Knowing Mexican American Civil Rights Movement history that, unfortunately, our textbooks do not include, remains vastly important if we are to fully understand the plight of Mexican Americans advocating for an equitable and just education and the broader implications of this struggle for us today.

Texas history—and the history of the Southwest, in general, where large numbers of students protested in the form of school walkouts, rallies, and community organizing led to much-needed policy changes the provide a model—among others like coalitional, judicial, and electoral politics together with legislative actions—for collective struggles today.

It's worth noting that Mexican American progress is inextricably linked to Latina and Latino progress, as a whole, as well as with that of all other groups of color. As a society, we ALL benefit from appeals to civil rights and are NEVER hurt by it. We only benefit when we live up to our highest ideals as a country.

Looking forward to seeing this play that features, in particular, the legendary Dr. Jose Angel Gutierrez' leadership, at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio soon. Go to this page for more information. Hurry up though since tickets are going fast.

-Angela Valenzuela

Fronteras: ‘Crystal City 1969’ play honors the real-life story of student 'heroes and sheroes' who fought for Latino civil rights

By Norma Martinez, 

Marian Navarro

In 1969, a Mexican American high school student in Crystal City wanted 

to join her school’s cheerleading squad.

She was automatically disqualified from applying. Only one Mexican 

American cheerleader was allowed and the squad had already met its 

yearly quota.

The incident became the catalyst that led to a historic school walkout. 

But it was more than about a cheerleader who didn’t get a spot on the 

team.

It was also about physical punishment students endured for speaking 

Spanish, and about how Mexican Americans were often discouraged 

from pursuing a college education.

The walkout was about discrimination and racism.

Dallas-based Cara Mía Theatre adapted the events of the walkout and 

turned it into the play, “Crystal City 1969.”

Playwrights David Lozano and Raul Treviño conducted interviews with former 

students, teachers, and law enforcement officials who lived through the 

walkout.

Lozano, executive artistic director of Cara Mía Theatre, said the movement 

was eye-opening for students.

“They were just discovering this reality and putting the pieces together 

because the world (and) what is essentially a quasi-Jim Crow culture (that) 

had become normalized,” he said. “But as young people, they were 

beginning to wake up to these differences and how they were treated.”

The Crystal City walkout was inspired by similar walkouts in Los Angeles, 

San Antonio, and the Rio Grande Valley.

Treviño, whose own uncle was a student leader of the walkout, said 

the play aims to ensure this event does not become a forgotten piece 

of history.

“It is a universal story. It's a timeless story. It’s David and Goliath,” he said. 

“You go back thousands of years and it's when young people are able to 

make a difference for their communities.”

The play is set to make its San Antonio debut at the Guadalupe Cultural 

Arts Center Jan. 19-22.

See showtimes and information here. Some shows may already 

be sold out.

🔴 Rapid City Central High School Students Organizing a Walkout

NDN Collective

So happy to learn about the Lakota Empowerment Club in Rapid City,
South Dakota Central High School Students and their September 12, 2021 walkout. Not unlike so many of our youth here in Texas, these are a group of young students who want their culture—that they refer to as their Oceti Sakown Essential Understandings—to get taught in the schools. They describe their public education as "Genocide Part 2," that involves erasing their cultures and language.

What a wonderful concept to advance, "Essential Understandings." And what a far cry from sterile discourses like "standards" and "skills."

Right now—and despite the anti-CRT agenda in Texas—the Texas State Board of Education is establishing a TEKS-aligned high school elective course in Native American Studies.

Thanks to Paco Robles for letting me know about this mobilization by youth. I hope that these students prevail.

-Angela Valenzuela

Texas House Democratic walkout successful with Washington arrival, plans to goad U.S. Senate by Maria Recio

There is absolutely no more time. The U.S. Congress must pass federal voting rights legislation before their August recess. Extremism in Texas by Texas republicans that want to strip people of color of their vote requires desperate means, even as the Texas House authorizes warrants for their arrest. From an Austin American-Statesman piece from today, Governor Abbott says that "he intends for House members to be detained upon their return to the state."

This is what makes our House Democrats courageous defenders of democracy, my friends. 

Do link to the video press conference to listen closely to our representatives' expressed statements of the situation in which we find ourselves.  They are so incredibly inspiring. We cannot thank our brave House Democrats for representing the cause of fair and equitable voting rights and elections. Congress must act now!

