Keynote Address by Dr. José Angel Gutiérrez—"Chicano Rights Movements: Then and Now" (2014)

Friends,

I just came across this powerful video of Dr. José Angel Gutiérrez speaking at the 2014 LEAD Conference in San Bernardino—and I had to share it. If you’ve ever wanted a window into the heart of the Chicano Movement, this is a good place to start. Dr. Gutiérrez isn’t just a civil rights icon—he’s an iconoclast, a fearless truth-teller who has spent his life fighting for the dignity, voice, and power of our communities. If you read the statement attached to the film that you can view below—and you listen to his presenation—I'm sure you will see how he is a force of nature.

I find his discussion of second- and third-generation Mexican Americans—or better said, "Chicanos," and how holding this specific standpoint endowed entire cadres—whose parents and grandparents were also part of the one million people that migrated to Texas in 1910 when the Mexican Revolution began. This resulted in a critical mass, of his generation with a kind of perspective and wisdom that did not take "no" for an answer. The research literature refers to this as the dual frame of reference.

However, even "crossing over" itself, in historical perspective, was actually a coming home for those who were displaced and dispossessed by Anglo settler colonials who happened to be the first "illegal aliens" or "undocumented migrants" to these parts. This is the history that the powers that be do not want you to know.

In any case, I think it a good and appropriate conversation to consider how generational status coincides temporally with the revolution and the kind of consciousness among youth that later came of age in the 1950s and 1960s where the seeds of resistance took root among youth like Gutierrez who later became the vanguard of the Mexican American Civil Rights movement—which along with Blacks, Asians, and Native Americans—resulted in the civil rights policies and legislation that are presently under serious attack by the republican administration at the state and national level.

Dr. Gutierrez' parents were born in Mexico and Dr. Gutierrez was born in Texas. They were able to judge matters similarly as a generation because they became skilled border crossers, symbolic and real. Other, especially later, generations can also have a dual frame of reference, but more by learning about it and what it means for those that experience it—if they, too, want to embark on traversing symbolic borders of language, culture, class, and so on, as the case may be.

I also appreciate his enunciations that we, as Chicanas and Chicanos, are on our homeland and that we are "hosts," and that the dominant group in power are our guests. So, a little respect here, okay?

I do respectfully disagree with Dr. Gutierrez on one important detail. Paraphrasing, he said that

I also don't like how he derided Pres. Obama while agreeing that I am disturbed by he deported 3 million people during his administration (

From founding MAYO and La Raza Unida Party to organizing school walkouts in Crystal City, his life’s work has been about challenging systems that were never built for Mexicans, in the first place. Watching this talk, I was reminded not only of how far we've come, but all that we still carry forward from eras gone by—the same fire, the same questions, and the same call to act.

-Angela Valenzuela

Reference

Garsd, J., & Inskeep, S. (2024, December 5). Lessons learned from the Obama administration's deportation of millions. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2024/12/05/1229415821/lessons-learned-from-the-obama-administrations-deportation-of-millions

Dr. José Angel Gutiérrez is a pivotal figure and one of the iconic founding fathers of the Chicano rights movements. He is an attorney (Dallas TX) and Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington; Founder of the Center for Mexican American Studies. Dr. Gutierrez, along with Cesar Chavez, Reies López Tijerina, and Corky Gonzales, stands out as among the most important and influential leaders of the Chicano movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. 

He was a founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) in 1967, one of the first student activist groups of the Chicano movement; and founding member and past president of the political third-party La Raza Unida Party, which left its mark on the political scene, challenging Democratic and Republican parties alike to court the ignored Mexican American and Latino voter. 

Dr. Gutiérrez was one of many activists working to change public education on a local level in the 1960s and 70s. Born in Crystal City, Texas, and educated in local schools, Gutiérrez mobilized the community to demand equal treatment for Chicano students. He was lead organizer of the Winter Garden Project, the project that which led to the now famous walkout of 1969. 

Dr. Gutiérrez has been organizer, founder and co-founder of several other organizations such as the Mexican American Unity Council (MAUC), Ciudadanos Unidos, Obreros Unidos Independientes, Becas Para Aztlán, Oregon Council for Hispanic Advancement, Northwest Voter Registration and Education Project, and Grupo de Apoyo para Immigrantes Latin Americanos (GAILA). He has been the subject of many articles and film documentaries, including the PBS video series, CHICANO! The Mexican American Struggle for Civil Rights, and is mentioned in many Chicano history and political science books. 

