Transcribe
Translate
Chicano conference programs and speeches, April 1973-May 1974
1974-04-13 Opening Remarks Page 10
More information
digital collection
archival collection guide
transcription tips
institutions in the Midwest are completely unresponsive to the needs of the Chicano. They have been even able to say, well the Chicano is like every other immigrant in the Midwest. Therefore we can educate him just like every other immigrant. You make him be an American. You Americanize him. You do not teach him Spanish, you teach him English no matter if he speaks Spanish when he comes in we do not care about that. The people of the Southwest should deal with that because the Chicano is from the Southwest. In the Midwest the Chicano is an immigrant so we treat him like every other immigrant. We have to look at it in terms of our colonial position in the Midwest so we can say we are not like every other immigrant. The schools have to become responsive to the needs of the Chicano. The educational system in the Southwest has functioned the Midwest to brainwash us. Schools completely ignore our history. We should begin to demand history in the Midwest also history of the Chicano in the Southwest. Not only when we go and tell them we want history of Chicanos they are going to give us a lot of Chicano history of the Southwest and that's very important but we have to concentrate on the history of the Midwest also first we are going to understand who we are more than we now do. The schools have been unresponsive. Like every other colonial system they have been used by the oppressor, they have been used in Africa, Asia, Latin America, to tell us we have to be happy with our condition, that we have to be Americanized, we have to be assimilated, we should not complain, and we have to stop that. We have to use the schools to teach us the reality of our conditions in the Midwest. We have to teach in our school the colonial nature of economic imperialism in the Midwest. Other institutions have also failed us every institution in the Midwest as they have failed us in the Southwest. The church also has failed us in the Midwest, had failed the immigrants since the beginning. Always trying to assimilate him, always trying to tell him that it was his fault that he had to become like the American in order to succeed. The government, state governments, local governments, have failed us. Not until 1968 did the state legislature in Iowa pass a migrant bill to regulate housing, to regulate wages of migrants. Migrants have been coming to Iowa since the turn of the century and before and never has a law been passed. Who cares? Since we were always just economic commodities it did not matter what happened to us. I interviewed all those ancianos form Des Moines. It pained my heart to listen to all of their problems that they encountered, all of their suffering that they encountered. Muchos son nuestros heroes. Average people that come up and like Sebastian Rivers, who had fought with Calixto Contreras, one of the generals of Pancho Villa, came up to Iowa in 1942, worked on the railroad
Saving...
prev
next
institutions in the Midwest are completely unresponsive to the needs of the Chicano. They have been even able to say, well the Chicano is like every other immigrant in the Midwest. Therefore we can educate him just like every other immigrant. You make him be an American. You Americanize him. You do not teach him Spanish, you teach him English no matter if he speaks Spanish when he comes in we do not care about that. The people of the Southwest should deal with that because the Chicano is from the Southwest. In the Midwest the Chicano is an immigrant so we treat him like every other immigrant. We have to look at it in terms of our colonial position in the Midwest so we can say we are not like every other immigrant. The schools have to become responsive to the needs of the Chicano. The educational system in the Southwest has functioned the Midwest to brainwash us. Schools completely ignore our history. We should begin to demand history in the Midwest also history of the Chicano in the Southwest. Not only when we go and tell them we want history of Chicanos they are going to give us a lot of Chicano history of the Southwest and that's very important but we have to concentrate on the history of the Midwest also first we are going to understand who we are more than we now do. The schools have been unresponsive. Like every other colonial system they have been used by the oppressor, they have been used in Africa, Asia, Latin America, to tell us we have to be happy with our condition, that we have to be Americanized, we have to be assimilated, we should not complain, and we have to stop that. We have to use the schools to teach us the reality of our conditions in the Midwest. We have to teach in our school the colonial nature of economic imperialism in the Midwest. Other institutions have also failed us every institution in the Midwest as they have failed us in the Southwest. The church also has failed us in the Midwest, had failed the immigrants since the beginning. Always trying to assimilate him, always trying to tell him that it was his fault that he had to become like the American in order to succeed. The government, state governments, local governments, have failed us. Not until 1968 did the state legislature in Iowa pass a migrant bill to regulate housing, to regulate wages of migrants. Migrants have been coming to Iowa since the turn of the century and before and never has a law been passed. Who cares? Since we were always just economic commodities it did not matter what happened to us. I interviewed all those ancianos form Des Moines. It pained my heart to listen to all of their problems that they encountered, all of their suffering that they encountered. Muchos son nuestros heroes. Average people that come up and like Sebastian Rivers, who had fought with Calixto Contreras, one of the generals of Pancho Villa, came up to Iowa in 1942, worked on the railroad
Campus Culture
sidebar
