What Role Do Students Play In The Chicano Movement

Behind the term Chicano lays a sense of power, strength, and thirst for equality, which gave birth to the Chicano Movement. The movement was a unity of organizations and groups of individuals fighting against their oppression. These groups centered on issues such as education reforms, service inequities, welfare rights, and farm workers’ rights, among other injustices. Based on the inconsistent unequal and unfair treatments provided by the United States to Mexicans, the Chicano Movement gave Chicanos the opportunity to shine their light and fight for their civil and human rights. Nonetheless, students have played a major role in the Chicano fight for justice. Within a larger framework of resistance against the Anglo-American hegemony, the Chicano
They organized into a corporation of various student organizations. They walked out of high schools and universities, demanding educational reform, including the integration of Mexican American courses in the curriculum and the hiring of Mexican American faculty, staff and counselors, all of which is suggested in El Plan de Santa Barbara. The plan was a social movement; it was a plan that served as discipline and guidance for higher education. Within every section of the its content, the plan outlines the essential and required components that will lead to a successful pursue of higher education among Chicanos. The plan focused on bringing out the need for resources such as support programs, housing, academic counseling, and financial assistance. Along with that, within the plans’ goals is the idea of incorporating more Chicano representation among universities and colleges. El Plan de Santa Barbara proposes the idea of alternative procedures for reaching the Chicano objectives. The plan, makes the suggestions of the resources available and what to do with in order to succeed. Nonetheless, the plan assumes that Chicanos will eventually give back to their families and communities. Therefore, it is believed that a student group is more effective if it has the support of the community, and that is why the community plays a major role in the development of this
Chicanos have constantly fought to represent themselves in this racist society. However, there has been an increase in Chicano scholars, but the numbers are not enough to be held accountable for the rest of the Chicano population. Nonetheless, out of plans like El Plan de Santa Barbara, Chicanos have been able to benefit. The plan served as an eye opener for many Chicanos, showed them where they stand and pointed them in the right direction. Support programs are now reaching out to high schools, and middles schools, in the hope to better prepare the students for college, these are some of the achievements of Xichan@ studies. As a way of resistance to the dominance of the Anglos, Chicano Studies emerged. Along with that, the Xican@ studies department has come a long way; it has opened the door to new curriculums such as LGTBQ, and Chicana Feminist, along with others related field, that are open to all students. The emergence of the Chicano Studies worked as a cause and effect. This contribution gave voice to the tension and contradictions characteristics of earlier Chicano positions. Chicano Studies was the result of being left behind, and through that Chica/os had and are still trying to reconstruct their stolen identities. This has created a paradigm shift where the education standards no longer follow the Anglo American requirements, rather now everyone has their own