He was also featured as an "Innovator" in the PBS documentary series - School: the Story of American Public Education. Most recently Dr. Gutiérrez was featured in a segment of: “Prejudice and Pride: the Chicano Movement”, which was part of the PBS series - "Latino Americans." Introduction / Moderator: Mary Valdemar, Vice President, Latino Faculty, Staff & Administrators Association,

San Bernardino Community College District, and Co-Founder, Core Team & Volunteer Support Staff, Chicano Indigenous Community for Culturally Conscious Advocacy and Action (ChiCCCAA) Speaker: José Angel Gutiérrez, Attorney, Professor of Political Science at the University of Texas at Arlington, founding member of the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO), and founding member and past president of La Raza Unida Party.

This address is date/time stamped: March 27, 2014; 4:20 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Share our links and show your online community that Latino education is the economic imperative of our time, and the civil rights issue of our generation. / leadprojects / leadprojects / leadprojects / leadcsusb http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&... / leadprojects

"Outlawing Shakespeare: The Battle for the Tucson Mind"

Great seeing this short documentary on the struggle for Mexican American Studies in the Tucson Unified School District. It presages all of what we are today seeing in the national arena with attacks on curriculum, book bans, and even librarians. 

As author Steve Phillips terms it, we are witnessing both a "browning America," and a fear of it. 

It is this fear that undergirds the attacks we are witnessing against our communities' voting rights. Dolores Huerta is explicit about this in this film. Others, too, but she is the most direct.

This short documentary is a good refresher on the argument against Mexican American Studies, and students', community members' and teachers' responses to it.

-Angela Valenzuela

It's About Power, Not People - The Critical Race Theory Debate with Senator Shevrin D. "Shev" Jones

Great discussion between Ed Trust's Ameshia Cross and Sen. Shevrin D. "Shev" Jones, Florida District 34. This show reminds me of how Texas and Florida need to get together and talk.  Our battles are so similar. 

I agree with Sen. Jones that we totally need a political movement predicated on a "true village" so that our communities can have political efficacy, including how to build coalitions, how to work with political officials, the nonprofit sector, and so on.

 Senator Jones suggests that philanthropic organizations can support civic engagement that are teaching Black History—and for us here in Texas, Mexican American Studies, Asian American and Native American Studies—so that we can start to see changes. 

The pendulum always does swing the other way, for sure. It was encouraging to listen to this. This show reminds me of how Texas and Florida need to get together and talk!

-Angela Valenzuela

The Richard Ruiz Scholar in Residence Lecture Series. A Critical Analysis of Two Decades of Struggle Over the Politics of Curriculum [Video Presentation]

Friends:

This event took place last Saturday, April 22, 2023.

Emilio Zamora and I are happy and very much honored to be this year's speakers for the Richard Ruiz Scholar in Residence program that includes a Lecture Series hosted by the University of Arizona. Our Zoom presentation is titled, "A Critical Analysis of Two Decades of Struggle Over the Politics of Curriculum [Video]."

Drawing, in part, from this timeline that I created, we are presenting on over two decades of work—that include Arizona. As you shall see, our Ethnic Studies advocacy, testimonials, writing, and knowledge production intersect with national and international events, social movements and policy agendas, including, if not leading up to, the reactionary politics of the 88th (2023) Texas Legislative Session, together with implications that we discuss.

Enjoy!

-Angela Valenzuela

The Lie that Invented Racism by John Biewen | TEDx [Video]

In this widely-viewed Ted Talk, John Biewen makes a presentation on the origins of racism, that is, the origin of race as a concept. He reached out to renowned scholar Dr. Ibram X. Kendi and got the answer on how this all began and that you can read for yourselves in his seminal text, Stamped From the Beginning. 

In his masterful and authoritative account that Biewen subsequently recounts, Kendi finds that Gomes Eanes de Zurara was hired to write a book by the Portuguese King in the 1450s where he lumped all the people of African into a distinct group. A few years earlier, slave traders with close connections to the Portuguese Crown pioneered the Atlantic slave trade. The book thusly served to justify this trade by pointing to the inferiority of African peoples. 

Allow me to expound a bit on this lie that invented racism. Yes, it was invented, created. There is no country or national origin named "white" from which people emanate.

