Teach Latino History Too

We to need to remember how blacks like Harriet Tubman freed slaves through the underground railroad and how Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. fought so that blacks could ride in the front of buses and so that blacks could go to white schools. We need to honor these people always.

I know there is an Hispanic Heritage Month [in September] but I never hear much about it. It is not given the emphasis of Black History Month. In fact, I don’t know of any Latino who has done something that changed the world. I have heard the name Cesar Chavez, but I haven’t been taught anything about him. I haven’t been taught any Latino history.

My learning of history has centered on the British coming to America. Even though my school has a large Latino population, maybe the teachers don’t think that Latino history is important.

Black and Latino students--the two major racial groups on campus--get along well.

I have nothing against learning about black history. I have learned about it since elementary school.

Maybe Latino parents should talk to teachers to see what can be done about teaching Latino history. At least black students have been taught something about the achievement of some blacks.

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--Interviewed by Mary Reese Boykin.