IV. THE SIESTA IS OVER

Octavio Paz, Mexican philosopher, described us very well when he said: "I begin with the people for whom being a Mexican is a truly vital problem, a problem of life or death.

"When I went to live in the United States, I stayed for a while in Los Angeles, a city with around a million inhabitants of Mexican descent. At first sight the visitor is struck . . . by the city's vaguely Mexican atmosphere, an atmosphere impossible to convey in words. This impression of Mexico. . . floats in the air. I say floats because it neither mixes with nor melts into that other world, that North American world built on precision and efficiency. It floats but does not oppose; it sways, at the whim of the wind, sometimes as shapeless as a cloud and sometimes as direct and erect as a rocket. It hugs the ground, falls into pleats, expands, contracts, sleeps, or dreams: beauty in tatters."

The vaguely Spanish-speaking atmosphere floats in the United States as well as Los Angeles. But it also is "beauty in tatters." Our culture, heritage, customs, art, language, and architecture sacrificed at the alter of precision, profit, and the desire to have us all conform to institutions that inherently discriminate in employment, education, and participation. So the Mexican American "shouts or is mute, stabs or prays, lies down to sleep for a hundred years." The hundred years are over and the siesta has come to an end.

EXHIBIT IV

SOCIOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN IN RURAL AREAS AND IN URBAN AREAS

(By Julian Samora, Professor of Sociology, University of Notre Dame)

The "sleeping giant" that characterized the Mexican-American of the Southwest has awakened. Between yawns from his long sleep, he stretches his arms and legs, and those around him are perturbed.

This "giant" will never sleep again. He is no longer docile, fatalistic, pacifistic, long-suffering, and patient. He will no longer be called the invisible minority. He is among you. He is on the scene. You see him, you hear him, and you will hear him even more.

Now that we are finally aware of his presence, it behooves us to listen to his Complaints; those of being neglected, exploited, and oppressed. In the overwhelming uprising of the poor in this society and in our day, his-the MexicanAmerican's-is but another voice.

In this decade, farm workers have been organized, labor and school strikes have been staged and some won, bilingual and bicultural education has begun, innumerable studies have been completed, boycotts have worked, a Southwest Council has been formed, a Mexican-American legal defense and education organization has been established, demonstrations have brought results, LA RAZA UNIDA is functioning, an interagency committee at the cabinet level is operating, many Mexican-Americans have been appointed to positions of import, state and federal officials are seeking to create special programs for this minority, foundations are welcoming projects which they might sponsor, and educators and students are organized.

Old leaders are losing their influence, and new leaders-young and impatientare quickly taking their place. It is truly an exciting and frightful decade.

This decade has seen a fantastically large population movement in the Southwest. The movement has been two-pronged. One prong is represented by those who have moved from Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona to Texas and California (mainly California); the other population movement within the states is the migration from the rural areas to the cities.

In 1950, 25 percent of the Mexican-Americans in California lived in rural areas; in 1960, 93 percent were urban residents. This shift in residence means that rural people-who generally are less well educated and have fewer skillshave been flocking to the barrios and colonias of the cities. Although the same

thing is happening throughout the United States, it is occurring more rapidly and in greater proportion among Mexican-Americans who for centuries have been predominantly residents of rural areas.

Although the plight of the urban Mexican-American is a sad one characterized by poor housing, unemployment, low educational achievement, and inequality before the law, the position of the rural Mexican-American is even worse.

Let me state unequivocably that these are not minority group problems (ie., Negro problems, Mexican problems); rather, they are American problems, yours and mine. We-the society-have made them what they are. As educators, it is our task to use all means at our disposal to bring equality of educational opportunity within reach of all children.

SOCIOLOGICAL OVERVIEW OF THE MEXICAN-AMERICAN IN URBAN AREAS

(By Ralph Guzman, Assistant Professor of Government, California State College at Los Angeles)

In a classroom composed of Mexican-American students, one frequently finds in microcosm the negation of the mission of an educator; for even the most sanguine of educators would find it difficult to sustain the proposition that MexicanAmerican children are prepared to operate effectively in either the larger American society or in the ghetto community. And any educator who reports that the majority of his students are satisfied or content with their lot in life confesses to a record of failure and deserves immediate dismissal.

Contrary to the ideologies and contrary to the Mexicanologists, the Mexican border does not represent a protective shield from the realities of American life. The proximity of the Mexican-U.S. border affects in no way school dropouts in East Los Angeles-or in San Diego, for that matter; it does not improve street cleaning in Maravilla; it does not affect de facto segregation in our schools; it does not provide jobs for the unemployed; and it does not integrate housing. The problems that Mexican-Americans face are American problems; they are rooted in America and will be resolved in the American political arena. In this sense, Mexican-Americans have declared their independence from Mexico, and it is time for the American society to realize it.

