LA Thirteen



Why:

     The Chicano Movement occurred in East Los Angeles in 1968. More than 1,000 students walked out of their school.4 The Movement happened because Mexican American students were not being treated equally. The movement helped address negative stereotypes in mass media as well as the American conscious. It also discontinued discrimination in public and private institutions throughout America. The Chicano movement helped the Mexican-Americans receive rights by enhancing education for themselves and getting political rights too. Not only this, but it restored land grants to farm workers' rights.1

 

     The Chicano students in East Los Angeles protested against the academic prejudice and dire school conditions that they had to go through. The school taught so that Mexican- American history was denied or ignored so that the Mexican-American students would know nothing about their culture or the history of it. The students were forbidden from speaking Spanish in class or from using the restrooms during their lunchtime. So these students decided to make a change. When this was happening some 20,000 teenagers took to the streets to walk and took stand.2

 

When:

 

On June 2nd in Los Angeles, the Grand Jury returned secret indictments on 15 people, and only 13 were arrested. They were then known as the La Thirteen. This group was punished for creating riots, and causing disfunction with the peace of the public.

 

Who:

 1. Sal Castro: Lincoln High School teacher. On Friday, June 6, police took him into custody as he was preparing to chaperone Loncoln High's prom.5

2. David Sanchez: Sanchez also was going to the prom when arrested. He fled the police in his car, but was taken in to custody at home.

3. Carlos Montes: A Brown Beret leader was on the Poor People's March to Washington, DC. Was arrested when he got home.

4. Ralph Ramirez: Also a Brown Beret and Minister of Defense

5. Fred Lopez: A Brown Beret

6. Carlos Munoz: UMAS Activist

7. Henry Gomez: UMAS Activist

8. Montezuma Esparza: UMAS Activist from UCLA

9. Eleazr Risco: Publisher of La Raza

10. Joe Razo: Publisher of La Raza

11. Patricio Sanchez: MAPA Member

12. Gilberto Olmeda: Community Organizer

13. Richard Vigil: Community Organizer

 

The Aftermath: 

On Saturday, June 12, 300 picketers were protesting the La Thirteen's arrest in front of the LAPD (Los Angeles Police Department).

On Monday, June 13, two thousand demonstrated in front of the city jail, as well as marching to La Placitas, the center of Los Angeles. There, speeches took place condemning the police. Because Castro was imprisoned, he informed his boss he was unable to teach that Monday. His boss told him to call the school's district personal, and he was fired. The school board refused to counter the decision.3

 

   

 

 

Reflections:

Katelynn's-

     After reading and researching about the LA Thirteen, it has shown me the reality of discrimination towards Mexican-Americans. In the novel, Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, they repeatedly said, “Because I’m from Hollywood...” It was showing the discrimination against the students and how they were treated entirely different. Because of where they were from, it determined where they were going. After researching, I discovered students really were segregated. Teachers would not allow the students to speak Spanish, or even use the restrooms during lunch in Los Angeles. That is ridiculous to me. Researching this topic made me angry. What makes one race think they are better than another? Although this made me angry, I found hope in the predicament. Teachers and other people were standing up for the underdogs. It was no easy task, either. One man lost his job, because he was imprisoned for starting a riot. He called his boss and told him he was not present at work because he was in jail, and he was fired. It is ridiculous. My world view has changed significantly after reading this. It has shown me that people are cruel. The lengths people will go to just to make another race feel inferior is sad. I hope that this will not continue, and I can see the reason Benjamin Alire Saenz wrote the novel Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood. He was not only sharing a story, but raising awareness of the discrimination that happened every day, and still continues.

 

Destiny's- 

     After researching about the L.A. thirteen it changed on how I saw and thought of this racism. It just made me think more and more about the discrimination throughout the novel Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood. Throughout this book there was a lot of discrimination and racism. It showed how the Mexican -Americans were getting treated differently, and it also showed this when my group and I were researching about the L.A. thirteen. In both the book and our research it showed how they were treated differently, especially saying where they came from determined where they were going in life. The way I looked at racism against Mexican-Americans has changed because I knew that it was bad but once I actually read about it, it made me think twice and realize how bad it was. I think that how they got treated was horrible, throughout this book and even in our research. I think that this racism and discrimination showed to the Mexican-Americans throughout this novel and in the research was sad and wrong. Although, I did enjoy how the people in the research stood up for themselves and how they got treated. We should’ve all been treated equally because we are all people, no matter what color we are on the outside. Even now we should all be treated equally and I think that there should be no racism or discrimination no matter what anyone looks like. Researching about the L.A. thirteen and reading the book Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood made me understand and think more about the racism and discrimination that some people went through. 

 

Alyssa's-

     While reading the book Sammy & Juliana In Hollywood, it made me realize exactly how mean and cruel people were to the Mexican-American race. It was sad to see all the things they had to go through, like not being able to speak their first language in their own school. As people discriminated against the Mexican-Americans, the Mexican-Americans started to think as themselves as being lower than everyone else like saying "were just from Hollywood". When someone would here that they were from Hollywood, people would assume that their not going to do anything with their life. I don't think it was right for them to think that one race is better than another, who were they to decide that? When researching about Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood and the L.A. Thirteen it showed me that not only were the students getting in trouble, but the teachers who were defending the students were also getting into the bad situations. When the students decided to riot and fight for what they believed in, I felt like that was a step in the right direction because it showed the others that the Mexican Americans were tired of how everyone was treating them. I think this novel changed how I view things by a lot, because I felt like I could connect with the things that are happening now. Even though things aren’t as bad as they were in the 1960's I still think there is discrimination against Mexican-Americans. 

      

 

 

 

 

Sources:

1"Chicano Movement." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Web. 19 May 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicano_Movement.

2 Kamat, Anjali. "Walkout: The True Story of the Historic 1968 Chicano Student Walkout in East L.A." A Daily TV/radio News Program, Hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Airing on over 900 Stations, Pioneering the Largest Community Media Collaboration in the United States. Web. 17 May 2011. <http://www.democracynow.org/2006/3/29/walkout_the_true_story_of_the>.

3Rosales, Francisco A. Chicano!: the History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement. Houston, TX: Arte Público, 1996. 191-93. Print. 

4Casta, Oscar Rosales. "Chicano Movement Timeline." UW Departments Web Server. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 May 2011. </mecha_timeline.htmhttp://depts.washington.edu/civilr

5form, submitting this, and you accept the Mollom privacy policy. " Movie About East LA Walkouts and Brown Berets Begins Filming | Fight Back! ." Fight Back! | News and Views from the People's Struggle. N.p., n.d. Web. 24 May 2011. <http://www.fightbacknews.org/

 

 

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