The Struggle to Learn Our Histories in U.S. Schools 55 years after the East LA Walkouts

By Irene Sanchez  During the East LA walkouts that took place in early March 1968, thousands of students from five East LA high schools demanded classes that focused on their culture, Latino teachers and administrators, use of the restroom during lunch and other demands they presented to the Los Angeles Unified School District’s school board. … Continue reading The Struggle to Learn Our Histories in U.S. Schools 55 years after the East LA Walkouts

Learning Loss for Generations: Segregated Mexican Schools and the 1918 Flu Pandemic

“With so many Mexicans in the grammar schools this would greatly interfere with class work, as the excluded students, who are always the slowest in the classes, would fall still farther behind, making the present task of completing a year’s work before next summer nearly impossible”. This denial of education for Mexican students during the 1918 flu pandemic, which was the same “logic” that established separate Mexican schools, was rooted in white supremacy and racism in the ideas that Mexican students were dirty, unclean, inferior in intelligence, and likely wouldn’t catch up with school work anyway.

75 Years After the Mendez Case: Our Children Still Need Us to Fight for Equal Education

By Irene Sanchez Today marks the 75th anniversary of the ruling that desegregated schools in the state of California. While Mendez is talked about a little more now than when I was a younger person, it is not talked about enough. The Mendez case was the precursor to the landmark supreme court case of Brown … Continue reading 75 Years After the Mendez Case: Our Children Still Need Us to Fight for Equal Education

Refusing to Disappear

Refusing to DisappearBy Irene SanchezXicana Ph.D.  How many of us have heard these sayings in the U.S.? “America is a melting pot…” “The national fabric is a diverse tapestry...”“America is united as one…”People who offer assimilationist snippets of what they believe "America" is fail to say that the dominant Euro American group often demands that “others” … Continue reading Refusing to Disappear

25 years after Prop 187: I was a middle schooler who walked out in protest of Prop 187, now I’m a high school teacher because of it.

"I was a middle school student who walked out in protest of CA Proposition 187, Looking back 25 years later I know I'm a high school Chicano/Latino Studies teacher because of it". By Irene Sanchez Irene Sanchez, Ph.D. is a high school teacher, writer, and poet. She is the author of the blog Xicana Ph.D. … Continue reading 25 years after Prop 187: I was a middle schooler who walked out in protest of Prop 187, now I’m a high school teacher because of it.

AB 2772 (Medina) Ethnic Studies Bill Moves Forward in California

AB 2772 (Medina) Ethnic Studies Bill Moves Forward in California Xicana Ph.D. By: Irene Sanchez #ethnicstudiesforall Today AB 2772 passed the Senate Education Committee and will now move forward to Appropriations, a vote by the Senate and if passed, the Governors signature. The movement to make Ethnic Studies a graduation requirement in K-12 has been … Continue reading AB 2772 (Medina) Ethnic Studies Bill Moves Forward in California