"The real fight is with a book under your arm." As a teacher, [Castro] encouraged his students to think critically, to be proud of themselves and, most important, to believe in themselves. Working with the kids, I started thinking: Man, this is cool. If I had to do it again, I do it with 10 or 15 and absolute faith. He was 79. Close. Obama has the California Latino vote in the bag; the Chavez dedication is a national play. Early 1968 was a time of deep civil unrest in the U.S., rife with antiwar and civil rights protests. I was there three months when I started figuring out, There aint no Chicano kids in the student council. Around 67 percent of the students were Chicanos, and there were no kids on the student council of Latino descent. Quotes . Select this result to view Sal Jason Castro's phone number, address, and more. The more I saw, the more I got into it, and the more I saw how really terrible the situation was. In East L.A., this generation was fortunate to have a role model like Sal Castro, wrote Mario T. Garca, a professor of Chicano/a Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, in Blowout, a 2011 memoir co-authored by Castro. Go back to your schools, go and talk to the kids about college because youre giants in the little kids eyes. . Also in 2006, Castro was highly critical of radio DJs who encouraged students to walk out of classes in protest of United States House of Representatives resolution 4437, which, if passed by the United States Senate, will impose stiffer penalties on unauthorized immigrants and their employers. She and others were inspired by his story and planned to have another walkout in 1978, but they were met by school administrators and police officers and retreated to class. They picked the name: the TMs. Thousands of Mexican American students participated in the 'Blowout,' the first urban, youth-led protest of the burgeoning Chicano civil rights crusade. He waved another letter he had written, taking Obama to task for an education speech arguing that children need a parent at home to turn off the TV and help with the homework. I began school at 5 years of age at Belvedere Elementary School in Los Angeles. [All] Power! Theyre born again, born again Latinos. The students prepared a list of demands to present to the school board. And he sees in them the potential to push for the many necessary changes people used to call a "revolution. By Teresa Watanabe. The student population of Sal Castro Middle is 323 and the school serves 6-8. Montes said undercover police photographed the events at both schools, and that he was temporarily detained when he and a friend went to deliver flyers to another school. Show more. Before they settled into their seats one said, "Ive been waiting 10 years to see him.". But in 1968 people encouraged you to tell students not to walk out and you didnt listen. "Now they're putting up a monument in his honor.". Sunday morning, theres a mass and then testimony of what theyve gotten out of the conference. The STANDS4 Network. Naming a school for Castro is a necessary jolt to our collective memory. NEW Book Launch - Order your FREE copy today! Fidel Castro. "Sal Castro held a mirror up to our district that showed the need for a youths' rights agenda more than 45 years ago," district Superintendent John Deasy said in a statement. Some at the funeral wore shirts or jackets representing the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference, a nonprofit organization Castro founded in 1963 that trained future leaders at annual workshops held until it lost its funding in 2009. All Rights Reserved. In the 2006 HBO film Walkout, Castro's role was played by Michael Pea. 500 matching entries found. Returning to East L.A. while still in grade school, he experienced discrimination for speaking Spanish in the classroom. The demands were real revolutionary ideas like smaller classes and more counselors. To them, a government is there for protecting their individual liberty and nothing else. I was able to learn to read, and everything around me looked like family. It was affordable. Politicians like L.A. MayorAntonio Villaraigosa, who attended Castro's Latino youth leadership program. Satisfy the deep subconscious needs of your customers . What they were going through [at home], but also their own lives in school. Castro continued to lecture student groups across the country and helps run leadership conferences for high school students. : Sal Castro and the Chicano Struggle for Educational Justice at Amazon.com. The next day, another walkout was staged in protest of a school policy prohibiting male students from wearing their hair long. That was the original intent because I was worried that kids crossing gang territories might be a problem if they walked out. Sal Castro Realtor BRE 01839759. Not only do the professors talk about intellectual things, but there is also a lot of cultural and historical awareness. Homes with this school assigned. And yet today, the district is still grappling with the challenge of educating students from Spanish-speaking families. "For Latinos in Los Angeles," SupervisorGloria Molinasaid in a statement Monday, "Sal Castro was as influential and inspirational as United Farm Workers co-founder Cesar Chavez was nationally an example of the power of organizing who personified the possibility of overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds.". The result of the network was the holding of Chicano Youth Leadership Conferences (CYLC), training grounds for student activists, the first of which was held in 1963. SalCastrohomes@hotmail.com. At the conference, kids were complaining about the same things all over. And that makes Castro, who retired from teaching in 2003, very angry. The original plan was for students at four Eastside schools to walk out on March 6, but an unscheduled walkout took place at Wilson High School on March 1. Castro had thyroid cancer and died Monday at his home, his . Many walkout participants and youth organizers later took part in the Chicano Moratorium of August 29, 1970, an anti-Vietnam War march that became the largest protest in Los Angeles history to that date. So, Im sitting there at the Los Angeles Theatre. During a four-decade career as a history teacher with the Los Angeles Unified School District, Castro mentored thousands of high school students. Castro: In 63, when I was still at Belmont High School, there was an article in the paper about the LA County Human Relations Commission planning a three-day conference for Mexican American high school kids. But the main thing was that these kids had to graduate and go on to college. He joined the Mexican-American Education Committee, a group of graduate students who made recommendations to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on ways to improve services to Mexican-American students. When I was 23, the height of the Depression hit; my old man got deported. A revolution is a struggle between the future and the past.', 'The ever more sophisticated weapons piling up in the arsenals of the wealthiest and the mightiest can kill the illiterate, the ill, the poor and the hungry, but they cannot kill ignorance, illness, poverty or hunger.', and 'There is often talk of human rights, but it . Arman Mahmoodi DRE # 01945581, Keller Williams Beverly Hills. It's not as if Sal Castro has no political juice. As Castro helped students make demands of the school board, underground newspapers floated the idea of a boycott of East L.A. schools. READ MORE: Latino, Hispanic, Latinx, Chicano: The History Behind the Terms. Enjoy reading and share 5 famous quotes about Sal Castro with everyone. Top 3 Results for Sal Castro. How did this fit in with your involvement with the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference? Sal Castro, a lifelong educator and a leader in the 1968 "blowouts" that occurred in Eastside Los Angeles schools, died of cancer on April 15, 2013 at 79 years of age. Castro lost his job at Lincoln but was reinstated after protesters held sit-ins at school board meetings. Sal Castro also made a significant contribution to the cause of education rights in establishing the Chicano Youth Leadership Conference. Which students participate in the conference? Fidel Castro. They made all the kids go back, and then they started drilling the kids. From that job with LA Rec. $1,300,000. Collection Edit Buy. Sal Castro Civil Rights Movement Quotes & Sayings Showing search results for "Sal Castro Civil Rights Movement" sorted by relevance. No, he says. So most of the things were really not out of this world. Famous Civil Rights Leader Sal Castro was born on October 25, 1933 in California. Hours earlier, the "usually glib and gregarious" teacher and activist, as he describes himself, had been released from St. Vincent Medical Center with a serious illness that made it difficult for him to speak. Then the kids would give them the demands and say: You either do it or well clean out the schools. Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Blowout! My students and I were enthralled with the power of his voice, the humanity that he projected . "This is about civil rights," Castro wrote on his board. That year, he also earned a credential to teach secondary school and taught junior high in Pasadena before landing a position at Belmont High. Thats the attitude today. These kids are crazy. You know what happens to the U.S.-born kid, he puts the onus on himself, rather than the teacher. "Maybe they're trying to send me a message. The president doesn't have to come to the dedication himself, but Castro is adamant that it be someone of national stature. Ochoa: So you told them to stay in school. "Very few of us have the opportunity to make history that affects other's lives," said Mario T. Garcia, who collaborated with Castro on "Blowout!" Broad public recognition of his contributions to the struggle for education equality came decades after the protests, when his story was told in films, including "Walkout," the 2006 HBO movie directed by Edward James Olmos. October 2, 1968 Most of them are 11th graders, and some are 12th graders. People protested the jailing of the so-called East L.A. 13, and they were released on bail on June 2. At the height of the civil rights movement, Castro, then a young teacher at Lincoln High, walked out with his students to protest schools that set up Mexican Americans to fail. Love Sweet Sister Revolution Dictators Travel Adventure God Humor Happiness Success Age Ideas Politics United States Government Jesus Humanity Funny. Close. Today, theyre the hottest act in Latin music, Undocumented immigrant youth want a Clean Dream Act now, LATINO EDUCATORS FOR