The educational system for Mexican-Americans can best be understood within the context of a particular urban setting. Perhaps the most important distinc tion that can be drawn is the middle-classness of the American educational system. This, indeed, in probably the focal point of the inability of the majority of American schools to relate to the need and problems of the minority groups and the poor. It is perhaps a most common American triat to take a perfectly funetional system and apply it endlessly in all circumstances. Thus, while the aim of education-the gearing for life-remains the same, unfortunately so do the techniques. This means that irrelevant systems frequently become functional to themselves rather than to the task at hand. In other words, the complexity of arrangements and institutions relevant to Glendale become meaningless in Boyle Heights. In the Mexican-American community, the essential task of providing for an effective educational system-one that will enable the Mexican-American to compete successfully in a middle-class world—becomes lost in a welter of memoranda, lesson plans, policy statements and teacher-training institute.

The urgency and the complexity of the task of educating minority groups is such that extravagant bonuses should be considered as a means of inducing excellent teachers to assist in accomplishing the task. Minority group neighborhoods need excellent teachers more than they need excellent administrators.

By the same token, we must question archaic and shopworn notions of a profession that confuses itself with a medieval guild. And the suspicion, lurking behind rejection of service in ghetto areas, does not pass unnoticed. In short, teachers themselves must have enough self-confidence in their own expertise and abilities to permit uncritical cooperation with nonprofessionals of the communities and parents being served.

It is not enough for a teacher to know intellectually, out of a book, that every social group contains natural leaders, undiscovered scientists, and undeveloped poets; if he does not apply it to students in his class-to real human beings-he is just as much a loss to society as if he never knew it at all.

Too often men lament the passing of the frontier in American society, the disapperance of vast challenges, and the lack of opportunity for exploration but in the education of minority children, there are uncharted seas that Columbus never dreamed of and potential wealth to dwarf the Gran Quivida.

THE BI-LINGUAL BI-CULTURAL CHILD AND SUMMARY OF TWO CONFERENCE TO IDENTIFY ACHIEVEMENT LEVEL

(By Elizabeth Ott, Director, Language-Bilingual Education Program, Southwest Educational Development Laboratory)

EXHIBIT V

UNDER, OVER, AND PRECISELY: A BALANCED BILINGUAL PROGRAM

Today we are in the midst of a social revolution. As educators-members of society's most significant institution for its preservation and maintenance-we do not have a choice of participation, but rather are automatically cast in active, vital roles that are central to the greater issue of directing the future of this country.

The determination of this direction calls for a broad and careful searching of knowledge in the fields of human experience. deep insight and concern for humanity, and the collective wisdom and intelligence of the total education community.

Many Americans continue to confront economic, political, and social restraints which have maintained over a century of residence in this land. Immigrants from other countries fled poverty, opression, and despair; they came with hope, but they often found hostility and discrimination. They also found opportunity. Though they had to dig ditches, work in sweatshops, and resort to other types of stoop labor, they maintained their dignity and earned the right to make demands on society, thereby moving up and out.

The waves of Spanish-speaking immigrants from Mexico arrived during the late part of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century and became the major labor force in the agrarian economic structure that was developing in the Southwest. Their educational needs were ignored, and their principal value was seen as the number of hours spent in planting, tending and harvesting crops, often with not even subsistence level earnings.

Although in our country there is wide agreement, support, and acceptance of the fundamental value of equal educational opportunity, when it comes to areas of specific application, there is considerable disagreement over its meaning. There are evolutionary changes in the interpretation of the concept which give a perspective to bases for disagreement today, but these changes also indicate some interpretation of the concept of equal educational opportunity for the future. I propose that for the Mexican-American, equal opportunity of education implies and demands consideration of his native language and culture.

A primary factor in the educational deprivation of the Mexican-American is his general lack of facility with either English or Spanish as far as entry into the formalized educational program of the school is concerned. If the child did have proficiency in Spanish, it would be of no service to him in the school systems of this country. The fact that he exists in a bilingual-bicultural context can no longer be ignored when educational programs to meet the unique capabilities and needs of the Mexican-American are being designed.

For the person whose native language is Spanish, improved language competence in both Spanish and English is desirable for the individaul's success in school, job advancement, and psychological health.

The bilingual-bicultural child may well start life with the enormous advantage of having a more open, receptive mind about himself and other people and may be among those most likely to work out for us a new, nonethnocentric mode of social intercourse which could be of universal significance.

Obvious weaknesses of past educational programs and practices were (1) overemphasis of English language skills; (2) under-estimating the power of the Spanish culture and the beauty of its language; and (3) the lack of precisely the right balance in an educational program which will fully develop the bilingual child and harmonize the two cultures in which he exists.

EXHIBIT VI

THE CHALLENGE WITHOUT PICKETS, DEMONSTRATIONS, WALKOUTS OR WALKINS (By Eugene Gonzales, Associate Superintendent of Public Instruction; and Chief, Division of Instruction)

I am pleased to have this opportunity to greet you, the participants in this. the second annual statewide conference to be devoted to the issue of educating the Mexican-American child and adult. We are here at the request of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, attending a conference sponsored by the State Department of Education. Since the first Nuevas Vistas conference was held, the State Department of Education has cosponsored at least 12 workshops designed to explore the needs of the Mexican-American child, and they were all well attended. Our purpose here is to discuss the ways in which we can effect the improvement of instruction of Spanish-speaking students in our public schools. Our task, which has so often been considered an impossible hurdle, can now be considered a worthy challenge. It is your challenge and mine: To develop new techniques using tested materials to eliminate the poor showing of our system of education which has been so insensitive to the needs of the Spanish-surnamed citizen. I am referring to the American of Mexican descent-the sleeping giant who is now flexing his muscles and gaining attention.

