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Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974

1973-04-14 Keynote Speech Page 6

concern among the white citizenry was the fact that point six called for the decapitation of every North American citizen male over the age of sixteen. As you can imagine they did not succeed. But nevertheless that was a response to the brutality and the barbarism that was being inflicted on our people. Another response was the formation of the LULAC, League of United Latin American Citizens.

And so begins the first effort to disguise what we are. The intellectual somersaults about us being half French and part Spanish and Latin American, everything exotic except being Chicano begins.  It begins in English too, because we have changed now our name from Espanol to English. The LULAC's attempt to make peace and make amends with the white people. One of the things they are seldom credited with is the beginning of early childhood education, bilingual education. Because it was the LULAC's who invented what is known as the "Little School of 400." This was the answer of Chicanos to the American system of non-education.

We learned 400 basic words in English, so that we could succeed in school. The American response to Chicanos has been that we are different and deficient, different and disadvantaged, different and inferior. It is we who must master English and then catch up with the English speaking student. Consequently you have ten year olds, 12 year olds in the elementary grades, sometimes spending three to four years getting out of the first grade. And these people still today call themselves educators, how hypocritical. These people out to be branded criminals, because rape of one part of the body is still rape. The rape of a 13 year old young woman, horrible as it may be, still mends but the rape of a young Chicatino mind is forever psychologically scarred. And in it rape that has occurred linguistically and culturally so we are left as non-beings, non-persons not being either Mexican or American. That has been the latest label that many have chosen for ourselves, Mexican hyphen American, admitting publicly we are neither one nor the other.

So the LULAC with their 400 words produced the first successful Chicanos with high school diplomas and Chicanos with a college degree. Then came the G.I. Forum, 1948. After fighting in the wars and not only were there Black divisions in the Army there were Chicano divisions because how dare we be able to fight next to the other people. The 181st Division was an all Chicano division, one of the better ones if not the best. A young soldier who was killed

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concern among the white citizenry was the fact that point six called for the decapitation of every North American citizen male over the age of sixteen. As you can imagine they did not succeed. But nevertheless that was a response to the brutality and the barbarism that was being inflicted on our people. Another response was the formation of the LULAC, League of United Latin American Citizens. And so begins the first effort to disguise what we are. The intellectual somersaults about us being half French and part Spanish and Latin American, everything exotic except being Chicano begins. It begins in English too, because we have changed now our name from Espanol to English. The LULAC's attempt to make peace and make amends with the white people. One of the things they are seldom credited with is the beginning of early childhood education, bilingual education. Because it was the LULAC's who invented what is known as the "Little School of 400." This was the answer of Chicanos to the American system of non-education. We learned 400 basic words in English, so that we could succeed in school. The American response to Chicanos has been that we are different and deficient, different and disadvantaged, different and inferior. It is we who must master English and then catch up with the English speaking student. Consequently you have ten year olds, 12 year olds in the elementary grades, sometimes spending three to four years getting out of the first grade. And these people still today call themselves educators, how hypocritical. These people out to be branded criminals, because rape of one part of the body is still rape. The rape of a 13 year old young woman, horrible as it may be, still mends but the rape of a young Chicatino mind is forever psychologically scarred. And in it rape that has occurred linguistically and culturally so we are left as non-beings, non-persons not being either Mexican or American. That has been the latest label that many have chosen for ourselves, Mexican hyphen American, admitting publicly we are neither one nor the other. So the LULAC with their 400 words produced the first successful Chicanos with high school diplomas and Chicanos with a college degree. Then came the G.I. Forum, 1948. After fighting in the wars and not only were there Black divisions in the Army there were Chicano divisions because how dare we be able to fight next to the other people. The 181st Division was an all Chicano division, one of the better ones if not the best. A young soldier who was killed