Conference Urges Study of Chicano History

Amid calls for a greater emphasis on Chicano studies, a group of educators and community activists recently gathered in a conference with Chicano high school and college students.

Rudy Acuna, a founder of the field of Chicano studies, and other organizers said the conference last month was designed to address issues of importance to the Chicano community, including the need for more information about Chicanos’ contributions to American history.

“We want you to be proud of who you are,” Acuna told the cheering audience. “We want you to know your history. We want you to join hands with other people to make change.”

Several hundred students from high schools and colleges throughout Los Angeles attended the conference at USC. Thousands more watched the program, which was telecast to universities across the nation. Other sessions are being planned.

“The Chicano movement is going high-tech,” said Martin GutieRuiz, a conference organizer. “None of the Ivy Leagues have Chicano studies. . . . We’re sending a (message that) with or without the administration we’re going to get Chicano studies to our youth.”

In the 1960s, many colleges began offering courses in Chicano studies and some devoted entire departments to the history and culture of Mexican-Americans.

But campus offerings failed to keep pace as the number of Mexican-American students grew, and many scholars and activists complain that Chicano studies courses have been relegated to a second-class status.

“For too long, history has been taught to us from the perspective of Europeans, the colonizers,” said Marta Lopez-Garza, a sociology professor at Cal State L.A. “We are taking back our history. . . . That is what the Chicano movement is all about.”

The theme of the conference was pride, change and strength through history.

Issues covered during the conference included the changing role of the Chicana, the labor movement and a history of Chicano political activism. Students viewing the conference were able to call in questions to panelists.

UCLA students cited the recent controversy over a fraternity songbook that includes racist references to a Mexican woman as a sign of the lack of ethnic sensitivity on campuses. Students have held protests urging that the university stop all funding for fraternities and seeking a Chicano studies department at UCLA.

UCLA students Rosario Carrillo and Berta Cueva, who also spoke on the women’s panel, said the songbook issue illustrates the difference between various forms of feminism.

“We were very disappointed that the (Anglo) sorority sisters didn’t support us,” Carrillo said. “Chicana feminism is very different from other types of feminism. We take into account class and gender.”

Rocio Saenz, a Service Employee’s International Union representative and an organizer for Justice for Janitors, described the problems facing laborers and encouraged students to see the labor movement as part of the overall Chicano Movement.

“Labor is not just an isolated thing, about wages and benefits in the workplace,” Saenz said. “We can fight racism. We can fight police brutality. We can fight issues that confront our community.”

The conference also included performances by a group of Aztec dancers and skits by political satirists Chicano Secret Service and a theater troupe, Teatro Por la Gente.

Oscar Pelayo, a 15-year-old student at Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley, said he was most impressed by the panel of women.

“The things that they said really got to me,” Pelayo said. “I never thought that we have them lumped in one certain area.”

The conference was an outgrowth of Acuna’s long-running battle with UC Santa Barbara. Acuna has filed a lawsuit against the University of California, arguing that officials at the Santa Barbara campus conspired to deny him a job because of his political activism, race and age.

“I was organizing against the university,” Acuna said. “I said there has to be a better way. I shouldn’t be organizing to promote my own cause. It’s a systemic problem. . . . There are a lot of other problems.” Acuna was a founder of Chicano studies at Cal State Northridge and still teaches there.

Students had free admission to the conference, and organizers arranged buses to take them to and from their campuses. A few of the schools backed out after agreeing to let students attend the conference, Acuna said.

But some Reseda High School students decided to attend even though the school had refused to sanction it.

“If they’re going to penalize us for learning about our culture and trying not to lose our Hispanic identity, they have a problem. That’s all we’re trying to do,” Miriam Peniche said.

Reseda High School Principal Robert Kladifko said students were not allowed to attend because the school could not find a staff member willing to ride the bus with students and act as a sponsor. He and others faculty members also felt that the conference might be counterproductive to their efforts to improve relationships between students of different ethnic backgrounds.

“We’re all trying to help the youngsters to understand each other and get along socially at school,” Kladifko said.

Sal B. Castro, an activist and counselor at Belmont High, said studying the history of Mexican-Americans will not only help Chicanos, but all students.

“The more neglected we are, the more resentment is being wrought by the Mexican community,” he said.