East L.A. walkouts
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The East Los Angeles Walkouts or Chicano Blowouts were a series of 1968 protests against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District high schools. While the students who organized and carried out the protests were primarily concerned with the quality of their education, they were also motivated by the high minority death toll in the Vietnam War and the ongoing civil rights campaigns of the Chicano Movement.
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[edit] Background
East Los Angeles had been home to Mexicans since the establishment of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in 1781. With the dawn of the American era, they found themselves restricted to the East side, and other non-Anglo ethnicities were segregated here as well. As a result, East Los Angelinos never received the same level of government services as did their wealthier, whiter West-side counterparts.
During the 1950s and 60s, Mexican Americans took part in the national quest for civil rights, fighting important court battles and building social and political movements. Mexican American youth in particular became politicized, having taken advantage of the many opportunities their parents never had.
[edit] Organizing
Inspired by the charismatic Chicano educator Sal Castro, a teacher at Lincoln High School, and after attending youth leadership conferences where they learned about the discrepancies between Eastside and Westside schools, members of the Brown Berets and other student groups from Roosevelt, Wilson, Lincoln, Garfield, and Belmont high schools began organizing for change. First they took a survey of Chicano attitudes towards school and education. They presented a list of demands to the school board based on the results of the survey. After bureaucratic delays, the student leadership decided that only direct action would suffice to bring about change.
[edit] Walkouts
In March of 1968, students from all five public high schools in East L.A. walked out of their classes. Over the next several days, they inspired similar walkouts at fifteen other schools. While initially their protest was tolerated, the patience of the authorities wore thin, and the police were unleashed on the peaceful demonstrators. Thirteen people -- Castro and twelve students -- were arrested on conspiracy charges. They became known as "The East L.A. Thirteen". Eventually, all charges against them were dropped.
[edit] Aftermath
Many of the student organizers became prominent in their fields. Moctesuma Esparza, one of the 13 accused, became a successful film producer and went on to open doors for Mexican Americans in Hollywood. Harry Gamboa, Jr. became an artist and writer. Carlos Montes, a Brown Berets Minister, was charged with arson at a hotel during the Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War. Oscar Zeta Acosta, the famed "Chicano lawyer" who later became the model for Hunter S. Thompson's character "Dr. Gonzo," defended him and won his acquittal. Paula Crisóstomo, a half-Filipina half-Chicana went on to prominence in the school system, where she continues to fight for reform. Vicky Castro went on to serve on the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education.
The student actions of 1968 inspired later protests that used similar tactics, including the 1994 student walkouts against California Proposition 187 and the 2006 student walkouts against H.R. 4437.
[edit] In media
The 2006 HBO film Walkout, produced by Moctesuma Esparza, was based on the 1968 protests.
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Inda, Juan Javier La Comunidad en Lucha, The Development of the East Los Angeles Student Walkouts Working Paper, Stanford University (1990)
- Francisco-López, Ian F. Racism on Trial: The Chicano Fight for Justice (2003) ISBN 0-674-01068-X.