FREE TRADE AND EDUCATION, Green Card Seekers Kids Get Protections in New Biden Policy, 77 Detained Immigrants Launch Hunger Strike at Two Central Valley Facilities, Dreamers want answers as future of immigrants remains unclear, Texas 'Dreamer' reunites with family in the US after 6 months stranded in Mexico, El Magonista | Vol. There he attended a private elementary school in Mazatln, Sinaloa. More than any other year, it shaped the political and social values that guide my work today as a journalist, and it all started with the East Los Angeles walk-outs. We kept in contact with the kids from Wilson, Roosevelt, and a few other schools. The changes will come by you getting a BA, an MA, a PhD. ALL EXPECTED TO MAKE A FULL RECOVERY. I always did the reverse. Starting in 1963, the aim was to train a new generation of . Throughout his career, Sal Castro inspired countless students to succeed in college and serve their community. To him, they jump-started the whole Chicano rights movement. The board held a meeting to discuss the demands on March 28 but concluded it didnt have the funds to implement any changes. In history, you talk about the American Revolution, and you throw in Mexican or Spanish surnames: Bernardo Glvez, the 9,000 Mexican troops that came up here, the money that Mexico donated to Washington for the revolution, the missions that were collecting money for the revolution. After he retired from teaching, he continued to lecture about his experiences and the importance of education, especially for Mexican Americans. Sal Castro was a distinguished teacher, mentor, advocate, and community organizer, remembered for his role in the 1968 East Los Angeles Blowouts - a series of historic protests led by Mexican American high school and college students to demand an equitable education. Castro refused to have his name on the plaque. 100 records for Sal Castro. Word of the action spread quickly, and soon Latino students were leaving classrooms across the district, joined by Castro and others outside the schools, including college students and members of the militant Brown Beret. Sal Castro Middle is a public school located in Los Angeles, CA, which is in a large city setting. "Sal was a teacher, but he taught more than United States history and government," Lerchenmuller said. Get a free quote now LOS ANGELES Sal Castro, a social studies teacher who played a leading role in 1960s Chicano student walkouts, has died at age 79. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. I thought that she was the dumb one. Kids were trying to survivethere was a fight between the girls about dying their hair blonde so they could fit in or pass. The walkouts, or "blowouts" as they came to be known, soon spread throughout the city. When Castro's student Robin Avelar-LaSalle was assigned the subject for a project nearly a decade later, she thought the "walkout" was a dance and didn't know that her instructor was a key figure. Chicano and Chicana studies, Latinx studies They became professors, they became activists in their own communities.. Castro is keenly aware that the school district still struggles to educate kids from Spanish-speaking families. The charges were dropped in 1972. Then I started being challenged, and I had to learn the language fast. He still believes many L.A. schools are failing working families. His was played by Michael Pena in the 2006 HBO film The Walkouts, which was directed by Edward James Olmos. "I don't think merit pay for teachers and charter schools will help very much. We lead the nation in high school dropouts. The late Sal Castro, a renowned teacher, education reformer and social justice activist, was awarded a posthumous honorary doctorate during Commencement 2022 at Cal State LA. I constantly tour, even when I don't have a record out. But then, the next year, I went to Mazatln, Mexico, in the summer, and I contracted the German measles. "Here's the protest: any kid with a book," he said, gesturing at the youthful crowd attending a 2008 symposium on Chicano activism at Cal State San Bernardino. @FOXLA. "It is extremely humbling for me and East L.A. kids to be put on the same list with giants of our country, including Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington, Grant, Roosevelt, and Garfield; also, Kennedy, Mendez and Ochoa. Ochoa: In addition to the youth conference, what other organizing happened in preparation for the walkouts? "He made education relevant for us and made school worth going to," said Richard Verches, an international human rights lawyer and lecturer atUCLA. The minute the kids walked out, the weight went away, and I became cocky. Carlos Montes was a student at East Los Angeles College in 1968 and a member of the Brown Berets, an activist Chicano group that helped execute the walkouts. That same school year we were honored to be named after Salvador Castro, a Mexican-American Civil Rights activist that fought and pressed for education reform for Chicano students. AUTHOR. Sal Castro sat in his book-lined den, reduced to writing on a whiteboard to fight what could be his last political battle. Ochoa: How do you see the struggles we have faced since the walkouts? Sal Castro Quotes & Sayings . By Tuesday, March 5 . After the walkouts, Castro was arrested and held for five days. 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