English ASSIGNMENT DUE FRIDAY
longbeachgyal
PRECIOUSFILMNOTES.docxMost of the books you pick up a history book and you don't really see any other cultures in there, but, you know, mostly Caucasian white people.
Ethnic studies is the knowledge of other than your own ethnicity.
Not only learning about the past of the US but also learning and having the opportunity to learn about our culture.
My grampa my grandma taught me to be proud that I'm Mexican, and these classes help me because I actually know my history now.
[Voiceover] For someone that's felt so out of place, it feels good to have a home.
The way things were going I probably would've just left school, this space saved me in a way.
I'm calling on Tucson Unified School District to shut down the ethnic studies program. Raza studies, African American studies, Asian studies, it's about their race, and that is contrary to American ideals.
The program's administered by vehemently anti-American and anti-western civilization zealots.
It's hard to tell if the criticism is based upon full knowledge that they're lying, or they just have been totally misguided in what they've heard.
It's people like you that come over here and ruin everything that we have settled, I'm a Mexican and very very proud of it.
Our students are graduating at a much higher rate, and our kids are going to college at a much higher rate, that is giving our students greater opportunities in life.
The superintendent of schools Ken, himself, declared these courses to be illegal, and so today I'm announcing that decision.
They can't take it away, they can't. (calm acoustic guitar)
Hello? Hello? Hi.
I wanna go to college 'cause I need to set that example for my sisters. But, it's a struggle.
I was the oldest, so I always had to, you know, same way as Crystal, stay home and you know having to take care of the kids at so young age, I mean she actually could do something better. (laughs)
You little liar. She said you buy her all the toys.
I'd rather her get her education and everything and keep on going, but it's been hard, it's been very very hard you know, for us, especially her high school years, trying to get through and everything. (calm acoustic guitar and harmonica)
(dog barking) Just to be together in one room with my whole family, that'd be great. (speaking Spanish)
My dad went to the DMV, and as time went by, we started to get worried, 'cause he was only going to the DMV, and he hadn't called us and he wasn't picking up his cell phone. And then, Bob ended up calling us.
And he told us that our dad got picked up and that he was in a holding cell. He was arrested and now he's in jail because they found out that he was undocumented.
You know it's hard the first time you see him and he's behind the glass, he's wearing the orange jumpsuit and you couldn't even have physical contact. Like it just hurt that you can only talk to him on the phone.
If he doesn't get to come back here legally then he might not come back at all. Other things like Christmas cards or like tickets.
School freshman year wasn't what I wanted, so I stayed home.
My dad was like, "You need to go to school and get your education." I was like, "I don't feel like going to school today."
When you grow up in a poor area, you don't have the same chances as other people do. (hip hop music)
We all grew up in my nana's house, it was my mom, and her other seven siblings and their kids all in a five bedroom house. So it was really crazy.
My dad was never around, 'cause he totally just booked on us. I've pretty much been around everything, drugs, gangs, where I originally grew up that was the people, most of 'em are locked up or dead.
I'm not gonna lie I've hated education. You know sometimes I feel like the education system is just so against me that they don't want me here, that they want me to just drop out. (calm acoustic guitar)
What I noticed, especially in regular history classes, is students really just don't give a shit about what they're studying historically. I mean their relationship with learning is just kind of dysfunctional in general, and it's not of a particular ethnicity.
But they are lazy, they are unengaged, they really are. Learning has just become irrelevant to their lives completely, they're just damaged, they're culturally damaged.
So step one is to identify the problem. Now I think the way that you've cast kids is so funny because if you read the literature historically, it's exactly the way they talked about you when you were a kid.
It's exactly the way they talked about me when I was a kid, right? We were apathetic, we were disengaged, the same narrative about the deficiency of our children has run the history of public schooling in the United States.
Right, and we just change the way we explain our inability to engage kids. There's nothing wrong with kids. I've never met a kid with a dysfunctional relationship to learning, I've met a lot of kids with a dysfunctional relationship to school. (bell rings)
Approximately 50% of Hispanics drop out of school year after year, and the numbers are not improving, they're getting worse.
We continue to perpetuate an educational experience that has been inadequate at best for the majority of Latina children.
Without that diploma, you're walking on this world with limited opportunity, limited chances.
You are the one that's gonna be out there being exploited for eight bucks an hour.
