3. Crystal City, Texas - 1969
In December 1969, Mexican American students in Crystal City (about 100 miles southwest of San Antonio) walked out of school in protest. The students’ initial complaints had revolved around their school’s quota system for cheerleaders, which reserved three of the four spots for Anglo students, despite the school and the city being overwhelmingly Latino.
However, students’ demands quickly grew to include bilingual education, more opportunities for college preparation, and the recruitment of more Latino teachers and school counselors.
As the walkouts grew to as many as 2,000 students, the school board threatened the expulsion of student activists. Three student representatives, meanwhile, were invited to visit Washington, DC, where they described their experiences to US Senators Ted Kennedy and George McGovern. In January of 1970, the students and school board reached a resolution, and many of the students’ demands were subsequently enacted.
In the account below, Diana Palacios describes her experiences in the walkouts.
Oral History Interview with Diana Palacios about the Crystal City Walkouts
Growing up, we were migrant farmworkers. We used to travel to North Dakota to work in the sugar beats, to Wisconsin to work in the cherries, to Ohio for tomatoes, to…Wisconsin for cucumbers, but my dad always made sure that even though we followed the stream that those of us who had to go to school were back in time to start school…
Back then, it was the teachers that voted for the cheerleaders… Four [cheerleaders] were on the squad. I believe [Mexican Americans] were about 85% of the student body, but out of the four, we were only allowed one…
It started from the cheerleaders, because you know, when you’re in high school, that’s very important… But it was like that one thing that really opens your eyes, and you start to think, “Hey, what about this? What about bilingual education? What about the counselors telling us we can be more, we can go to college…?”
That’s the way they saw us – no brains and no money, so you were not going to amount to anything. So, we wanted counselors that would help us to get to college, teachers that understood us. We wanted to be able to speak Spanish on the campus without being punished. We wanted a history that reflected our contributions…
We actually planned the walkout during the summer, but then to do it in the middle of the school year, which is why we walked out in December. So, we walked out and then we stayed out…
Then came the Christmas holidays, and during that time there were teachers that were on their Christmas holidays that came here from the Valley—I think some even as far as California—that came here to teach us…
Our walkout was peaceful, and it was not, like, to play hooky. It was serious business—as serious as it can be for our age. We started at the school day. We were there when the bell rang in the morning. We started out with the Pledge of Allegiance and a prayer, and then we would walk around the school, all morning until noon. We’d go eat, come back, the bell rang, we’d do the same until the end of the class day…
We had the support of our parents. Basically, that’s what it made it a success—that our parents supported us in this…
Back then, it was the high school, and the junior high was right next to it. So we started walking out at the high school, and then some of the kids wanted to walk out at the junior high because they saw what was going on. And they locked the doors, so they started going out the windows! And then by after lunch, parents were taking their kids from the elementary schools…
Our parents supported us…It was December. Sometimes it was cold. Our parents would come—I remember my mom and other moms—and they would bring us hot chocolate…because we were serious about being there and taking a stand for what we were fighting for.
SOURCE:
Diana Palacios, Oral History Interview, July 09, 2015, Crystal City, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/1737/wanting-fairness-the-walkout