-Angela Valenzuela

#votersuppression #DemocracyAtRisk

Texas House Democratic walkout successful with Washington arrival, plans to goad U.S. Senate

By Maria Recio

Special to American-Statesman

July 13, 2021

WASHINGTON DULLES AIRPORT — More than 50 Texas House Democrats arrived at the Dulles International Airport Monday evening, leaving the state in a gambit to deny Republicans a quorum and thus prevent a vote Democrats say curbs voting rights that is stacked against them.

Their only weapon, they say in the GOP-controlled Legislature, is to remove themselves and force gridlock.

It is the second time this summer that Texas Democrats have resorted to this tactic — avoiding the House chamber — but this time they fled the state, not just the state Capitol building, arriving in Washington in style by two private jets.

An irate Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had called the special session that is now underway on a number of issues to force Democrats to vote.

More:Texas Democrats leave state to block GOP voting bill in special session

The hurried nature of the way things had come together as Texas Democrats reverted to their exit strategy was clear at the Washington press conference, with a gathering at nightfall scheduled for 7:15 p.m. CDT near the picturesque Dulles terminal hastily pulled away to the much less scenic cell phone waiting area parking lot. The move was made at the insistence of airport officials, though no reason was given.

“We left Texas, not because we want to,” state Rep. Chris Turner, D-Arlington and chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters in the Dulles parking lot. “It breaks our heart to do it. We are in a fight to save our democracy."

Turner confirmed an earlier report made to the American-Statesman that the $100,000 cost of the two flights was being paid for by the Caucus.

Another press conference is scheduled at the U.S. Capitol House triangle at 9 a.m. Central.

More:Some Senate Democrats plan to leave Texas too, but quorum appears safe

Turner said the Texas House Democrats would stay in Washington until Aug. 7th, the end of the special session, and would work on getting the U.S. Senate to approve two voting protection bills. He told the Statesman that the state lawmakers were still formulating their plans to visit U.S. senators to make the case for voting rights, which they said the Texas GOP was determined to restrict.

“Texas is the hardest state to vote in already,” Turner said. As for the determination on display by the dozens of state Democratic lawmakers, he said, “Our democracy is at stake.”

More:Can Texas Democrats be arrested for fleeing the state? What does it mean for the special session?

Texas lawmakers see the way out for them is to have the Congress pass voting rights law that would override state efforts to eliminate such conveniences as drive-through voting or same day registration.

“We need Congress to act now to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to protect Texans — and all Americans — from the Trump Republicans’ nationwide war on democracy,” Turner said.

Texas Rep. Senfronia Thompson, D-Houston, known as Ms. T, said, “I left because I am tired of sitting like a hostage while Republicans take away the rights of our citizens to vote.”

State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio, said, “There is nothing special about this session. This is a suppression session.”

But Republicans kept up a chorus of complaints back in Texas.

“This taxpayer funded vacation was taken at the expense of Texans who elected us to lead,” said state Rep. Jacey Jetton, R-Sugar Land. “Without even attempting to negotiate or debate the issues, the House Democrats took a private jet to D.C. in order to avoid hard conversations, all while continuing to receive a paycheck from the tax dollars of hard-working Texans.”

Texas House members will be able to press their case for the Senate to pass voting rights measures during their impromptu lobbying visit — the U.S. House has already passed them.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Austin, welcomed his fellow Democrats. “Greg Abbott and his Republican cohorts have messed with Texan voters one too many times. Our Texas Democrats are breaking quorum rather than being accomplices to breaking democracy. They rightly recognize that our democracy is only as strong as our voting rights.”

SAVE THE DATE: National Chicano Student Walkouts Conference, Nov. 20-23, 2019, San Antonio, Texas

Looking forward to this National Chicano Student Walkouts Conference taking place on November 20-23, 2019, in San Antonio, Texas.  The presentations and conversation promise to inform attendees on this important part of U.S. history where school walkouts and youth activism in Texas and throughout the Southwest, motivated much of what we refer to today as the Mexican American Civil Rights movement (a.k.a. the "Chicana/o movement").   -Angela

LEARN MORE/SAVE THE  DATE

Thousands of Central Texas students Rally, Stepping out of class tomorrow at 10AM

Thousands of Central Texas students rally for gun safety, stepping out of class tomorrow at 10AM.  They gather first at Wooldridge Square located at (900 Guadalupe St., Austin, Texas 78701) and then make their way to the Texas State Capitol.  I hope that adults at school honor them and allow them to do this.
Angela Valenzuela

Thousands of Central Texas students rally in National School Walkout

METRO-STATE

 

By Melissa B. Taboada - American-Statesman Staff

Posted: 4:33 p.m. Thursday, April 19, 2018

---

Highlights

Central Texas students will walk out of their schools between 10 a.m. and noon.