They're using second grade children of color data to determine what number of prisons they're gonna need in the future.
So, the idea that we are still losing these huge number of kids is appalling.
This problem has aggravated over four generations. (slow 50s dance music)
Chicano teachers, counselors, Chicanas in the class room, you didn't see them.
You know some schools couldn't speak Spanish even at lunch or when you're out hanging out on campus.
Later on a civil rights study found out corporal punishment and punishment in general was meted out to minorities at a four to one ratio.
And these kids knew that inside the school.
Many Chicanos and Chicanas were being relegated to vocational classes, secretarial classes, and in fact I had four years of air conditioning at Tucson High, and not enough was done to get us into college.
We knew that we had a school board and a superintendent that basically ignored, and at the best benign neglect to this community and to this population.
And, so it's just a question of time. (60s rock music)
[Voiceover] The practice here has been one of domination. The Anglos dominating the Latins.
But, the Mexican Americans say that day has ended. That they are on the move. That they will have a piece of the action.
[Dr. Romero] It was like a Chicano movement nationwide.
It was kind of a renaissance period for us, there was an urgency for us to make a statement here in Tucson, and the statement was the walkouts.
We don't know how many are gonna come out, or if any.
And then they just kept coming, and they kept coming, and then we had something bigger than we anticipated on our hands.
It was a water shed.
Like any group of young people our expectations were high.
And these next four five years we're gonna fundamentally change the way this world is and how we're treated.
Obviously we're still at that. (calm acoustic guitar)
It was really about how can we turn this around?
How can we really affect change more than just one person at each school?
I believe in my heart that there's an indigenous concept called Chinachle, you plant the seed, and that seed will grow. (calm acoustic guitar)
There's different staffs that come from different weblos and different nations and different communities from the entire continent, entire hemisphere, and this one represents Tucson.
Despite everything that has happened, everything that has changed, everything that has evolved, we continue to hold our ceremonial staffs to try to maintain and preserve our traditional ways of life of the Mexicano.
You hear a lot of talk about La Conquista de Mexico, and guess what it never happened.
Right, this is proof of that.
They try to teach you that our peoples were ignorant, they were illiterate, savages, cannibals, and sacrifice, all this stuff, they teach you to think that we're somehow we don't belong here.
Or that maybe we're part of a new culture, something, that we're brand new, that we just got here.
Well I'm here to tell you that your culture is at least 7,000 years old.
Let's go.
(clapping)
Enlaces!
[Students] Enlaces.
(speaking Spanish)
[All] You are my other me.
(speaking Spanish)
If I do harm to you, I do harm to myself.
(speaking Spanish)
If I love and respect you, I love and respect myself.
There's so many rules at a school.
There's rules of classroom rules, there's code of conduct that is school rules.
There's district rules, so those are my rules, they're not really rules, they're a way of living.
We must vigorously search within ourselves by silencing the distractions and obstacles in our lives, in order to be warriors for our health and injustice.
(speaking Spanish)
Precious and beautiful knowledge.
Gaining perspective on events and experiences our ancestors endured allows us to become more fully realized human beings.
At first I really didn't accept it, I didn't accept, just the posters up on the wall I didn't know what most of them meant.
Now, this is the fourth.
(speaking Spanish)
Or the Nahui Ollin,
the four movements of being a good human being.
It comes from central Mesoamerica.
The Aztecs, the Mayans, the Toltecs, tezcaliepoca is critical reflection.
Any time something happens to you, you have to ask yourself, "How am I at fault?"
Only through reflection and reconciliation, forgiveness, if you hate your dad you are hating yourself.
But by forgiving your father, who else do you forgive?
Yourself. - [Jose] Yourself, and now you become whole.
Now we can create positive change.
What they show us, how they teach us it's really different from regular classes.
Means knowing where you came from who you are inside.
It really got to my emotions too.
From there, you have this precious knowledge, what do you need to do?
Take action.
(speaking Spanish)
Positive action, when someone's being made fun of, don't sit there and be quiet, take positive action.
Raul, that was messed up man, you shouldn't be saying that, I'm not cool with that.
The reflection, reconciliation, stability as a human, action, a new world, a new person.
If you can narrow down what we advocate for, it's the idea of love.
It's not simply a love for myself, the love for those around me.
