Mexican Education

“Look, you’ve got to understand that we’ve built this Valley to what it is and we’ve gotten to where we are because there’s always been cheap labor around. When you come in talking about raising the educational vista of the Mexican-American and helping him to aspire beyond the fields, and curing the dropout problem, you’re talking about jeopardizing our economic survival. What do you expect, that we’ll just lie down and let you reformer come in here and wreck everything for us?” Anonymous
In 2012, the Census bureau showed about 64% of the United States population consisted of Hispanics, two-thirds being Mexicans, whose population continues to increase. Only 10% of the 64% of the Hispanic population has received a Bachelor's (pewhispanic,
2012). This depicts the number of Chicanos pursuing an education not being consistent with Chicano population increasing. The term education originates from the Latin root educare, meaning to educate. However, now it is used to describe “schooling”. Education is supposed to be an enlightenment for many, but not to Chicanos. Universities continue to face the issue of Chicano students failing and dropping out. The term school failure is used more when comparing the academic performances of Chicanos to other ethnicities. Since the 19th century, schools have tried to resolve the issue of Chicanos struggling with education by being more diverse and providing equal resources; however, this solution is not effective. Therefore, my research emphasizes the importance of Chicanos Studies impacting the education of Hispanics as it reduces the cultural imbalance that Hispanics face on university campuses and the factors that led to Chicanos’ underachievement.
From Pre-Columbian times, Mexicans dealt with removal of cultural practices and language development due to socioeconomic issues and Americanization programs. Chicanos had to overcome the gender animosity and financial disfranchisement as a result of the large migration pattern that occurred simultaneously during this time period. There were also multiple academic restrictions and affirmative actions that prevented Hispanics from expressing their own heritage during the 19th century, such as the Hull House, an Americanization program that was founded in 1889 to educated immigrants about American traditions and sanitation. These restrictions were enforced on Hispanics in order to Americanize them. A person can implement that Chicanos continue to struggle with the problem of cultural imbalance on school campuses because of the lack of diversity and the low number of Chicanos. This led to the suppression of Hispanics not achieving their educational goals.
In the 1900s, arbitrary regulations and laws regarding the academic exclusion of Chicanos prevented the students from continuing to post-secondary school. In the article, “Higher Education Crisis Looms for Chicanos/Latinos Conference Articulates New Strategies”, Roberto Rodriguez, a journalist and Mexican and Raza Studies professor at the University of Arizona, stresses that certain bills like AS 70 “make it a felony for an undocumented student to enroll in and attend any college or university, or for someone to assist them in the process” (Rodriguez, 1994) , which is similar to as those I have seen in Chicano history. This social injustice was a violation against the 14th Amendment for bilingual students wanting to pursue an education, since Chicanos would not have the opportunity to pursue an education due to the federal restrictions regarding immigration. A person can expect for the government to disregard this implication. However, the government ignored the violation of the 14th Amendment, which caused students to feel inferior in comparison to other ethnic races because they had more restrictions and limited freedom. It also displays the discrimination towards Chicanos by making them feel unwanted. Overall, Chicanos were stripped away from their culture through the exclusion of the Hispanic language, culture, and history, more students became less motivated in school, since there were justifications to their education.
As part of the Chicano movement, Hispanics were restricted from speaking Spanish, or practicing bilingualism.
These restrictions forced Hispanic English language learners to attend bilingual programs regardless of their proficiency of English literacy. This action led to Chicanos not being able to perform at their highest capacity. Instead, they felt unintelligent and were discouraged. People like Anamaria C. Loya, a civil rights activist and attorney, have aspirations to work with low income immigrant students struggling with social and economic issues. Loya protects students’ rights from federal laws based on discrimination that prohibits students from becoming educated. Furthermore, Loya mentions her main concern to reduce the “ 50.9% of the Latinos over the age of 25 are high school graduates and about 70% of the Latinos between 18 and 25 complete high school”, in the scholarly article Chicanos Law Education Reform (Loya, 1990). The statistics from research demonstrates a portion of the increasing population of Hispanics that remains uneducated, which correlates to their socioeconomic status of Chicanos. It is disappointing and shocking that the age of the Chicanos finishing school varies, but at the same time it is understandable because there are unknown, influential factors that affect Chicanos perspective about education. Overall, the comparisons and the statistics of Chicanos not completing high school displays that Chicano communities did not receive all of their community and school necessities to enable Chicanos to continue
school.
With the use of academic progress examinations like the Stanford Academic achievement, school districts were able to use the data and statistics to claim that Chicano’s academic performance is relatively low compared to other ethnicities. The exams displayed that Chicanos did not have the same academic potential as their peers. As a result of the criticism, the government and school districts used the term equal but separate to describe how Chicanos could receive the most from their education through special treatment from their teachers. In reality, retention from progressing to the next academic level was one of the reasons as to why Chicanos had low test scores because Chicanos were not allowed to progress even though they met the criteria. In addition, Chicano students only received passed down materials because district officials believed that Chicanos were incompetent students. There are records of Chicanos who fought against this inequality in Court systems, which can be found in the cultural journal “Knocking on the Schoolhouse Door: Mendez v. Westminster, Equal Protection, Public Education, and Mexican Americans in the 1940's.” The following is one of the statements mentioned during the trial against the violation of the 14th Amendment for bilingual students, “The poor materials and equipment went along with an average classroom size that was at least ten students per class in Lincoln than in Roosevelt” (Arriola, 1995). This quote goes to show that Spanish-speaking students never had the opportunity to advance because they did not have the necessary resources required to exceed in their education. Therefore, Chicanos became accustomed to not receiving the most from their education and pursuing a career due to not receiving adequate schooling.
