And that makes Castro, who retired from teaching in 2003, very angry. Students at five high schools — Belmont, Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt and Garfield — abandoned their campuses in a dramatic bid to remedy overcrowded and run-down schools, soaring dropout rates, poorly trained teachers, and counselors who steered Latino students into auto shop instead of college-prep classes.The conditions were so poor, he told The Times 20 years later, it was “like American education forgot the Latino kid.”The protests, which lasted several days and spread to 15 schools, resulted in the arrests of 13 people on conspiracy charges. he wrote.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.
He has never heard from the president.It's not as if Sal Castro has no political juice. "This is about civil rights," Castro wrote on his board. He was happy with the choice of Pena. It was also a sad day for me due to the death of Sal… It's alive, right there in the eyes of those kids." Obama has the California Latino vote in the bag; the Chavez dedication is a national play. "More college counselors were hired at Eastside schools and the number of Mexican American students soared at UCLA and other campuses. Los Angeles, CA—Then a teacher at Lincoln High School, Sal Castro played a leading role in historic Chicano protests. Obama has the California Latino vote in the bag; the Chavez dedication is a national play. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Sal Castro was a teacher at Lincoln High when he helped instigate 'blowouts' that became a seminal event in the Chicano movement.Castro died at his home in the Silver Lake district, seven months after he was found to have stage 4 thyroid cancer, said his wife, Charlotte Lerchenmuller.In March 1968, Castro was a social studies teacher at Lincoln High School near downtown when he helped instigate the protests that became a seminal event in the development of the Chicano movement. But eventually, he landed back in the classroom at Belmont High, where he continued to press for student rights until his retirement in 2004.Castro is keenly aware that the school district still struggles to educate kids from Spanish-speaking families. https://heavy.com/news/2018/02/sal-castro-los-angeles-middle-school-shooting On Monday, Obama's two-day swing through Southern California took him to Keene in Kern County, where he dedicated the Cesar E. Chavez National Monument, the first such site to honor a contemporary Mexican American. He's happy he's being honored but also feels the labor leader's monolithic stature has overshadowed the struggles of city Latinos who derived no benefit from the farmworker fight. Latinos continue to lead the nation in high school drop-out rates and teen pregnancies, and bright students are tracked away from college prep courses.He showed me a letter he wrote Obama in 2009 protesting the lack of progress and questioning the administration's educational reforms"I don't think merit pay for teachers and charter schools will help very much. he wrote.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. "We had rights to be educated. He was 15 minutes late, but that didn't seem to matter to the crowd who gave him an ovation as he walked to the front of the room.
He soon began pressing for change.
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.Among the participants were some future politicians and activists, including Los Angeles Mayor Castro was jailed for five days after the walkouts and lost his job, but he was rehired after weeks of protests by Eastside parents. 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.Among the participants were some future politicians and activists, including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who walked out from Cathedral High, and filmmaker Moctesuma Esparza, who was indicted for his leadership role in the walkouts and decades later was executive producer of the HBO film on the protests.Castro was jailed for five days after the walkouts and lost his job, but he was rehired after weeks of protests by Eastside parents. The walkouts, or "blowouts" as they came to be known, soon spread throughout the city.The movement reached predominantly black campuses too, but is remembered today as a seminal event in Chicano activism. "Once, Castro's message seemed radical, that the public schools were set up for Mexican Americans and other minority students to fail.
The term Chicano has lost ground to the more sweeping Latino. "I know you didn't mention our community by name but whites thought they knew who you were talking about.