Former Edcouch-Elsa students recall the tumultous year

By STETT HOLBROOK

and LUPE CHAVEZ

First of a two-part story.

EDCOUCH _ The year 1968 went off like a bomb. Social and political shockwaves

reverberated across the United States and as far south as the Rio Grande

Valley.

Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated in 1968. The

Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive, fueling growing opposition to the

Vietnam war. Protesters and violence disrupted the Democratic National

Convention in Chicago. And 140 students at Edcouch-Elsa High School walked out

of class in defiance of what they said was a system of racial discrimination.

This was one small step those students took in stepping out of the

classroom, said Edcouch-Elsa Superintendent Mary Alice Reyes, drawing a

parallel to Neil Armstrongs historic 1969 trot on the moon. And it resounded

throughout the Valley.

The walkout was one of the first expressions of Hispanic disenfranchisement in

the Valley, altering the social and economic landscape in the Delta area for

years to come.

A little more than 30 years later, high school students and the community

gathered Saturday in a reunion of sorts, to listen to walkout participants

tell their story. The event was part history lesson, part celebration. The

conference was organized by the schools Llano Grande Research Project, a

grant-funded program aimed at gathering and preserving local history.

But what are the lessons of the walkout? What brought it about? Just as the

lines were drawn 30 years ago, so too are people divided on the subject today.

Still, few would disagree it was a watershed event in Valley history.

It wasnt that we wanted to overthrow the school, said walkout participant

Freddy Saenz. We just wanted equal opportunity for all ... 95 percent of the

school was Mexican, but the other 5 percent controlled everything.

For many of us sitting in positions like this, the walkout of Edcouch-Elsa in

1968 is the most significant event here in the Valley, Reyes said. It

opened up doors. We could administer our schools. We could also serve on the

school board and make decisions for our community.

The walkout resonated with Caitlin Wittig, a theater teacher at McAllens

Options High School, and her students wrote a grassroots play this year about

the Valleys twist on civil disobedience.

The topic is relevant to the students. It was students that acted as a

catalyst to change, Wittig said. Students organized themselves in a

nonviolent way to cause change.

Options High School students Lisa Cano and Steve Marshall were interested to

learn the Valley had a history with a revolutionary beat.

I learned that if you want to change something, you have to fight for it,

Cano said. Things havent changed completely. In the long run, it will end up

changing.

Marshall said the play teaches that there were issues raised in the Valley 30

years ago.

A lot of people (involved in the walkout) are growing old. We need to get it

out in the open and inform everyone about it, he said. It was weird to

study these people doing this. They are like our heroes. Its a great

feeling.

Huelga! Walkout!

Like much of the turmoil of the late 1960s, from riots in many major U.S.

cities to sit-ins at renowned universities, the Edcouch-Elsa walkouts slowly

bubbled to the surface.

There was no equality between American and Mexican students, Timotea Tamez

said. In those times, on the school board, there were no Mexican-Americans

working for the good of our children.

It hurt because we would see it (racism) when we would go to the piscas

(field labor), Tamez said. Te duele mucho en el alma cuando te hacen menos.

Todos somos humanos. (Your heart aches when you are belittled. We are all

human.)

The walkout sprouted from unsuccessful attempts to reach an accord with the

school administration over a list of grievances. Students rallied around cries

to end blatant discrimination against Mexican-American students, in a

detailed proposal of 15 demands. Grievances were presented to the school

board.

Among the demands, students requested that they be allowed to speak their

mother tongue without being subjected to physical punishment.

They wanted to speak to counselors about college.

They wanted the school curriculum to reflect the contributions of

Mexican-Americans.

They wanted classroom fans for everyone, not just teachers and Anglo students.

Most of the complaints were little things, Saenz said, but they added up to

challenges against their dignity and cultural identity. Anglo students would

cut in front of Hispanic students in the lunch line, he said. Hispanics

students were swatted on the hands with a ruler if they were caught speaking

Spanish. Girls got hit with the flat part of the ruler, boys, with the edge.

Saenz, who was 16 at the time, said school counselors offered little for

Hispanic students.

Ill never forget my counselor, said Saenz, who is now a legal assistant

with a Dallas-based law firm. She told me Id be good with a rifle.

Superintendent Reyes, Tamezs daughter, remembers the limited opportunities

available to Hispanics.

My counselor advised me to go to secretarial school and that I couldnt make

it at the university, Reyes recalled. I remember being devastated by that,

because my parents had always said we could do anything. I picked cotton in

the fields! Nothing could be harder than that.

Reyes is pursuing her doctorate now. A calendar marks the year 2001 and her

goal.

I have it on the board in front of me, she said. Whenever I get

overwhelmed with my work, I look at it.

It could be argued that it was only a matter of time before a spark ignited

students into action, but in many ways, the walkout began with Lali Moheno.

Moheno, a 1965 Edcouch-Elsa graduate, also remembers the lack of encouragement

and support from the school. Today, she runs a consulting firm in California

and is active in progressive politics. When she was young, she worked as a

migrant field laborer in Michigan. In 1967, she was recruited to work in the

states migrant education program. That experience introduced her to Quakers,

Peace Corps workers and other people fighting for social justice. She became

politicized. Back home, she became involved with the Mexican-American Youth

Organization (MAYO), colonia advocacy groups and social justice organizations.

She was out of high school in 1968, but when her brother, Freddy Saenz, told

her of the problems at the school, she sprang to action.

I said, All right, theyre not going to get away with it this time. He was

my baby brother.

So, she tapped into her network of political contacts and helped them organize

the students.

Remembering about her participation in a student walkout still floods Norma

Tamez Hinojosa with emotions after all of these years. Read about the account

in Mondays installment.