Racialization, a historical and contemporary process, created "others" to justify subordinate status, war, conquest and colonization and to set up structures like capitalism and ideologies like the supremacy of fair- or white-skinned peoples and individualism that disproportionately benefits whites. Western European immigrants that migrate to these shores readily become "American" within a generation or two in their sense of selves, as well as how they are seen by others.

Racialization was designed to rationalize horrific actions and policy decisions that wreaked havoc on Black and Brown people and established an enduring sense of privilege among many white people.

Specifically, Biewen maintains that racism is a tool to divide us and to prop up systems of advantage where some people are more highly ranked than others in systematic, stubborn ways.

Biewen's main personal discovery is that racism isn't a problem for people of color, but rather for white people. It's a "white people's problem," he emphatically states, and not the other way around. 

As to how this makes him feel, Biewen says that it's not so much about feelings of guilt, but rather about personal responsibility. He's specifically moved to pull down "the power that we [white people] did not earn." 

Great for the high school and college classroom.

-Angela Valenzuela

References

Kendi, I. X. (2016). Stamped from the beginning: The definitive history of racist ideas in America. Hachette UK.

Gildea, K. (2017, July 29). Impressive and challenging look at the history of racist ideas in US: Epic in scope, this book examines the many different and complex sources of racism, Irish Times. Retrieved: https://tinyurl.com/2p8sh89c

 The Lie that Invented Racism

by John Biewen | TEDx

To understand and eradicate racist thinking, start at the beginning. That's what journalist and documentarian John Biewen did, leading to a trove of surprising and thought-provoking information on the "origins" of race. He shares his findings, supplying answers to fundamental questions about racism -- and lays out an exemplary path for practicing effective allyship.

This talk was presented to a local audience at TEDxCharlottesville, an independent event. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Read more about TEDx.  Listen to John Biewen's 14-part podcast series on whiteness.

[VIDEO] Historic Texas Senate Floor Debate on HB 3979 on May 21, 2021

Friends,

The night of Friday, May 21 was a historic debate in the Texas Senate on House Bill 3979 that outlaws the teaching of controversial topics—which most interpret to mean anything that offends white people. Never mind that the K-12 standard or official curriculum systematically dismisses the histories, cultures, and identities of Texans of color via the politics of under-representation or mis-representation in school curricula, textbooks, and pedagogy, including in the very social studies curriculum that is ironically under attack. 

Basically, this is a straw man, a rhetorical tool, that exemplifies the reaction by the right to the racial justice movement that burst in the wake of the George Floyd and Breonna Taylor killings in May, 2020. It also borrow directly from Trump’s September 2020 executive order that banned trainings previously conducted throughout the federal government to address workplace racism, sexism, and bias—an order that President Biden readily rescinded upon assuming office. 

Do listen to the entire Texas Senate floor debate at this link, as this will indeed go down in history as emblematic of today's culture wars. 

The HB 3979 debate begins at 1:33:21 on the meter. My sense of all of this is that it will become law but that we as a community can take this up at the Texas State Board of Education as the implementation rolls out. So more to come.

-Angela Valenzuela

#HB3979

TEACHING ABOUT CLEAN ENERGY TO MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS—FREE MOVIE AND CURRICULUM

The Redford Center

 TEACHING ABOUT CLEAN ENERGY TO MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

FREE MOVIE AND CURRICULUM

Watch trailer and learn more at www.redfordcenter.org/happening

Teachers can order their free access to the movie and curriculum by clicking here

“Can we make enough renewable energy to supply the world and replace fossil fuels? How would we do that? And, will we do that?” - James Redford, Director and Star, Happening

James Redford’s above questions are the foundation for Teaching Happening, an interdisciplinary, modular curriculum developed to work alongside The Redford Center’s documentary Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution. The educational version of the film runs 50 minutes and the curriculum is aligned with national standards for grades 6-12. Lessons will:

• Build background knowledge on energy sources
• Guide students to identify factors driving the renewable energy transition including technological innovation, national security, sustainability, workforce development, cost savings, and environmental stewardship
• Engage students in understanding the role of civic engagement and policy in the transition to renewable energy

Teaching Happening (with free access to the movie and curriculum) was created as a cohesive unit of lessons to support middle and high school screenings of the documentary and includes an educator’s guide for use in institutions of higher learning. Because we know time is limited in classrooms, the film and lessons were developed around three distinct “chapters”, or central topics, within the film - Chapter 1: Energy 101, Chapter 2: Innovation and Economics, and Chapter 3: Community and Political Engagement and can be used in one class period, or over the span of several days. The lessons can be easily integrated into units within:

• Earth Science
• Environmental Policy
• Economics, Civics/Government
• English/Language Arts
• Film Studies, media literacy rhetoric

Teaching Happening also includes assessment opportunities aligned to discipline-specific skills and competencies in Science, Civics, Economics, English/Language Arts and Film Studies. The Happening educational curriculum is aligned with Next Generation Science Standards, and Common Core State Standards as it relates to point of view for use in English classes.