How can I change the world for the better?
And what this idea of social justice Pedagogia ask us to do is to seek the root of the truth.
And in that truth there is greater justice.
European Americans make up 70% of the US population right?
What percentage do you think they're doing time?
[Voiceover] 30.
30, 31%.
[Voiceover] Wow.
There is a bias in this system, now can we create change with the system?
Yes we can.
What they started teaching us was so interesting I just could not stop thinking about it.
I would go home with articles and I would just read 'em over and over again.
So now that I'm learning more you know it's becoming more important to me.
Now I started getting As and Bs.
They passed a rule.
that raises
"If I run fast enough I can fly."
It's not gonna happen.
There's something in place that's stopping them from achieving their goals, it's not to say that some people won't break past that and somehow do it, but what's the likelihood of that? - Monitor the way you think. When you start looking and blaming the person, that's a naive consciousness. - Everybody take out So Far From God. Because we're gonna read a little bit today. My class is the literature component and it's called Latino Literature. Why do we think this is a church? Why do you think this is a Catholic church, just from the cover?
[Voiceover] Because it looks like a church in Mexico.
A church in Mexico, southwest, even better. This looks like home. Right, this looks like where you from. It's a Chicano novel right?
I just wanna give you a little taste of what you're in. You are in a world called magical realism. Okay, and it is a little bit different than fantasy. 'Cause you know when you go to Lord of the Rings, everything's magical, when you go to the Wizard of Oz, everything's magical, but in here, it's like I got dumped by my novio and now my sister's flying to the top of the roof. Now why does that make sense for our gente? Why did it make sense that Latin America was the place where this happened?
I think it's something really big for me because I had the opportunity with Raza studies to understand my cultura. - [Voiceover] You have a big reading to do.
[Crystal] I was always the quiet girl in the back that like, I don't wanna talk, I don't know what this is about, I'm scared to talk. One of the Mexicans sitting in the back just sitting there. Well he tends to teach us how to express ourselves, so we can have that confidence. - The topics are environment, economic, and dehumanization. Analyze it as a group and see why we put it in that--
Ever since she started these Raza study classes, oh my god it's made such a big change. Her junior year, when she started those classes it just completely changed. - She was not an empowered Chicana of the 21st Century, she walked in here. And she certainly is now. Cool, does that make some sense? What's this? Oh is that for the thing? Oh that's cool.
With the tough kids, the ones with the thicker shells, you honor that they come to your class. And I know a lot of teachers are hesitant to use the word fun, or entertaining, but I'm sorry, I'm gonna use the gifts that I have, and if I can make them laugh I'm gonna make them laugh. Some say the blacker the berry, the sweeter the juice, they say the darker the flesh, the deeper the roots. Juice and roots? Juice and roots are not true, it's not true rhyming. The slant rhyme allows you to have more freedom, because back in the day when hip hop was starting, it was all true rhyme. All right it's like, "We be cool, we go to school, we're gonna go swim in the pool." (beat boxing) You know like Fat Boy 10 taught me that, you like that? Were you supposed to like that? Who liked that, it was pretty cheesy. - [Crystal] I mean really how many teachers do you meet like that? - So then, yeah it's tricky and stuff right? - Just to have him down and dancing in class and throwing jokes and making fun of you. You start getting used to it, you're like, "Okay this is him, this is his personality." You know he does this so he can connect with you on a level that way you guys can just. (laughing) I just feel comfortable here you know it's like a second home I guess you could say. I mean I hate it when I can't be here. (upbeat Hispanic music) - I fell in love with the classes, 'cause we learned so much. - In any other class I mean we're just thinking about, "Oh let's get this work done." - By the book, by the book, by the book, by the book. - But in this class like there's meaning to that work. - Let's get to work, roll up your sleeves, and it's time to work. - They expect more from you, they challenge us more, they challenge me more. - I've never pulled an all nighter for any other class, because now I'm writing about something that I actually care about, I get to choose the subject I wanna write about. - Who should have a say? - [Voiceover] We should! - You should have a say, absolutely. Look, it's say lon, exactly. Exactly. - it's something you do for my hint and my ancestors and me. (upbeat Hispanic music) - Our schools, our community are really part of the school. You choose the