{"id":15979,"date":"2014-01-13T08:00:20","date_gmt":"2014-01-13T16:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amigos805.com\/?p=15979"},"modified":"2014-01-13T09:18:15","modified_gmt":"2014-01-13T17:18:15","slug":"guest-commentary-el-baruyo-context-in-understanding-historys-unforgettable-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amigos805.com\/guest-commentary-el-baruyo-context-in-understanding-historys-unforgettable-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest commentary: El Baruyo. Context in understanding history’s unforgettable characters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Courtesy of Google Images.<\/p><\/div>\n

Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0<\/strong>Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805.<\/em><\/p>\n

By\u00a0Rodolfo F. Acu\u00f1a<\/strong>\u00a0\/\u00a0Guest contributor<\/em><\/p>\n

Context is everything in understanding what happened in the past.<\/p>\n

<\/strong>\u201cHistorical context<\/a>\u00a0refers to the moods, attitudes, and conditions that existed in a certain time. Context is the \u2018setting\u2019 for an event that occurs, and it will have an impact on the relevance of the event. Context is an important factor to consider when describing something in history.\u201d<\/p>\n

It is difficult to understand the sixties without the proper context even if you lived through them. Much of what is being written today overly relies on oral histories or war stories as they are called.<\/p>\n

While I take pride in having lived through the sixties, I realize that living through the decade does not guarantee that you know what happened. The closest that I can get is to develop a feeling for the decade. Even newspapers and documentaries are often as opinionated as oral interviews.<\/p>\n

The sixties were an awakening for me. They were an escape from the fifties that were stifled by the army, marrying young and hustling a degree, as well as working 40 to 60 hours a week and carrying 16\/18 units. The sixties\u2019\u00a0baruyo<\/em>\u00a0(the commotion, the disorder and the chaos) seduced me. I was the last one leaving a meeting because I thought I was going to miss something.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles<\/a>\u00a0in 1950 was the whitest major American city (78 percent white). The 1960 Census counted 3,464,999 Spanish-surnamed persons (an undercount<\/a>) in the Southwest.\u00a0\u00a0Texas and California housed 82 percent of them. During the 1960s, Los Angeles County\u2019s Mexican population doubled from 576,716 to 1,228,593\u2014an increase of 113 percent. The white population decreased from 4,877,150 to 4,777,909\u2014a 2 percent drop.<\/p>\n

During the sixties,\u00a0Los Angeles became a Mexican City<\/a>, not just because it had more Mexicans outside of Mexico City and Guadalajara, but because it was a media center.<\/p>\n

At the center of the\u00a0baruyo\u00a0<\/em>was the\u00a0Los Angeles Times<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that ruled Los Angeles. By 1959, the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u2019 ruling elite realizing that LA was changing hired\u00a0Ruben Salazar<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>an El Paso reporter, as a foreign correspondent and columnist.<\/p>\n

It is safe to say that the\u00a0baruyo<\/em>\u00a0seduced Salazar who became more engaged. Being a columnist for the\u00a0Times<\/em>\u00a0put Salazar in the eye of the storm. At the time the rap was that if you wanted to read the funnies (comics) or the sports page buy the\u00a0Los Angeles Herald-Examiner<\/em><\/a>; if you wanted serious news read the\u00a0Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Salazar had an immediate impact on Mexican Americans. Most the Chicana\/o activists anticipated Salazar\u2019s articles, and we would discuss them. Mexicans in print then were as rare as people of color in the reader\u00a0Dick and Jane<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

When I read about the sixties, I am dismayed that no one has really put Salazar\u2019s articles into a historical context. His 1963 and 1964 articles are keys to understanding Mexican American identity.<\/p>\n

By 1963\u00a0Salazar hit his stride<\/a>, reviewing the disparate labels describing Mexican Americans: la raza, pocho, Mexican-American, cholo, American born-Mexican, Spanish-American, and Latin American. Salazar covered the rare Mexican American conferences and the school dropout problem.<\/p>\n

Salazar opened an article with a photo of \u201cHoyo Mara<\/a><\/em>\u201d (Maravilla or Marvelous hole). He explored problems that plagued Mexican Americans that many thought they had left behind, interviewing gang members and exposing the tuberculosis epidemic that was a serious threat in Mexican American barrio.<\/p>\n

By then the journalist began identifying with his readers. In March 1963 he wrote an article titled \u201cMexican-Americans Have Culture Protected by 1848 U.S. Treaty<\/em>.\u201d Salazar wrote critically about assimilation and bilingualism. Admittedly most of us knew little about our history or its problems.<\/p>\n

One of the unforgettable characters Salazar relied on for information was Marcos de Leon, a Los Angeles City School Spanish teacher. According to de Leon, the Mexican American was the marginal man; he had a hamburger in one hand and a taco in the other. He was obsessed with cultural blending, and he prophesized that one day the Anglo would be culturally deprived if he did not correct the error of his ways and become bilingual.<\/p>\n

