“Precious Knowledge” is a documentary about the Mexican-American Studies Program offered to highschool students in Tucson, Arizona (2011). This documentary follows students enrolled in the Mexican-American Studies Program offered at Tucson Magnet High School: Crystal, Pricilla, and Gilbert; as well as the teachers of the Mexican-American Studies courses: Curtis Acosta and Jose Gonzalez. The students and teachers are interviewed throughout the documentary and explain how they are impacted by the program and their activism to keep the program is demonstrated. This film features individuals who opposed the program, such as superintendent Tom Horne and incoming superintendent John Huppenthal. They believed that ethnic studies were racist, promoted …show more content…
It's hard for me to believe that there are people who oppose ethnic studies classes. To me those opposing the Mexican-American Studies Program, such as Tom Horne and John Huppenthal, seemed to have racist or discriminatory underlying reasons to their opposition. As a first generation Mexican-American female, I can relate to the students in those courses who spoke about feeling belittled or unimportant. Classes like the ones offered in the Mexican-American Studies Program do help these students of color, including myself, feel seen and heard. Unfortunately, my high school didn't offer similar classes, so I didn't learn much about my people's history until I got to college. Also the racist nature of the bills to get rid of the Mexican American studies program was clear to me when a group of protesters burned the Mexican flag during a protest, showing extreme disrespect and prejudice which utterly shocked and angered …show more content…
I believe that this is because it exposes the cruel actions of the United States government towards Mexican Americans in the past and teaches us to be strong and fight for what we believe in. The government doesn't want us to know the power we have to make changes. This is not just happening to Mexican Americans, but to all other groups as well. The government wants to teach us only the white-washed version of history and exclude anything that isn't Eurocentric.
After the release of “Precious Knowledge” and the passing of HB 2281, Arizona State warned the Tucson Unified School District that they would lose $14 million in funding if they didn't discontinue the Mexican-American Studies Program. Due to that the program was cut in 2012. Many books were also banned after the HB 2281 bill was put into effect. Some of the books banned were:
“1. 500 Years of Chicano History in Pictures edited by Elizabeth
In the film Precious Knowledge, and Chapter One of Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldua, both the film and the book stress the importance of the Hispanic lives. While the film was based on the lives of Chicano/a students who were predicted to fail in life, the book focused on the transformation of the valley and the types of treatments the women of color received. Precious Knowledge, was about recording the life styles these high school students had as they were growing up. With their permission, a total of three students, Pricila Rodriguez, Crystal Terriquez, and Gilbert Esparza, were recorded in detail from the moment they were at home to the moment they attended the Tucson Magnet High school. What makes the students in Precious Knowledge
After reading Miguel and Valencia’s “From the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo to Hopwood,” I was shocked to find how Mexican Americans were treated in American students. I was expect poor treatment from our discussions in class as well as other readings, but after reading what the authors reported, including schools failing to address learning issues and pushing kids instead into economic mobility, I am deeply troubled I was not made aware of this sooner. Along with segregation on race basis, I would argue the struggles of Mexican American students was the greatest struggle for education equality in the 20th century, though the struggles gone through by other minorities surely should be discounted or overlooked. I found the role of religious institutions
Book Review Paper Questions A-1 In Dreaming Forward: Latino Voices Enhance the Mosaic by Martha E. Casazza, we read about different challenges and experiences many Latinos face in the education system, communities, and families. College student, Fabian, his problem in the school system was the lack of support and resources he had to face at his high school. “Going to school was like walking into a prison, where the environment is so negative people don’t respect you; people look down on you. There’s no encouragement.” Fabian describes the teachers, counselors, and administrators as unsupportive which ultimately caused him to lose interest in school.
Student Name Tutor Course Date Significance of the Chicano Movement El Plan de Aztlan and Borderlands Literary Works Literary works, such as Borderlands by Anzaldúa and the El Plan de Aztlan manifesto were pivotal in conveying the demands and hopes of the Mexican-Americans in the Chicano Movement. In essence, El Plan de Aztlan was a blueprint on how the Chicanos could establish their own nation in the southwestern part of the America to facilitate self-determination, equal rights and opportunities, and to allow them to preserve their culture. The manifesto is a comprehensive delineation of the movement’s achievements, failures, challenges, and future expectations. The Borderlands/ La Frontera is a semi-autobiographical seminal book that focuses on the Mexican-American’s life experiences, including their language and identity.