latter, our communities need to be part of the school. (upbeat Hispanic music) - I'm calling tonight, we're like a family. And then our students as they come through are very much like a family. So their family, they're obviously your family. - Hey what's up how are you doing? Good good good good I'm glad you made it is everyone else here? - Wanna meet my mom? - Yeah sure, love to meet your mom. - You're his favorite teacher. - Oh is that right? Yeah I appreciate that, I appreciate that. - Nothing but very good things to say about you. - Well thank you, you know what they-- - You know it's non stop. - Is that right? (clapping) - Erin told me, she says, "You know what? "In the previous 11 years of my son's education, "never did he come and come home "and talk to me about what he was learning "in school. I can't get him to shut up about this stuff." (upbeat Hispanic music) - I'm calling on Tucson Unified School District to shut down the ethnic studies program and start teaching kids to treat each other as individuals and not in the basis of what race they were born in. - [Voiceover] So you don't think they're doing anything right then? - I really don't, no I think they should be abolished. (chatter) - [Voiceover] Hi Jose. - Hey Bonnie, how are you doing? - [Voiceover] Good, how you doin'? - I'm good thank you. Hey y'all, let's get the room into. (speaking Spanish) Please. - Shine light on the cockroaches and watch them scatter. (speaking Spanish) Teaching TSD, Tucson students to hate America. What a great use of our tax dollars. This man should be fired, and then tared and feathered, I pay taxes to TSD and I'm outraged. - In the light that we're in, this political light, we are accused, ironically, of being racist. And that's the whole antithesis of what we believe. Do we talk about race in this class? - [Voiceover]
"Pedagogia, we have browsed,
my understanding is that if you go and look at the
citations you see Marx, Lenin,
Mao, Che Guevara, Fidel Castro,
and so our suspicion is inside these classes
these students are being indoctrinated
by people who are in power
to have a certain mindset
of us versus them.
But the essence of that book
is about humanity.
About creating stronger humanity,
greater humanity.
Well that's our suspicion,
we really think we know what's going on
behind those doors, the people in power
are doing something distasteful.
Members, by your vote of four ayes,
three nays, you are not voting, you have given
Senate Bill 1069 a due pass recommendation.
(banging)
My sense of it is that they were bringing
these kids in and saying,
"Okay, founding fathers are racist,
"these social systems are stacked up against you."
You know, look at these statistics,
look at all these odds who are against you,
you can't plan evil ideas in kids' minds
and expect healthy outcomes.
Do I indoctrinate my students?
I can be accused of doing that as can others
but I do not, and I firmly believe that.
Have I ruffled feathers, absolutely.
In this class you are taught to read the word
as well as what?
Read the.
[Voiceover] World.
World, Paulo Freire
wrote about that a lot.
Read the world, read it.
And you're gonna see that it's not a pretty place.
Since 1991, school districts throughout
the United States have been going back to
neighborhood schools, segregated schools,
'cause if you live in a poor side of town,
you're gonna go to that school.
And that school isn't gonna get the funding
due to the property taxes.
If you live on the rich side of town,
you're gonna go to a well-funded school.
What kind of cultural seeds are we planting here?
These systems aren't fair,
that these American systems aren't fair.
And, let me tell ya, I know from personal experience
that there are systems that we have set up
that aren't perfect.
But what we have in the United States
is more opportunity, more prosperity
than you could ever dream of.
Our department is the thorn in people's side
because we say, "You know what,
"the things you're saying about the
"trajectory of this country,
"about where we're at,
"the idea that race is no longer an issue,
"what we're saying is
"What we're saying is BS."
It's about the freedom to ask the questions that are the most pertinent in the way they view the world. That's what we're doing, that's freedom.
Some people are claiming because of Obama being president now that we have reached what Martin Luther King died for and that's the idea that people will be judged by the content of their character and not the color of their skin. Have we reached that?
[Voiceover] No.
Have we?
Yes, we have, right?
Have we?
(high-pitched whining)
[Voiceover] I believe that regardless of political party, mainline Republicans, mainline Democrats, independents, all people would be outraged if they knew what was happening in this TUSD ethnic studies department. The schools are turning these kids into angry young radicals; schools are supposed to be teaching the kids to think for themselves, not to indoctrinate them into left-leaning views of teachers, and I'm speaking out because I think if the people get the facts I think they will be outraged at this.