De Leon never used the word \u201cif\u201d in predicting the inevitability of bilingual-biculturalism. For him it was a hemispheric cultural blending. He made war on the schools\u2019 attempt to assimilate or absorb Mexican children. To many of us, Marcos was the reincarnation\u00a0St. Paul<\/a>\u00a0the apostle.<\/p>\n

Thus far, the link between Marcos and Salazar has not been explored. However, Salazar\u2019s articles are replete with interviews and references to Marcos.<\/p>\n

Another of the many disciples for educational reform was Uvaldo Palomares,\u00a0\u00a0one of the best presenters I have ever met. We did not have a lot in common but worked together. At one point he wanted me to team up with him on the condition that I tone down my presentations because white teachers felt threatened.<\/p>\n

Uvaldo\u2019s pitch was the \u201cMagic Circle<\/a>\u201d; as one follower put it \u201cConsider the circle.\u00a0\u00a0That shape has been a universal symbol for God.\u00a0\u00a0It suggests the infinite, never-ending inclusion of all<\/em>.\u201d The Magic Circle facilitated student participation. The objective was for students to develop self-awareness, positive self-concepts and behavior.<\/p>\n

Uvaldo was a guru. A consultant to various school districts, he founded the Human Development Training Institute.<\/p>\n

Another pied piper was Leonard Olguin who wrote\u00a0Shuck loves chirley<\/em><\/a>: A non-technical teaching aid for teachers of bilingual children.\u00a0<\/em>The title says it all. The manual was about cultural awareness, cultural difference, intonation, responses, and phonology, as well as student and teacher attitudes, all in under 100 pages.<\/p>\n

An education professor at California State University, Long Beach, I rarely see him cited, but he was a huge influence on the development of my course on \u201ccultural conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leonard developed the Olguin Diagnostic Test of Auditory Perception (ODTAP). It had six scales each intended to represent six phonological categories of juncture, consonants, vowels, digraphs, airflow, and intonation. In other words \u201cShuck loves Chirley<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The baruyo was a time of hope. We honestly believed that we could educate Mexican children and bring about equality. The importance of Ruben Salazar was that he gave us a common purpose and a unified vision. De Leon was an apostle spreading the gospel that there was nothing wrong with us. We were not disadvantaged; it was society that was culturally deprived. Both Uvaldo and Leonard experimented with pedagogy. Within the Magic Circle Uvaldo incorporated history and culture while Leonard examined specific language blocks to English language acquisition by native speakers of Spanish.<\/p>\n

The baruyo seduced us; we believed that educational reform was doable. Today the baruyo has quieted and the innovation of those times has been disregarded. Experimentation has become a bad word, and dropping out of school has become like high unemployment \u2013 it is part of the cost of doing business doing business.<\/p>\n

For those who have an extra $5 a month for scholarship<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

The For Chicana\/o Studies Foundation was started with money awarded to Rudy Acu\u00f1a as a result of his successful lawsuit against the University of California at Santa Barbara. The Foundation has given over $60,000 to plaintiffs filing discrimination suits against other universities. However, in the last half dozen years it has shifted its focus, and it has awarded 7-10 scholarships for $750 apiece\u00a0\u00a0annually to Chicanoa\/o\/Latino students at CSUN. The For Chicana\/o Studies Foundation is a 501 C3 Foundation donations are tax exempt. Although many of its board members are associated with Chicana\/o Studies, it is not part of the department. All monies generated go to scholarships.<\/p>\n

We know that times are hard. Lump sum donations can be sent to For Chicana Chicano Studies Foundation, 11222 Canby Ave., Northridge, Ca. 91326 or through Paypal below. You can reach us at\u00a0forchs@earthlink.net<\/a>. You may also elect to send $5.00, $10.00 or $25.00 monthly. For your convenience and privacy you may donate via PayPal. The important thing is not the donation, but your staying involved.<\/p>\n

Click:\u00a0http:\/\/forchicanachicanostudies.wikispaces.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014\u00a0Rodolfo F. Acu\u00f1a is an historian, professor emeritus teaching at CSU Northridge. He is the author of \u201cOccupied America: A History of Chicanos.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0<\/strong>Amigos805\u00a0welcome comments on stories appearing in Amigos805 and on issues impacting the community. Comments must relate directly to stories published in Amigos805, no spam please. We reserve the right to remove or edit comments. Full name, city required. Contact information (telephone, email) will not be published. Please send your comments directly to\u00a0fmoraga@amigos805.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0Amigos805 welcomes guest columns, letters to the editor and other submissions from our readers. All opinions expressed in submitted material are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the viewpoint of Amigos805. By\u00a0Rodolfo F. Acu\u00f1a\u00a0\/\u00a0Guest contributor Context…<\/p>\n

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