Latinx Heritage Month

Today, we recognize the bravery of young student protesters in the Chicano Blowouts for Latinx Heritage Month.  Students in Los Angeles in the ’60s were tired of the soaring number of dropouts, low graduation rates and a counselor-to-student ratio of 1:4,000.  So they planned a mass walkout in March 1968 — about 22,000 high school students in Los Angeles left their classrooms and took to the streets. The incident was dubbed The Chicano Blowouts and the leaders made 26 demands of a school system that was badly failing them, including more studies of Mexican American history and more Mexican Americans in the administration.  This walkout was met with violence and resistance but the students would not give up on creating a better school for their community.