[Voiceover] They feel that they are so entrenched within TUSD that they are untouchable.
[Voiceover] I mean this is outrageous stuff. I mean we would never support hate groups such as the KKK in our school system. We would never tolerate that kind of garbage.
We wanna talk about the stuff that nobody talks about, they never cover our classes, they don't go inside 'em, they don't investigate and all we get is this John Justice, Tom Horne, you know, media blitz that says we're racist, we're hateful, and all the things we're not. We're getting jacked on the message, the narrative if you will has been hijacked.
Keep saying that this is American culture and ethnic studies is not part of it. I mean that's a radical thing for you to say. Our argument is, no actually we're part of that, and he forced us out. Him and the rest of the senate has forced us out. So we're talking about what message are we putting together, I mean that's the message that we can say, you know, we are being told that we're not part of this culture. And so we're being banished, and we're saying, "No, close back in, include us you know?"
We're supposed to be on the offensive here but not direct, not in people's faces. Because if we get in their faces, Republicans or whoever, our opposition, then they will attack us harder and stronger and rally their base. And we cannot win that fight, that's why we're gonna need to take the high route right now.
Community, service, and advocacy, service, serving each other, being there for one another. (speaks Spanish) All right, and advocacy, that idea (speaking Spanish), the idea of the will to get out there and do things not just complain about 'em, not just vote. Get your puppies on the ground and get your body in some spaces to help people on the daily.
It started getting me into that way of like, I gotta do more community events and see what's really going out there.
[Voiceover] These are the people who were recovered this last year. They're 183. We walk in memory of the deaths that there was in the desert from Mexico and Salvador and Guatemala, from last September, 183 of them did not make it. So we walk in memory of them since it's Dia de las Muertos. Jose Santo Rodriguez Sanchez. Jose Arjell Arfaro Salon. Olivia Noel Armandes. Jesus Enrique Morede Morales.
I can't be another Latina woman just sitting down at home. I want my voice to be heard.
(intense music)
(tense acoustic guitar)
(heavy drums banging)
Running has always been a part of the ceremonial way of life of indigenous people. It requires that physical discipline and allows you to become focused and be connected to the Earth. And this staff here represents Tucson, and it represents each and every one of you. It serves as a vestige to those things that are taking place.
We're running from Tucson to Phoneix to bring our prayer and our message to save the education of future children. The education of our children, our own education.
(drums banging)
It's almost a meditation. You listen and you hear rhythms, you know your heart, you know, the sweat coming down your face, your feet touching the ground. (drums pounding)
When we got to the Athem Reservation, we had to ask their permission if we were allowed to run on their land, and they accepted and they ran with us.
(drums banging)
We want to thank you Creator, for giving us this opportunity to express ourselves. It is important Creator that you have taught us, so that our children will be knowledgeable about all the things that are around them. And it is important that they should learn them in their own culture, in their own ways.
(intense music)
(crowd chanting in Spanish)
I wanna thank everybody that ran. Because it shows that no matter how far this bill goes, we're here together in the Lucha. And it will never end because we will always be united as one. (clapping)
(horn blows)
(cheering)
(high-pitched ringing)
(intense music)
(tense music)
(tense music)
To deem all head law enforcement and forced segregation laws we would have reverted 9 11.
We have seen parts of our neighborhoods nuclear bombed by the affects of illegal immigration.
This is hate speech,
this is anti-American seditious
revolutionary talk in a high school.
(tense music)
(chanting in Spanish)
(cars beeping)
(crowd chanting in Spanish)
U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A!
U.S.A!
[Voiceover] Burn baby burn!
[Voiceover] Baby burn.
Make sure you don't end up dead in a desert,
because you are trying to steal
another man's country.
Are you threatening us?
Once we are awakened to our danger,
we are very very skilled at warfare.
You saying you gonna kill us here?
You see the line there?
You stay on the outside of that line,
you get away from my border.
Stay there both of ya, you got it?
You stay outside my border.
You get everything from
physical threats, death threats on the email
on your telephones.
We looked at all the negative comments that
were being posted up at the Arizona Daily Star
and the Tucson Citizen and like
at the radio station, and it was just so much hate
and you had to keep being positive
and it's very tough sometimes because
we try to live life in a positive way,
and why is all this negativity from, you know?
I'll bring this to a personal level.
