In The Film: A Class Apart, A Struggle For Educational Equality, And African American

710 Words2 Pages

After having viewed a few films in Chicano History class like A Class Apart, A Struggle for Educational Equality, and Latin and African Americans: Friends or foes, one cannot help but wonder how it is possible that you might be learning about the intense racism towards Latinos the United States for the very first time after having devoted your life to the American country. I, myself was born and raised in Arizona, a state south of the United States, in the city of Tucson that lies about only an hour away, or around 68 miles away from the Nogales, Sonora, Mexican border. One would assume to know a sufficient amount of history of the neighbor land or at least be aware of some fundamental facts about America and Mexico 's relationship throughout Texas. That has to do with Pedro Fernandez murdering his employer after a heated argument in a cantina. Realizing that this was not simply a murder case, but a case in which Mexican discrimination could be noticed, Gus Garcia and a team of Mexican-American lawyers took the case all the way to the Supreme Court where they challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican Americans. On May 3, 1954, the Supreme Court announced its ruling in the case; Pedro would receive a new trial and would be judged by a true jury of his peers since Mexican Americans were protected under the 14th Amendment. Hernandez V. Texas marked a date of a change in the United States of America when the Supreme Court Recognized the Mexican American class truly as a class Board of Education of Topeka took place. America 's public schools promised a postwar generation of students, many of whom would graduate and continue on to higher education. schools were segregated though because of the "separate but equal" law. In the film, Latin and African-Americans: Friends or foes, the struggle between Latin and African Americans relationship because of American discrimination is analyzed and one can conclude that the competition between the two, to not be the race that was at the bottom could intensify. Not only were there political conflicts that caused for divided communities there were also issues in education, one common issue involving bilingual education. Education plays a big role in these two films, not only were schools segregated and did colored people have the worst facilities and were treated poorly, but there were conflicts even amongst themselves (Latinos and African Americans). It was not fair to treat these races the same when they were indeed different from each

Open Document