The event marks the 1999 Columbine High School massacre anniversary, one of worst U.S. school mass shootings.

Students will gather at Wooldridge Square before joining Texas Capitol Walkout for Gun Safety rally.

When LASA High School sophomore Emma Rohloff hears about another school shooting, she isn’t so much scared or angry anymore as she is tired.

She’s tired when she hears what she says is rhetoric about why there shouldn’t be stricter gun laws. Tired that nothing more has been done to stop gun violence.

At 15, Emma is one of Austin’s organizers of the latest National School Walkout, the latest in a string of student-driven protests fueled by the February high school shooting that killed 17 people in Parkland, Fla. Planned for Friday, the event is timed to the anniversary of the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, when two teens killed 12 students and one teacher before killing themselves in one of the worst school shootings in U.S. history.

As they have during other local and national walkouts, students across the country on Friday will call for safer schools and action against gun violence.

“There will always be angry people who will take out their aggression on strangers,” said Emma, who wants a ban on civilian use of semiautomatic weapons. “A knife attack is going to be less deadly than a mass shooting. If we can take a step to reduce the number of lives lost, that is a step we should take.”

Last month, in the strongest show of force to date, tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets and rallied for stricter gun laws during the March for Our Lives rally. An estimated 20,000 participated in Austin.

WATCH: Matthew McConaughey speaks at March for Our Lives rally in Austin

While the organizers of Friday’s rally don’t anticipate so large a turnout on a weekday, thousands of Central Texas students will walk out of class.

Multiple schools will time the walkout to the 10 a.m. national call, providing time for speakers and observing 13 minutes of silence in honor of the 13 killed at Columbine. Other students are chartering buses (with money they raised that also paid for city permits and PA system speakers) and will immediately depart their campuses and join other students participating in the Texas Capitol Walkout for Gun Safety, at which students, educators and politicians will speak.

“Gun safety is an issue that effects everyone in America, especially students,” said Olivia Hoffman, a 14-year-old freshman at Austin High School. “We’re hoping to incite legislative action and show everyone teenagers are a political force that people need to pay attention to. We are the future leaders of America.”

Hays High School sophomore Vince Johnson, 16, will walk out with about 100 students at his school.

“I don’t like the idea that a school is an unsafe place for kids,” he said. “It’s a place of education, a place of community, a place where people can be together. The idea that the modern high school has been so plagued by gun violence … it’s unthinkable to me.”

The Capitol rally starts at 1 p.m. Students will gather at Wooldridge Square to make posters and signs before walking the few blocks to the Capitol.

Austin High math teacher Steve Trenfield will march alongside them.

“There are some things bigger going on than Algebra II,” said Trenfield, who has taught for five years, including three at Austin High. “This is a time we need to stand up and be heard. What’s happening in our schools around the country is unacceptable.”

Every time there is a lockdown or a school shooting, Trenfield is burdened with thoughts of how he would handle the situation if it were his school: “I’ll do my best if something should happen, but feel like there should be a bigger response from the government because this is a national epidemic.”

Stony Point High School Principal Anthony Watson also will walk alongside his students, not as part of the protest, but to ensure their safety as they walk to U.S. Rep. John Carter’s Round Rock office to deliver a school petition calling for gun reform.

“I want to be with them in case they are met with resistance in any form,” Watson said. “I’m just glad our kids know that to be respectful and responsible is the way to get things done. They’re just trying to have a voice. Whether I agree or not, whatever side they’re on, I’m all of their principal. I can’t give them my endorsement, but they have my help if they need it.”

School districts largely are handling the walkouts with no disciplinary action beyond giving the students unexcused absences, so long as the protests and rallies remain peaceful. Teachers and other staff members are not allowed to participate in their official capacities and therefore must take a personal day if they plan to rally.

“We believe finding their voice is an essential part of our students’ preparation for college, career and life,” Austin school Superintendent Paul Cruz said. “We recognize that emotions are charged in regard to school violence, and we respect the different perspectives of both our students and employees. … Creating an environment where we can support our students with positive and open conversations is key to helping them deal with uncertainty.”