I can not operate with
any kind of degree of hate or animosity
towards Tom Horne.
Because then I would be exactly what he says we are.
We are not truly about love, we're about
something else.
These classes teach about forgiveness
and understanding but it's so hard
to take it to a personal level.
They talked about my classroom in the National Review
which is a conservative, very reputable
conservative magazine, it was an online edition.
So I'm sure there's people that
don't like us, don't support, critical of us,
all over the country.
There's plenty of things said about me.
Plenty of hurtful things.
Some of you, Antonio,
I have this whole beautiful monologue,
or have the name of whoever you interviewed,
was it your tio?
[Voiceover] Yeah.
Yeah it ain't no name there.
There were days where I'm supposed to come in
and the smiles when it's bright or
you know all those cliches, he's kinda just
in here and let's do what we gotta do guys, you know?
Thesis is what?
The main idea of what?
[Voiceover] The main idea.
Main idea of what?
[Voiceover] Your topic.
Your topic, eh,
main idea of what?
Oh I can see his frustration,
you know, it's affecting my teacher who's
being told by some guy that
you're teaching and you're not teaching this right
it's not important, you shouldn't be teaching it.
If you turn this up with herb spelled U-R-B,
so I know that's not me.
I really feel like I have to catch you up,
if I have you 11th and 12th,
I have to catch you up on those two years
for all the mistakes that were made from K to 10.
So it's a tremendous amount of pressure for me
that I personally put on myself.
(sighs)
What we're gonna be doing today,
is we're gonna be reviewing eighth grade
American government.
Information that you, as an educated citizen,
should know.
What was our first Constitution called?
(chatter)
(clapping)
(speaking in Spanish)
[All] You are my other me.
(speaking in Spanish)
If I do harm to you.
(speaking in Spanish)
I do harm to myself.
(speaking in Spanish)
If I love and respect you.
(speaking in Spanish)
I love and respect myself.
(speaking in Spanish)
Self-reflection smoky mirror.
We must vigorously search within ourselves
by silencing the distractions and obstacles
in our lives in order to be warriors
for our health and injustice.
We're honored that you're here,
and it means a lot to us.
we've rarely had any folks from the legislature
come into our space,
we're very honored that you've taken it
upon yourself to do so.
The fear is that when people look at
the la Raza program, they're very concerned that
you're breaking away from those traditions
that we know resulted in freedom,
that we know resulted in prosperity,
there's a real fear.
When we see books like the Pedagogia
the Oppressed that we're going,
you know that's Marxist, Leninist,
Collectivist, that's part of the fear
that people have about
these kind of studies.
But the Civil Rights Movement was something
that everybody was afraid of right?
Well, some were,
some other people--
Most people were afraid of that.
Yeah, there was,
I think there was concern,
it's legitimate to say there was concern.
A lot.
Yeah.
All right that's it
Yeah.
You know when I was growing up we were
short on food but we never felt that we were
oppressed because when you say the word oppressed
that means somewhere there's an oppressor.
What it's about is the American culture
has an outline for every single one of us.
And that is an oppression, it is an oppression on all of us.
Stereotypes, and people that
you don't see me the way I dress,
the way I look, and I started believing that.
You know I started thinking,
"Oh I'm a Chicana, I ain't gonna
"be able to graduate, I'mma have kids young."
You know, like that,
and then I started coming to these classes
and I started seeing, "Why am I believing all this?"
Instead of believing it, I should change it.
But when I look up at the wall
and I see a poster of Che Guevara,
who many of us think was a thug,
and I don't see anything on Benjamin Franklin,
I have a problem, I have a problem.
[Voiceover] It's the decor of the classroom.
I just want to thank you for coming
to these classes and seeing what they're about.
Well I appreciate your comments to
and for you, it takes a little bit of courage
to speak when there are TV cameras rolling,
and so I want to thank you for talking,
and speaking your mind, that was--
Well thanks for coming, you know,
a lot of people are against and don't really come
and see what they're about, and I think that was cool.
Okay.
That was good.
Thanks.
Well, you have a good day. - [Girl] You too.
I didn't think that my visit there that day
was a typical day,
I think it was more a discussion that took place,
I wasn't seeing anything that represented
a typical day whatsoever.