The book starts off with the two phenomenons that have marked Mexicans in their journey and includes the three hundred years of Spanish colonialism and the creation of a 2,000-mile border, which affected Mexicans identity. Mexicans have tried to establish cultural roots and engaged in a system of beliefs in order to fit into society. It took time and transformation in order to become a Mexican American or a Chicano. Acuña emphasizes, that during this transformation, becoming Chicano Studies involved forming a common identity and considering separate and distinct
Tom Horne the former superintendent believed and stated that the ethnic studies program was racist and was teaching Mexican American students to hate all white people because of their ethnic background. They then passed a law that pretty much articulated that
In high school I was able to choose an elective that had great appeal to me- Chicano Studies. This was a new course at my high school, it was providential for me that the course became available because of the large impact it had on my life. In this course we studied, the history of Mexico and its influence on current culture, past civil rights leaders, and the topic that struck me the most, current events. Our teacher, Mr. Pisano, expressed his alacrity to teach the course to the administration at our high school, and with appeal he was able to teach one section of the course.
Precious Knowledge presents the controversial issue of the integration of ethnic studies courses in schooling. Ethnic studies is the study of cultural, racial, ethnic, and gender differences in America. In this essay, I will argue Ethnic studies courses should belong in P-12 schooling, because the classes endorse ideals of America. In addition, people rely on the courses to learn critical thinking of the empowerment of identity. Although advocates for the abolishment of ethnic studies courses argue that the courses create a sense of contempt towards America through racism and are not remarkably significant, they do not fully comprehend the success from ethnic studies and that by taking away the classes, they only promote their fear of students disliking America.
In this book, author Tara J. Yosso demonstrates how institutional power and racism affect the Chicano/a educational pipeline by weaving together critical race theory and counterstories. Critical race theory is a framework used to discover the ways race as well as racism implicitly and explicitly shape social structures, practices, and discourses(Yosso, pg.4). Counterstories refer to any narrative that goes against majoritarian stories, in which only the experiences and views of those with racial and social privilege are told. The counterstory methodology humanizes the need to change our educational system and critical race theory provides a structure for Yosso to base her research. This results in a beautiful hybrid of empirical data, theory, and fascinating narratives that works to analyze how forms of subordination shape the Chicana/o pipeline, while also exposing how institutions, structures, and discourses of education maintain discrimination based on gender, race, class and their intersections.
Many stories embody the cultural aspects of Mexican-Americans and their struggles with living in a discriminatory society. Stories like With
The book Rebirth overall was a great book to read about the Chicano history. It was detailed about the rough time in Los Angeles for Mexican Immigrants. It showed me certain viewpoints that I would’ve never saw such as the discrimination against U.S citizens being labeled as illegal aliens because of their looks. From what I read most Los Angeles Mexican American settlers were deported on a small compact train that was full of people from the United States to Mexico. Simply, because of their skin color or their similar looks to Mexicans.
As the Chicanos in the community felt that, the schools district’s opinion of English as a second language was not a correct response to the educational needs of Chicana/o students (Bernal). The court held that the district’s failure to offer such programs that can provide Chicana/o students a meaningful education was against their rights under the Title VI. This court case was significant because it made education equal by setting up bilingual and bicultural programs for the
The immigrants entering the United States throughout its history have always had a profound effect on American culture. However, the identity of immigrant groups has been fundamentally challenged and shaped as they attempt to integrate into U.S. society. The influx of Mexicans into the United States has become a controversial political issue that necessitates a comprehensive understanding of their cultural themes and sense of identity. The film Mi Familia (or My Family) covers the journey and experiences of one Mexican-American (or “Chicano”) family from Mexico as they start a new life in the United States. Throughout the course of the film, the same essential conflicts and themes that epitomize Chicano identity in other works of literature
In these protests, students would stand outside of their school with picket signs protesting the racist actions within their schools, as well as calling for freedom of speech and the hiring of Mexican American teachers. These protests by students were one of the first major protests by Mexican Americans against racism and helped greatly to ignite the Chicano Movement. (Muñoz) Rodolfo Gonzales addresses the importance of these youthful students and their actions in his speech with the words “…we need actions such as the ‘blowouts,’ because the youth are not afraid of anything. Because the youth are ready to move. The whole party will be based on the actions of the youth, and the support of the old.”
Segregation of Mexican Americans from the dominant Anglo race has been around for many years. Since the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo Mexican Americans have been treated like a second-class race facing racism and segregation. As a result, segregation in the education system affected Mexican American children. An increasing number of Mexican Americans across California led to an increase of Mexican children enrolling in schools. Author David James Gonzales (2017), explores the degrading school facilities Mexican students were assigned to.