American citizens suffered from discrimation due to their background. The Chicano Movement began in the 1960s when they generation was tired of being discriminated and decided it was time to fight for their rights. During the movement, there were goals that people wanted to do. For example, demand their rights to fair treatment and equal access to education, and as well the right to claim an ethinc community without prejudice. Even until this day, Mexican Americans are still getting targeted of discrinamtion and not offer enough opportunities such as jobs and education.
The Chicano Movement also known as “El Movimiento” was one of the achievements being made to empower the Mexican Americans. Many were and still are discriminated by their own identity and thought it was time to be heard. Everyone wanted to be able to share their own culture with everyone else around them. When Cesar Chavez founded the United Farm Workers Organizing Committee, the main strategy was for the farm workers to focus on boycotting, organizing strikes without any violence being involved. Martin Luther King had privately supported Chavez and Huerta with the organization. It was also a way to be able to create educational goals to improve bilingual/bicultural programs. To this day, bilingual classes still exist and I don't find anything wrong with being bilingual. Being bilingual is a way to express ourselves and being able to teach others about different cultures. In our society being able to speak two or more languages is big because it opens better job opportunities and it also helps other race to communicate better. In today’s education in almost every school, professors are teachers have to teach about the history of the past. Back in the 1960s, many students were not able to get the same education as we are able to get today.
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Many students decided to walkout of school which started to form a lot of rallies, speeches, and marches in March of 1968. Students and other adults marched in front of the Los Angeles Board of Education to support and to make share their request were heard. A year later in April, people gathered around the University of California, for a conference in which students and professors were ready to ask for a higher educational plan. Therefore, “El Plan de Santa Barbara” was written as a cultural and political message that would be used in the future for Chicano Studies. After students fought for it really hard it became approved and became known as the MEChAs which does exist in most of our colleges and also in some of the high schools. “The struggle these friends are facing now is not unlike the struggle many of us faced in the past”. This quote caught my attention right away because sure there is struggles in our daily lives, but some have it way easier than some of us. The only thing I do see that is still the same is how people come to the United States to attend school but are not eligible. Back then, they had to fight for their own education and as well for their own rights to be able to attend the same school as others. From today, it is not hard to get into schools with other race without being discriminated. Some really went their way out to get a better educational and fight for the rights of the future generation. Honestly that is something we don't appreciate because without them fighting, we would be struggling as well.
Mexican Americans fought to have the rights to be treated equal as any other human being which lead into the story of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. Everyone experiences some sort of disrcination by not being respected by others and it can hurt. As Rosa Parks was arrested for sitting down in a public bus and not giving a white man her seat due to her skin color made a big impact. There was a lot of saying how skin color were not able to eat a specific diner, or go inside a store because they would be a sign outside that would state “no skin color allow”. Rosa Parks quotes “ I was not tired physically.. No the only tired I was, was tired of giving in”. There are times in which people are tired of giving in the right to satisfy others like impressing them instead of impressing ourselves. The discrination has gone to a far point in which some don't seem to take it seriously and it can turn into a bad thing, sometimes i think that's why society is how it is. As for Dr. King, he had reached the Chicanos to help them as he came up with the speech “I Have A Dream”. The speech represents his dreams and hopes for Black Africans and Mexican Americans who have been struggling for their equal rights. Even though the Independence had promised equal rights and freedom, it was not being used correctly. As of today, I still think it is not used correctly because Mexican Americans are still being chased down. Even though this country is suppose to be known for “freedom” it really isn't. Everyone hopes for a better day and for better news as for his hopes for one day were that injustice and inequality would be broken.
The purpose of the Chicano Movement was for students and people to have the same equal rights as everyone else without being discriminated. The Movement affect us today as a way of seeing and understanding different ethnicities. Without it happening, half of the Meixcan Americans and any other race would not have been able to understand the value of their own freedom without some history. I believe we have this type of freedom because of the past and people knew it would affect the future generations education and their rights. For the reason of the Chicano Movement, Universities and Colleges have become a higher level education in the society.