I thought the teacher himself,
he is, you know I might disagree with him
on the cultural aspect,
but he comes in there, he's perfectly groomed,
he's wearing a long sleeve white shirt,
he's wearing a tie,
so from that standpoint, the way he presented himself,
his obvious passion for educating kids,
he's presenting classic American values.
Now again, that was,
was that on show for me,
that's the question that remains to be answered.
(tense music)
Tom Horne has expressed an interest in the
attorney general's job.
I myself have opened up an exploratory committee
for superintendent of public instruction,
superintendent of public instruction
oversees all the schools in Arizona,
has the number one leadership role for
education policy,
and educational leadership.
Mr. Chairman, members, House Bill 2281
prohibits public schools from offering courses or classes
which promote overthrowing the US government,
or is that meant towards a race or class of people.
Additionally, this allows the superintendent and
public instruction to determine if a public school
is in violation relating to the prohibited courses.
I personally do not feel that students should be
taught victimization.
[Voiceover] Have you been in the classroom
and you witnessed this?
Or is this hearsay?
[Man] Um, I have not been in the class.
[Voiceover] I represent Tucson Unified School District,
you're insinuating that the school's teaching
they overthrow the government and they--
Their moves that I've seen, textbooks that they're using,
overwhelmingly show that that is the case.
[Voiceover] But not witnessed any of it,
based on hearsay--
I think I can perhaps provide some guidance
in this issue, the students asked me to come down
to the classroom, while I was in the classroom
the founder of la Raza started talking about
Benjamin Franklin being a racist.
And I think it's completely inappropriate
to trash our founding fathers,
they put their lives on the line
for our freedom and prosperity.
I vote aye.
[Voiceover] I vote aye.
[Voiceover] And so because of that I vote aye.
[Voiceover] All right four ayes, three nays,
and so not voting returned House Bill 2281
to the full senate because it did pass
recommendation.
(calm acoustic guitar)
[All] Jan Brewer.
(chanting in Spanish)
Jan Brewer.
(chanting in Spanish)
Jan Brewer.
(chanting in Spanish)
Jan Brewer.
(chanting in Spanish)
(cars beeping)
We gotta fight for what we know is right
and right now this is what is beautiful
to all of us.
(cheering)
Standing today with and for our community
in peaceful protest to the most hateful legislative session
in our state's history.
And we stand here today
with the stories in history of our families.
(speaking in Spanish)
Who have walked this continent freely
for thousands of years, have given their strength
of their backs and hands to build this
United States and sacrifice their own blood
in defending this country,
regardless of what anybody else says,
we have taught you law.
And I would like to ask my current and former
students to join me in reciting the part of
Luis Montez's poem, En la Kesh,
that we say each day before our classes begin.
(cheering)
(speaking in Spanish)
[All] You are my other me.
(speaking in Spanish)
If I do harm to you.
(speaking in Spanish)
I do harm to myself.
(speaking in Spanish)
If I love and respect you.
(speaking in Spanish)
I love and respect myself.
[Voiceover] We will win.
(cheering)
(chatter)
(car beeping)
[Voiceover] Hi.
[Voiceover] Mister.
(pictures snapping)
This picture right here says a thousand words,
the class itself is just one piece,
but when you have students demonstrating
wearing brown shirts, bandannas,
and sunglasses.
This is serious, to me this is very serious
we are teaching kids to hate the very country
that they're living in.
Students are being taught a revolutionary curriculum.
You mentioned that the group in the uniform there
and I spoke to one of them last week
and it's a movement scenario,
isn't something like that, if they're saying
it's not militant but more of a matter of
unity together to stay in school
and to succeed, is that a threat?
We're talking about people that are dressed up in
masks over their face, sunglasses over their eyes,
berets, so that you can't see anything on their face,
brown shirts, clearly revolutionary costumes,
and anybody who says that kids can't learn
unless they're subject to that kind of militancy
is clearest example
of racism that I can think of.
[Voiceover] Our education's under attack,
what do we do?
[Voiceover] Fight back!
Stay on the sidewalk,
if you have an empty water bottle we're trying to get
trash bags right now, we don't wanna make a mess right now.
[All] Our people, united,
we'll never be divided.
After a while, just got sick and tired
because we always did protest and rallies
but nothing has happened
like they haven't listened to us,
they haven't done anything.
The bill got passed,
so we decided to go past
what we usually do, you know something new
is always unexpected.