Colleagues, consider these questions: Do we have the understanding and support of the policymakers in education? Would we have the present situation if school personnel were not continually lulled by the myth of the subtly condescending stereotype of the Mexican-American?

Why is change so difficult? Why have we not developed adequate approaches to teaching the basic skills of communication? Why have we not utilized the obvious attributes of the Spanish-surnamed: his native tongue and his cultural values? Are we aware of the cultural contributions he is making to the Southwest's way of life?

I believe that, with the knowhow, perception, and experienced gained in the 12 workshops of the past year, el intercambio de ideas of the next 30 hours will unable us to return to our respective communities and schools much wiser and with greater understanding of the questions posed at this conference and of the implications of their answers.

We have teachers and administrators, we have concerned parents; we have spokesmen of reputable organizations committed to upgrading educational programs for the Spanish-surnamed; and tomorrow there will be more of them. You and I must be a part of that group, and together we must remove the barricades erected by far too many years of maintaining the status quo.

Can anyone doubt that this is the time for change? This is the moment for creative innovation, and this is surely the day to accept the Mexican-American as a bona fide citizen and a genuine asset to our nation.

I place before this assembly a charge ... a challenge: that in the next 30 hours, every ounce of energy we possess, individually and collectively, be directed to that which will result in the development of the best instructional program yet devised for Spanish-speaking Americans.

This Second Annual Nuevas Vistas Conference was called by Max Rafferty to determine what kinds of instructional programs should be provided for California's Merican-Americans. If we truly believe in Juan and Juanita, then tre must modify our common, spraygun curriculum and focus our strengths and

knowledge on the bilengual, bicultural, and, until now, bypassed American of Mexican descent!

We entitled the First Nevas Vista Conference, !Si, se puede! and we are doing it!

I know that the many parents and young adults here, today, are interested in assisting us in finding the answers to the many complex and perplexing educational challenges facing the community.

I firmly believe that we can meet the challenge. And this challenge can be met without pickets, demonstrations, walkouts, or walk-ins! We can repudiate the senseless accusations of fringe groups that attack the bilingual-instruction approach as communistically inspired or as meaningless tokenism. We will win the battle to educate Americans of Mexican descent if we resist being mired down by our efforts to defend methods and philosophy.

My friend, in accordance with the theme of this Second Annual Nuevas Vistas Conference, adelante!

MEXICAN-AMERICAN EDUCATION RESEARCH PROJECT

(By John Plakos, Director. Mexican-American Education Research Project California State Department of Education)

The educational needs of Spanish-speaking children have been discussed and debated among educators and other interested persons for several years in an effort to understand how thees pupils might be best served in our schools. These discussions have come about because of the disproportionately high dropout rate of the Merican-American pupils in our public schools.

Our research shows that there are 600,000 pupils of Mexican descent in our schools the largest minority group in attendance—and that 50 percent of these pupils do not complete the eighth grade, and 73 percent do not complete high school.

In an attempt to determine some of the reasons for this dropout rate, surveys were made by the Research Project and some very important information was obtained. For example, it was found that 86 percent of the 1,000 school districts that serve pupils of Mexican descent do not have special programs for the education of Spanish-speaking pupils; and that 57 percent of the teachers working with these students have not had any special training in working with nonEnglish-speaking children. It was found that problems causing the greatest difficulty for Spanish-speaking children are: a limited vocabulary, reading disabilities, lack of English fluency, low aspiration level (which is debatable), low interest in school, speech difficulties, and poor word-attack skills.

With this information in hand, bilingual instructional programs were put into operation in experimental classes in different areas of the state in an effort to determine the degree of success the Spanish-speaking children might have in special programs designed around the strengths and needs of these children.

It has been determined that children whose native language is Spanish and whose cultural backgrounds are different from the traditional school culture upon which the curriculum is based may be expected to experience difficulty in meeting the demands of the school world. Among the possible causes of failure are these: (1) a lack of experiences out of which concepts may grow; (2) an inadequate command of the English language-the language of the instructional program; (3) a lowered self-confidence resulting from repeated frustration and failure; and (4) an unrealistic curriculum which imposes reading and writing requirements in English before skills in listening comprehension and in speaking fluency have been mastered.

In view of these factors, which are generally descriptive of the school problems of the Spanish-speaking child from a low-income family, programs of instruction have been designed that attempt to deal with these failure-producing conditions and to assess the effectiveness of such efforts to improve the educational opportunities of Spanish-speaking children.

As the Mexican-American Education Research Project continues its evaluation of the experimental classes, all useful information will be disseminated to all interested educators and community groups.