an opportunity to join our fight over the production and dissemination of our collective knowledge.

Do you have ideas for submissions? Please email Val Benavidez with any suggestions. Emilio Zamora, editor of the series, will fact check the entries and approve them for our series at the REST site. If you have questions, write to Emilio at e.zamora@austin.utexas.edu.

How should I select excerpts or passages?
 
Consult a book, article, speech or archival record and select a passage that you find interesting, instructive, insightful, beautiful and/or useful for teaching Mexican American Studies in high school, college and university classes. Also, please include a copy of an image associated with the author, book cover or event. If you are an author, we encourage you to submit parts of your publication(s) or other forms of creative work.

What criteria should I observe?
 
The passages should be brief—no longer than 20 lines of typescript—and should include their source. You may wish to include a very brief introductory statement—from one to three sentences—in which you explain why the passage is important for an understanding of Mexicans in the United States. We prefer quotes but will entertain other forms of submissions like recollections of historical experiences and art work. We will also accept multiple passages from the same source. For instance, someone may wish to submit another quote from the life of Cesar Chavez (see below). 

Have you signed the petition yet? Add your name at MASforTexas.org.

Selected excerpts:

Cesar Chavez (1927-1993)
José de la Luz Sáenz (1888-1953)
Gloria Anzaldua, (1942-2004)
Angela Valenzuela (1959-

Abelardo Delgado (1930-2004)
Martha P. Cotera (1938- )
María Cristina Morales and Cynthia Bejarano