We just got word
that Tom Horne is holding a press conference
in a downtown state building,
so we're thinking about moving this over there.
Everybody down with that?
[All] Yeah!
(shouting and cheering)
[Voiceover] What do we want?
[Voiceover] Justice!
[Voiceover] When do we want it?
[Voiceover] Now!
[Voiceover] What do we want?
[Voiceover] Justice!
[Voiceover] How you doin'?
Hi.
This is a public building.
Yeah, but you can't come in here.
You can't come in here,
you guys can't come in here.
Asking you to not.
(shouting)
[Voiceover] We demand an entry climbing to
anyone in that building.
They immediately repeal,
and people can only remain a pet
for so long before they
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
Education's not a crime!
So we were there to make a stand
that we do not support that bill,
that is a racist bill against some
ethnic studies classes.
[Voiceover] Four underage high school students
and 11 adults arrested in all.
Again 15 people arrested in total,
four juveniles, 11 adults,
they were cited as well and they have a court date
coming up on June 7th.
Meanwhile, they all tell me,
they say it was worth it
to make this strong statement.
We need to be heard,
we have a message, we have a purpose here,
we have an objective and we're gonna do
what we need to do in the struggle
to achieve that goal.
(calm acoustic guitar)
I think your struggle as a human being
to be a good human being
has begun, and I will always hold you to that.
Always, look in the mirror.
Look at your heart.
Know your heart.
Have Quetzalcoatl precious knowledge
of who you are as a human being.
(calm music)
So, today's kinda
hard, but um,
it's a beautiful day too,
'cause I'm so proud of you,
so it's like a lot of emotions.
It's just a ton of pride.
To this day, we have to endure
hateful comments.
I've been attacked and hated, hated,
as well as you.
And you are the ones that made it
all worth it.
Thank you for being
the miestadol in this class and
like mentoring us and just being
that father figure to some of us.
And I do have a father and mother,
I have my parents but they don't understand me
the way you do or any of these people do.
For someone that's felt so out of place,
for the majority of their life, it's
it feels good to
to have a home.
And you guys are the people
who inspire me to try to be better.
Thank you guys for everything.
The struggle hasn't ended,
and it will never end,
but it will continue because of us.
Our generation, when they try to
take these classes away,
it's something impossible.
I want my little sisters to be able to
come to this class and feel like I felt.
They can't take it away, they can't.
(laughing)
(chattering)
(clapping)
(calm music)
[Voiceover] There were profound inequalities in our country
based on race and gender.
These issues still exist today,
although together we've made great strides.
[Voiceover] Pricilla Rodriguez.
Gilbert Esparza.
Crystal Paola Enriques.
(triumphant music)
Congratulations, you have earned admissions
to the University of Arizona for fall 2008
as an undecided major in the University College.
You have been chosen because your academic
and personal achievements qualify you for the U of A's.
You know, when I was little,
college was always something that I wanted to do
but it never really seemed like a possibility.
For my dad, for him to actually know that I'm
in college, I know that he's very proud
and that he feels accomplished inside.
(calm acoustic guitar)
I got a hummingbird representing.
(speaking in Spanish)
The will to act, and it's connected
to a flower where I saw that
more of being the movement
and I'm just the hummingbird slurping
the power of the rose.
So I could have the will to act
in my community, and I just put my last name
on top of it, so.
(calm acoustic guitar)
Think about it, I mean, we're all human,
we all got hearts that beat,
we all got minds that think.
And, people don't treat each other like we're humans
they treat others like they're animals.
Like they shouldn't be a part of this society
but you know we create a society
a Dystopia where we oppress each other.
And we don't really appreciate one another.
But you know we're all human, I mean,
what's the big deal?
Whether it be our color, you know,
I just believe in one race, the human race.
(calm music)
(tense orchestra)
(speaking in Spanish)
[Voiceover] Nourish its beautiful knowledge.
Gain perspective of events and experiences
our ancestors endured,
allows us to become more fluid as human beings.
To assist each other and elders
with humility and honor,
in order to adhere the weaknesses in our hearts.
(speaking in Spanish)
The will to act.
(crowd talking over each other)
With a revolutionary spirit
that is positive, progressive, and creative.
(calm acoustic guitar)
(upbeat Hispanic music)
