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the memorable images from the nation's
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Civil Rights Movement show the public
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struggles in the streets and outside the
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marble monuments and its renowned
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leaders black and brown but it was the
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small skirmishes fought each day beyond
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the reach of the cameras in the fields
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and in the
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schools that fueled a cause that became
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a crusade in the classrooms of East Los
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Angeles an urban protest was about to
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begin thousands of young brown people
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were about to be reborn as chos and Chas
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in what were called the
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blowouts uh our struggle was to get an
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education we're human beings we have
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potential we want to have a life that uh
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you know is part of the American dream
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back then the Supreme Court had ordered
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an end to desegregation but nothing had
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ended the Discrimination that schools
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still practice routinely where were the
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brown faces in colleges on the honor
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roles how could there be any when three
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out of four Cho students didn't even
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finish high school I have no memory of
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anyone ever sitting me down and telling
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me what college was or what I needed to
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do or giving me an application the girls
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were nudged into secretarial courses the
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boys were funneled into industrial arts
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and speaking Spanish was forbidden a
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student who spoke it was punished just
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like the student who smoked or ditched
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class with swats
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when I started asking you know why this
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neglect I started getting some real
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bogus answers you know Mr Castro you're
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overly
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concerned the kids Mexican kids have a
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charming passivity and and you don't
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want to you know you don't want to
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change that to you it was dispiriting
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enough that the parents had not known
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any better had accepted that they would
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never see the titles doctor or professor
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in front of their children's names but
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teachers who were supposed to trade in
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the potential of Youth Pres presumed
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that their Brown students were
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predestined to work with their hands not
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with their minds and so they had no
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expectations of us they didn't push us
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they didn't demand that we learn one man
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knew better and he wanted better for his
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students s Castro a teacher at Lincoln
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High School became the students advisor
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and friend and a strategic thinker in
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the campaign that none of them knew was
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coming but which would engage all of
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them we trusted him I trusted him
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literally with my life at the time he
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brought to East LA the principles and
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practices of King and Chavez Castro
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organized the Mexican-American youth
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leadership conference with high school
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and college students they formed a chico
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Coalition and presented the school with
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demands for a broader curriculum Castro
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knew he was putting his job at risk and
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perhaps even his life it was a constant
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harassment I used to get phone calls
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you're go you'll be dead by by tomorrow
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I was on uh a list called the Yankee
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crier people that that there was a
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bounty on my
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head it was Castro's guidance but the
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students demands they included small
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things like more ethnic food but larger
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matters too more Mexican-American
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history courses more Mexican-American
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teachers and counselors and more schools
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they pleaded and made speeches and they
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got exactly na they just literally just
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patted us on on the back and said okay
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fine and nothing ever happened
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frustrating as that was for Castro the
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last straw came in a Time Magazine
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description of life in East LA
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stereotypes that went unchallenged even
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by Latino
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leaders ring
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Cantinas with the rat tatat of L rider
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cars cruising the Boulevard and the
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smell of cheap red wine and and greasy
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tacos
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okay now that is insulting like a son of
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a [ __ ] I said God damn hey we're we're
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in bad shape so I think I'll have to
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take the upper hand real
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fast by early March of 1968 the groups
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had exhausted all the usual remedies
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their recourse was direct action the
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students were threatened with expulsion
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with the withholding of scholarships and
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some scholarships were indeed withheld
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nonetheless more than 20,000 students in
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five East LA Schools Lincoln Wilson
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Garfield Belmont and Roosevelt walked
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out it was the first major Mass protest
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Against Racism by mexican-americans in
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the history of the United States the
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Friday walk on I cried I mean you see
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these little kids wave upon wave of kids
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coming out fearing whatever and and and
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doing it for to change things for people
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they didn't even know the educational
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process of mexican-americans for over 20
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years in East Los Angeles and throughout
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the Southwest has been disrupted by its
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failure to communicate with the
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Mexican-American that is the disruption
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when 57% of the students at Garfield
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drop out year after year there has to be
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a problem we're not operating in a
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vacuum there's social
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injustice what they did was Brave beyond
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their years teenagers taking adult risks
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once passive students making themselves
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formidable taking risks now to reap the
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rewards of equality in their Futures
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those little kids many of them thought
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they might actually die in their own
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minds they were out to do
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something start moving from here
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unfortunately the next few days saw the
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peaceful protests become
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violent and the police just went in and
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started beating them viciously it was
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ugly you know they were just yelling at
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us you dirty spicks dirty Mexicans you
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know who do you think you are few knew
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then that police and riot gear also beat
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up on students inside Belmont and r El
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high after teachers trapped them behind
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locked doors this was the most gutless
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act the Lai City schools has ever been
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involved it there was this dirty little
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secret the newspapers and TV stations
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showed up but Castro said the footage as
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well as written accounts of the beatings
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never saw the light of day in print or
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on the air and they were hoping that as
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the police and I'm sure the school board
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and uh the mayor that this was going to
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stop us that this was going to scare us
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but it really just motivated everybody