Besides the lack of resources, Hispanics did not receive the same support that other students obtained. Christopher Arriola mentions, “Former Lincoln students repeatedly said that they were either discouraged or never encouraged to continue their education beyond grade school. Mexicans were expected to work in the fields,” (Arriola, 1995). In other words, Chicanos had to find a way to prevent racial prejudices from discouraging them and to overcome this social nuance found in society. With time the creation of social groups like LULAC helped students fight against these injustices and force new educational trends to occur like the expression of their language. However, Chicanos still struggled to gain support from others and attain Spanish courses. As Anamaria C. Loya also mentions, “Chicanos have never had equal access to a meaningful education in the United States. Even though litigation, legislation and policy have at times addressed the educational inequalities Chicano students still remain undereducated in the United States.” I agree with this statement because Chicanos had the mentality of to not succeed in school after receiving many attacks from government officials and stereotypes from others. More importantly, Chicanos felt excluded and did not receive the support from others to motivate them in school, especially in universities.
I never realized the seriousness about Hispanic students questioning their identity when attending college until I experienced it myself and learned about it in the Chicano Studies course at UC Davis. I was fortunate enough to take Chicano Studies, which demonstrated how students not taking courses related to their cultural history become less motivated and are less likely to attend college due to uninterested subjects that are not relatable. Being a Chicano student is very difficult because Hispanics feel discouraged by the relatively small number of Chicano students attending college, which causes students to question their capacities. Hispanics STEM major students get questioned and criticized by others because people usually believe that Hispanics belong in the study of arts and humanities rather than the science and technology related majors. As a result of this occurrence, Hispanics would downgrade their aspirations and question themselves. I recall the moment when I questioned my abilities about whether I belonged at UC Davis as a Biochemistry major because I believed that I was not as intelligent as the other students. I then began questioning my identity in the first two quarters in of my freshman year and thought about being part of the of Chicano drop out rate. I was terrified about not doing well in my classes and losing my scholarships. However, I pushed through and learned to become more self-driven due to the support that I received from the Chicano Studies course.
Before the first Chicano Studies course was added to a university system, the lack of relatable classes did not motivate Chicanos to attend post-secondary school because they lacked knowledge pertaining to their own history. In the article “The emergence of chicanos in the twenty-first century: Implications for counseling, research, and policy”, Gerardo Gonzalez gives an analytical interpretation of the 6% of Chicanos from the 53% that completed secondary school attended post-secondary school for various reasons regarding Chicanos background (Gonzalez, 1997) . For instance, some historical books do not include all events that had a huge impact on American and Mexican history. As Guadalupe San Miguel Jr. asserts, “By historically ignoring, excluding, or suppressing the language and culture of Chicanos and failing to encourage the intermingling of different racial and cultural groups in the classrooms through the policy of segregation, educational authorities discouraged Mexican Americans from learning English and helped to maintain Spanish language use among Chicano students ” in Status of the Historiography of Chicano Education: A Preliminary Analysis (San Miguel Jr. 1986). These factors are important because they are still found in today's teaching curriculum. Whereas others like Rodolfo Acuna, Ana Castillo, and Carlos Munoz mentioned that the Chicano Studies course gave them, “a sense of belonging and self-identification” (Aguirre and Martinez, 1993). This shows that the addition of Chicano Studies made Chicanos feel welcomed and helped them create an identity for themselves while learning about Chicanos contribution to United States. On the other hand, Chicanos will become frustrated after they realize that there were several misinterpretations of American history. The inclusion of Chicano Studies will reduce the confusion and encourage Hispanics to overcome the barriers that prevent them from becoming educated by giving them the other viewpoint their history.
Usually Chicanos are required to take American History, English, or other Anglo-based courses in high school. The purpose of having these requirements was to Americanize bilingual students during the 19th and 20th century. However, this curriculum is still used today and it confuses Chicanos about the English language and American history more, since English is a complex language and American history textbooks do not include Hispanics contributions to American history. As Guadalupe San Miguel Jr. states, "Not only the language but the curriculum was foreign to most Spanish-speaking students . . . the public schools did not teach the traditional subjects of La Doctrina Catolica. Instead they emphasized secular subjects” (San Miguel Jr., 1986). This is evident today because most Hispanics like me are unable to interpret religious or cultural texts because of the confusion when transitioning between two distinct cultures. The addition of relatable courses will prevent this situation by providing the information that many Chicanos lack and can relate to, thus giving Chicanos more confidence to continue studying.
From history, Mexicans experienced conquest, slavery, discrimination, and inequality, but were still able to confront these problems by uniting and protesting for constitutional rights. However, Chicanos are not able to empower and encourage more Hispanics to attend post-secondary school, due to the bicultural restrictions because of the social changes that continue to take place since the 19th century. Courses like Chicano Studies can motivate more students to attend universities and feel welcomed as they gain support from others, learn how to cope with second-generation discrimination, and overcome economic and historical circumstances.