Young folks have confront Donald Trump’s racist ICE thugs.
“Children do learn what they live. Then they grow up to live what they’ve learned.” Dorothy Nolte (1924 – 2005), American poet, writer, and family counselor.
Historic role reversal…
In my last blog I wrote that my heart soars like a hawk with pride to see young folks confront Donald Trump’s racist ICE thugs. By standing up for and defending their parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, neighbors, etc., these young warriors represent a role reversal. For, traditionally it is the parents and other adults who stand up for the children. For example:
Traditionally…
A good education was considered essential to having a good life in the U.S. Thus, much Mexican American activism focused on education in the 1900s, targeting issues such as the refusal of certain states to enforce mandatory attendance laws among Mexican American children (so they could go work the fields with their parents) … Segregation of Mexican American children in what were known as “Mexican” schools … “Americanization” efforts to “de-Mexicanize” the children.
Here are some of the actions adults took to address these and similar issues in the first part of the 1900s – circa1910-1948:
LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) spearheaded a massive letter-writing campaign in Texas, asking that the state withhold funds from school districts that did not provide quality education to Mexican Americans.
* Mexican American communities in Texas (1) conducted school boycotts, (2) formed their own schools and/or established their own after-school classes, (3) pressured school officials to improve educational conditions in the segregated “Mexican” schools.
* The Texas-based La Liga de Defensa Escolar (comprised of seventy-three Mexican American organizations) fought for equal facilities, equipment, etc., in Mexican American and Anglo schools.
* LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) spearheaded a massive letter-writing campaign in Texas, asking that the state withhold funds from school districts that did not provide quality education to Mexican Americans. LULAC also organized Mexican American PTAs to act as advocate groups in schools and organized mass attendance by Mexican Americans at school board meetings to raise issues of concern.
* In 1945, the historic desegregation lawsuit Méndez v. Westminster School District was filed in Los Angeles, CA. In that case, the court ruled that segregation of Mexican American children was unconstitutional. This was nine (9) years before the historic Brown v. Board of Education case! In fact, this case was cited in the Brown v. Board case.
The above is but a tiny fraction of the activism of Mexican American parents, and adults in general, in support of children in the early 1900s.
Then came the Chicano Movement and its role reversal…
The Chicano generation fought issues that affected us, issues that affected our parents and other adults.
The present role reversal we are witnessing today is the second such reversal. A very real but rarely discussed feature of the Chicano Movement is its role reversal aspect. That is, instead of parents and adults advocating for children, the children advocated for their parents and adults.
I am of the Chicano generation and was intimately involved in the Chicano Movement [I quit the University of Arizona in my sophomore year to become a full-time organizer for the Centro Chicano, which we had established in Barrio Hollywood, in Tucson’s Westside – for the princely stipend of five dollars a week.] We not only fought issues that affected us (e.g., education-related issues), we took on issues that affected our parents and other adults. For example:
* A large part of the Mexican American community is Catholic. But the Church did virtually nothing to acknowledge or accommodate this key constituency, and many of the older Mexican American parishioners felt left out. We formed a group known as Católicos por La Raza (Catholics for the people) and took on the Catholic Church.
Through demonstrations and meetings with Church officials, Católicos por La Raza pressured the Catholic Church to (1) appoint Mexican American Bishops, (2) assign Mexican American Spanish-speaking priests to Chicano-dominant parishes, (3) support Mexican American / Chicano social justice campaigns, (4) make tuition at parochial schools affordable, and (5) invest in barrio enterprises.
Chicano movement activists were an integral part of the urban support network of the United Farmworkers Union in its quest to obtain better wages and working conditions for farm workers.
* Chicano movement activists were an integral part of the urban support network of the United Farmworkers Union in its quest to obtain better wages and working conditions for farm workers. Many Chicano movement activists were college students. We organized United Farm Workers (UFW) support groups on our respective campuses. By means of pickets, demonstrations, petitions, etc., we got our respective universities to stop buying and selling scab lettuce and grapes. [The UFW union was boycotting lettuce and grapes so as to pressure growers to negotiate with the union, re: working conditions, etc.]
Chicano movement activists were very visible in the many UFW-support picket lines and marches in the late 1960s-early 1970s. Over several years, on Friday evenings and Saturday mornings, Chicano movement activists picketed local stores that carried scab grapes and lettuce.
* In Tucson, workers at a local company asked the Centro Chicano to help them regarding the company’s practice of reprimanding workers who sometimes spoke Spanish among themselves in the lunchroom or elsewhere on company premises. After several meetings – some confrontational – between a Centro Chicano delegation and company management, a compromise was reached, viz.:
In instances in which there was a mixed group – i.e., Spanish speakers and non-Spanish speakers – and company business was being transacted, English would be spoken … if a customer spoke only Spanish, workers could speak Spanish with the customer … workers could speak Spanish in the lunchroom and elsewhere if they were socializing and not conducting business.
After several meetings between MASO and ASU the university agreed to cancel its contract with the linen-laundry company and to contract with one that treated workers fairly.
* In 1968, Arizona State University’s Mexican American Student Organization (MASO) was asked by employees of a linen-laundry service in south Phoenix for help regarding issues of discrimination, viz.: a dual wage system of work whereby Mexican American employees were paid less than white employees for the same work … Mexican American men could not drive laundry trucks for deliveries and pick-up of linen and supplies because they were classified as “unskilled” workers; white males were classified as “skilled” workers and earned better pay as drivers of the laundry trucks.
Arizona State University (ASU) contracted with the linen-laundry service in question for all its linen-laundry needs. MASO organized and staged a two-day protest and demonstration in front of the offices of the ASU president, demanding that ASU end its contract with the linen-laundry service. The ASU president refused to meet with the MASO delegation, so the students went into his office and staged a sit-in. After two days, the president agreed to meet with MASO.
After several meetings between MASO and ASU officials, ASU agreed to cancel its contract with the linen-laundry company and to contract with one that treated workers fairly and that did not discriminate.
The above examples, a small sampling of the role-reversal actions of the youth-dominant Chicano Movement era, make the point: young people stood up and advocated for and defended their elders.
And the role reversal continues…
Today, the collective heart of the Chicano Movement veterans soars like a hawk when we see young people – the grandchildren of many of us – leading marches and walking out of hundreds of schools throughout the country to stand in opposition to the racist ICE thugs and to express support for their parents and other relatives, their neighbors, small-business owners in their community, etc. These young warriors are being true to their culture and to our community’s history of activism even as they themselves make history. They deserve our respect and support. c/s
_____________________________________________________________________________________