Teachers can order their free access to the movie and curriculum by clicking here

Contact anna.redfordcenter@gmail.com for more information about the teaching resources available.

How Colleges Manage and Spend Their Money

This is a must-view, mini-documentary from my colleague, Dr. Tony Baez.  

This video is a very good exposure of Ivy League college endowments and how they are an instrument of social stratification...  

Ivy League colleges hold some $616 billion in endowments, and were the principal investors through their money managers in the economy and debt of Puerto Rico. They are now the primary sustainers of the Island’s colonial status, insisting that they be paid first while the Congressional Puerto Rico Financial Oversees Board (PROMESA) slashes schools and social services to shift the savings to pay Ivy League College investments.  

Close to 300 schools have been close in PR, and it’s public university just had to cut another a huge amount from its budget while raising tuition for the working class!  

This is huge! See the link!  

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2019/03/29/cnbc-explores-616-billion-dollar-system-of-college-endowments.html

This is an eye-opener. This excellent reporting pulls down the curtains on the university endowment process that has assumed a life of its own and how the rich get richer, as a consequence.

-Angela Valenzuela

College is expensive, but there is one place in higher education where there’s no shortage of money — endowments. There’s more than $616 billion worth of endowments assets in the U.S., and lawmakers are starting to question why tuition is still rising if some schools have so much money. Wealthy universities have a lot of purchasing power, and it draws the eyes of both investors and activists. Watch the video to learn how college endowments helped fuel the rise of wealth in higher education.

PBS Animated Documentary: Frontera! Revolt and Rebellion on the Rio Grande

Friends,  

Check out this award-winning, animated, PBS Video documentary titled,  

Frontera! Revolt and Rebellion on the Rio Grande, which was produced by Our Lady of the Lake University, San Antonio, Mexican American Studies professor Dr. Aimee Villarreal.  It captures the greed, hubris, and brutality that drove settler colonialism that established a legacy of majority-minority relations that are taken for granted as "normal" today.  

Teachers, compliments of Dr. Villarreal, you may find pertinent curriculum here that you can use in the classroom in the teaching of this history.

As someone said today here in Corpus Christi at the annual meeting of the Texas State Historical Association (paraphrasing), everyone, regardless of profession, job, or career, should know history—and in particular, the history of the Southwest.  It won't make you a nurse, doctor, or engineer, but it will make you a better one.

Congratulations to Dr. Villarreal and others credited for this documentary for their powerful contribution to history and for making us all a bit better, as a consequence.

-Angela Valenzuela

Frontera! Revolt and Rebellion on the Rio Grande

Special | 19m 10s

The first American Revolution occurred along the Rio Grande in northern New Mexico when the Pueblo Indians broke from the Spanish Empire. The 1680 Pueblo Revolt has shaped the deeply contested territories of the US-Mexico borderlands even today. Native and Chicano narrators recall this living history through humor, music and cartoons.

Although some detail is provided here about Houston Independent School Board dysfunction, there's clearly this deeper context that has contributed to the current situation in which trustees find themselves.  It's concerning that, as mentioned, the Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath "has had legal authority to replace the district’s school board since September 2017."  Possible violations of the Open Meetings Act that resulted in the abrupt termination of former interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan are also at play. 

In the background are concerns about a projected $76 million budget deficit in 2019-20.  that equates to around 4 percent of the district’s total spending.

How toxic. This is why board development is so essential. These folks either need to get voted out and/or need serious mediation or I fear that the state will step in and take them over.  Ideally, leadership would be a united front in the other direction of advocating for greater funding support and equity in school finance.  

They should be allied, for example, with the the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) and the Houston Federation of Teachers (HFT) and advocate for higher teacher salaries while shunning the widely-discredited policy agenda for standardized-test-based, merit-based pay system (see Loeb, et al. [2009], The State Role in Teacher Compensation). This latter proposal, supported by Gov. Greg Abbott and House Speaker Dennis Bonnen, is not only flawed, riddled with issues of measurement while pitting teachers against each other and incentivizing teaching to the test, it also represents a band aid and about face to what all Texas teachers deserve just to make a decent living.  Plus, ample research supports the idea that paying teachers well is key to districts being able to recruit and retain high-quality staff (e.g., Loeb, et al., 2009; Murnane & Olsen 1989).