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more meanwhile participants recall that
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the high school walkout committee the
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brown Berets and other student groups
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were infiltrated and monitored by the
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FBI and
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police in hopes of stopping the growing
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movement everyone was suspect I I still
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have visual memories of men up on on top
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of roofs with long long lenses just
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taking pictures taking pictures taking
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pictures so we were constantly
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harassed after 5 days of walkouts
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tensions finally eased and students
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returned to
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school several weeks later the school
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board bowed to pressure and met with
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parents students and Sal Castro to
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review the demands at last last we have
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allowed our young people to get the
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short end of the s for too
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long but the board did nothing no new
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classes no new teachers no new schools
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the walkouts to all appearances had
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failed the feeling of failure was
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compounded 2 months later on Prom Night
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s Castro and 12 12 others were arrested
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for conspiring to incite the walkouts
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each faced 66 years in prison we knew
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that now we were targets if they could
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arrest All of These Fine people for
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trying to make our schools better what
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else could they do to us another series
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of protests was staged by thousands of
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students parents and the Brown Beret in
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June 1968 the group that had become
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known as the east LA 13 was released on
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Bale when school opened again in the
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fall Castro was not at his teaching post
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the board refused to reinstate Castro at
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Lincoln high where he had taught for six
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years because he was an accused felon I
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walked in this morning and they told me
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I could not teach that I would have to
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go downtown to Personnel that I could
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not teach who told you uh the principal
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and I saw it as there goes the stupid
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School District again another dumb
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mistake they were going to deny
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students one of the proven best
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teachers how what sense did that
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make the students took up their picket
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signs and launched yet another protest
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nothing
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happened so the Cho students staged a si
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in that became a sleepin at the
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Schoolboard offices among their demands
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that s Castro get his job
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back it's not so much Mr Castro it's the
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issue what the man means to every
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teacher academic freedom shall we call
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it to a negro to a Mexican to an Anglo
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the sleep in went on for a week and a
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day 35 people were arrested for
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trespassing
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but on the ninth day the school board
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gave Castro his job
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back call please Mr Garder yes Dr yes Dr
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yes Dr Rich Dr what no re John yes
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iov tell they called you a troublemaker
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a ravel Rouser and everything else are
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you that no I don't think so I'm a
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reformer in education what does that
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mean uh there are many changes that have
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to be made because at this point
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education is not relevant to kids in
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general and Mexicans in particular as
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for the east LA 13 it would be two years
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more before a state appeals court
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exonerated them throwing out all the
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charges the First Amendment the court
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said protected them to let the
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indictment stand would have a chilling
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effect on Free
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Speech
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a comparison of what the students
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demanded and what they got that seminal
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spring would show few results but there
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were bigger victories of foot the
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changes to The Spirit Well the one thing
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that changed completely and
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profoundly was how all of us viewed
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ourselves so no matter what else was
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going to happen in the
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schools the change was inside of us
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within 18 months of the walk out the
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number of Cho students attending UCLA
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jumped from 40 to
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1,50 every College up and down the state
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had tripled and quadrupled and
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quintupled the amount of cost at Cho
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college students and then the ivy school
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started recruiting chos to go to the ivy
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school this was unheard of before over
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time more Mexican Americans became
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School administrators and elected
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officials there is a middleclass Prof
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professional educated Cho Community
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today because of those walkouts and
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their lives were transformed because
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they discovered that they could do what
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they wanted to do with their lives and
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they could achieve and they in turn
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unlocked academic doors for more
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teachers and students to come
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Generations who took it as a right and a
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duty to protest Injustice in Chicago in
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Denver and again here in Los Angeles
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young Latinos and older ones too
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use their numbers and their new voices
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to protest the war in Vietnam and the
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disproportionate number of chos drafted
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and killed there all this made possible
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in part by one man's leadership his love
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of his community and his people his
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culture and his country s is a true
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patriot uh s is someone who
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believes in the Constitution and the
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Bill of Rights and in the American dream
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and demands that we have all of those
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same rights and opportunities as
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everybody
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else Sal Castro kept his job and finally
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retired from it but not from the
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hallways and classrooms he visits
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schools throughout the Southwest
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educating students about equality and
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justice regardless of color or station
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and the most basic homework assignment
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of all the simple math that there is
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only one race the human one you are
00:14:01
going to college folks you're going to
00:14:03
be a doctor you're going to find boy
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nurses to sit on your lap
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okay of his many goals in life the
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latest is raising the money for a
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monument to the students who walked out
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and changed the future for themselves
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and students not yet born a monument to
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be placed in the park where the students
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marched nearly 40 years ago yes to this
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day we don't have that uh that rock that
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bimont but there should be I even have
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what already from a grateful
00:14:39
Community the man who still questions
00:14:42
still wants to find the truth still
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values higher education says he'll never
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stop raising hell and moving Heaven and
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Earth to make it
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happen it's a it's been a it's been a a
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long life and a long long good life
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you know and I do it again a million
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times and no
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regrets
