Chicano Empowerment and Bilingual Education: Movimiento Politics in Crystal City, Texas by Armand Trujillo

Author:Armand Trujillo [Trujillo, Armand]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781317776574
Google: 5YnsAgAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 20973787
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1998-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Educators’ Image of Teaching

The majority of educators I interviewed came from working-class migrant families. Most of them had attended public schools in Crystal City. A few of them, those who had married local community natives or moved there to work, had attended school in nearby communities within the region. More often than not, these educators were among the first members in their family to have graduated from college. The factors and experiences that played a part in their image of teaching were various, but chief among them were family background and generation, and schooling experience in Crystal City and South Texas. A small percentage of Mexicano educators, the older generation, had become teachers prior to the 1969 school walkout. They had been fortunate enough to graduate from Crystal City schools, go to college, and get hired under the Anglo administration. After the Chicano takeover of the schools, most of them continued to teach under the new Chicano leadership. Given that there had been a high turnover rate among Anglo educators after the takeover and the fact that they were among the few local Mexicanos with professional degrees, some of them were offered administrative positions in the school district. Due to this experience, this small group of Chicano educators had a different vantagepoint of the educational changes that had transpired, and were able to compare and contrast the two school administrations and their respective educational philosophies. One of the more influential factors affecting Chicano educators as a group has been their experience growing up in Crystal City and attending a school system that was controlled by the Anglo minority. Several educators recalled attending schools that were segregated and catered to the Anglo students. To illustrate this experience I offer the following sketch of Mr. Segovia, the newly appointed superintendent in early August of 1988.

Mr. Segovia is a native of Crystal City. He recalled starting school at cero bola, the entry level for most Mexicano students at the time. Cero bola is the term most Mexicanos, who attended school during the Anglo era, use to refer to the beginning entry level. Cero bola classrooms grouped those Mexicano students who spoke no English or very little English. Mr. Segovia notes that after cero bola the sequence of class levels for those who spoke some English or had had some schooling followed—primero altito and primero alto (first and high first). He adds that when he entered school Mexicanos and Anglos went to separate schools: “You had campuses that were totally Chicano or Mexicano and then you had campuses that were totally Anglo. If I remember correctly, I was in the second grade when I was allowed to go to an Anglo campus. And that was the first time that I ever interacted with an Anglo at any level.”

Mr. Segovia’s family, like many other Mexicano families in Crystal City, was a migrant family; they traveled to the northern states to work the seasonal crops from April to November. When the family returned the children would normally be enrolled in school.

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