What an incredible opportunity cost for the HISD board—or any board, for that matter, to not run with the data and advocate for our schools and children.

And the schools, parents and most especially, the children, pay the price for all of this dysfunction.  And the neoliberal agenda to privatize schooling waits in the wings with bated breath, poised to capitalize on this situation and win.  Let's not let this happen to one of the largest school districts in the nation.

-Angela Valenzuela

‘A step below hell’: Video gives inside look at HISD board’s dysfunction

Jacob Carpenter Feb. 2, 2019 Updated: Feb. 2, 2019 6:30 p.m.

Three days after the stunning ouster of Houston ISD Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan in mid-October, an unexpected move that further divided the already-fractured school board, district leaders gathered for training on how to govern.

Instead, HISD leaders spent four straight hours lobbing blistering accusations of disingenuous, duplicitous and dismissive behavior by their colleagues. Through raised voices and tears, they bemoaned the disintegration of trust and productivity on the board, with one trustee describing his service as “a step below hell” and another likening her experience to “an abusive relationship.”

FULL VIDEO: Click here to see the entire Houston ISD board meeting

The intervention-style airing of grievances, captured on video and reported here for the first time, culminated with Trustee Wanda Adams standing up and yelling at Trustee Elizabeth Santos, angry that board members did not defend her after she received threats while serving as board president in 2017.

“Did y’all come to my defense? Hell no,” Adams shouted as she slowly walked toward Santos, prompting a top Texas Education Agency official in the room to position himself between the two trustees. “So, you want to know how I felt last year? I was quiet the whole year. So, don’t come up here crying ‘woe is me’ when people came to my house, attacked me.” Continue reading here.

Houston ISD Trustee Adams ‘Don’t go there with me’

Volume 90%

Houston ISD Trustee Wanda Adams shouted at fellow board member Elizabeth Santos for about 90 seconds during a mid-October board meeting, slowly walking toward her until Texas Education Agency Deputy Commissioner of Governance AJ Crabill stepped between them. The exchange marked the highest point of tension during a heated meeting in the aftermath of Interim Superintendent Grenita Lathan’s unexpected ouster, which was later reversed.

Video: Source: Houston ISD

Continue reading here.

Film: A Strike and an Uprising (in Texas), directed by Anne Lewis

Friends, Consider attending the screening of this documentary by director, Anne Lewis, a treasure in our community. It represents an opportunity to address Black-Brown relations in Texas, particularly shared histories of oppressive labor conditions.  It features the legendary Emma Tenayuca. 

Teachers, this film is good as an companion to Carmen Tafolla and Sharyll Teneyuca's (2008) children's book titled, That's Not Fair! / No Es Justo! Emma Tenayuca's Struggle for Justice/La Lucha de EmmaTenayuca Por la Justicia. 


-Angela Valenzuela

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  Monday at 6 PM – 9 PM Next Week · 73–90°F Partly Cloudy

• pin	Steve Hicks School of Social Work 1925 San Jacinto Blvd, Austin, Texas 78712 Show Map

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  Hosted by Social Workers United - ATX

Social Workers United - ATX invites you to attend a film screening on labor organizing in Texas and to meet other social workers interested in unionizing here in the heart of Lone Star State!

A Strike and an Uprising! (in Texas) shows a working class history of Latina and Black women fighting for wages, respect, and liberation, and of the continuing struggle against Confederate rule in Texas. A Q&A session with filmmaker Anne Lewis and members of Social Workers United - ATX focused on labor organizing in general and the importance of unionizing for social workers in Austin will immediately follow the film. 

IMBD page for film:
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7363764/

Trailer for film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQWVwv9c6ss

6:00 P.M. - Food and Refreshments 
6:30 P.M. - Film Screening
7:45 P.M. - Q&A with filmmaker Anne Lewis
8:15 P.M. - Meet and great with other attendees to talk unions!

The event will be held at the Utopia Theater (Room 2.106) in The University of Texas Steve Hicks School of Social Work. Sponsored by Social Workers United - ATX, Steve Hicks School of Social Work Committee for Diversity and Inclusion, Solidarity 6.04, and POCKET.