I participated in the student walk-outs in East Los Angeles in 1968 as a second year UCLA student. I was an inexperienced nineteen year old that had lived through a system without role models, with teachers who weren’t from the local community, and who were not Latino/Mexican descent nor Spanish-speaking. I was the first of my brothers and sisters to attend a university. Younger cousins attended Garfield High School – receiving irrelevant education and put-downs for not speaking, reading or writing English well enough. The Mexican culture was treated as synonymous to the gang culture.
I began to gain political education and strength to demand respect with UCLA students-members of UMAS and MEChA- who had studied the history of inequality and discrimination. The farm worker movement led by Cesar Chavez, Black Power, and Chicano movements converged during that time in history to demand a fair share of the opportunities, especially relevant education. It was during one of these protests at Roosevelt High School in East Los Angeles that my mother and Tia saw me on television. I had been warned not to participate in protests and had been “busted” as I was doing it. I was holding a picket sign when they approached me with an “a ha!” Instead of stopping, the sudden challenge caused me to pass the picket sign to my mother who readily joined the protest! It meant taking a stance with what was obviously an uncomfortable step to take. It was a time of revealing my independence and fighting for our rights. I knew that it was fear that my parents had for their daughter that harm would come my way. My mother and tia became even closer in our relationship after that incident.
Editor’s note: This is an example of the idealism of youth and how they accept change more readily. It can help teach the older persons about change.
