WEBVTT - Love & Walkouts 0:00:00.560 --> 0:00:04.120 Hey, their listener. I'm Desi Contreras. As an editor at 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.080 Latino USA, part of my job is to help producers 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.400 shape their stories. Together, we get to figure out the 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:13.840 right story structure and focus. One of my favorite things 0:00:13.920 --> 0:00:16.840 is witnessing how those story ideas turn into the beautiful 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:20.239 episodes that you hear week after week. I'm so excited 0:00:20.239 --> 0:00:23.439 to see Latino USA turned thirty and that you, dear listener, 0:00:23.520 --> 0:00:27.040 get to join us for this celebration. Happy thirtieth anniversary, 0:00:27.080 --> 0:00:27.920 Latino USA. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.559 This is Latino USA, the radio journal of news and 0:00:32.640 --> 0:00:38.120 Kurture Latino USA, latin Latino USA. I'm Mariainojosa. We bring 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:41.520 you stories that are underreported but that mattered to you, 0:00:41.680 --> 0:00:43.360 overlooked by the rest of the media. 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.240 And while the country is struggling to deal with these 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:48.040 we listen to the stories of black and Latino Studios 0:00:48.120 --> 0:00:53.120 United Latino Front, a cultural renaissance organizing at the forefront 0:00:53.320 --> 0:00:54.040 of the movement. 0:00:54.760 --> 0:01:02.520 I'm Maria Inojosa nose Bayan. Hey you know USA listener, Gomostas, 0:01:02.840 --> 0:01:07.560 here's a show, the Los Archivos. The year was nineteen 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:11.400 sixty seven. The setting Abraham Lincoln High School on the 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.400 East Side of Los Angeles. That's where two students, Bobby 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.679 and Joli, began to fall in love. 0:01:18.080 --> 0:01:20.480 I always liked Jioli. I always liked her a lot. 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.440 Neither one of us had a boyfriend or a girlfriend 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.040 at that time, but we hung out together with the group, 0:01:28.120 --> 0:01:29.280 you know, the rest of the kids. 0:01:29.480 --> 0:01:33.120 He was always a joker. He was making everybody laugh. 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:38.160 We were close. We had the same kind of circle 0:01:38.200 --> 0:01:44.760 of friends. But I really liked his friend. His friend Louis. 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:47.639 My best friend. Actually, we would all go out together, 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.560 the three of us, many times, you know, and I 0:01:50.640 --> 0:01:51.559 knew they liked. 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.840 Each other, but I liked her too. 0:01:55.360 --> 0:01:59.880 Bobby Verdugo and Joli Rios were both seniors at Lincoln High. 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:03.240 Well, it was at that one particular Christmas party in 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:04.120 sixty seven. 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.040 We were celebrating, and. 0:02:06.040 --> 0:02:08.560 You know, we shouldn't be drinking ray for kids, but 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:11.760 there was liquor there, you know, so we started drinking 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:15.799 some movie that loosened the anxiety a little bit. 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:17.760 I think Louis had a little bit too much to 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:18.639 drink that night. 0:02:18.800 --> 0:02:21.960 So I saw my chance, you know, she was standing there, 0:02:22.040 --> 0:02:25.240 and I asked. 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:25.720 To do dance. 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:35.359 Bobby actually sang to me, are you angry with me, Darling, 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:37.600 you know a Midnight Or's song, And I said, oh 0:02:37.600 --> 0:02:38.880 my god, this guy sings. 0:02:39.600 --> 0:02:42.920 Are you rengry with me? Darling? 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:44.000 With me? 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.040 Darling with me? Darling. 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:49.520 We were slow dancing, you know, I said, oh man, 0:02:49.560 --> 0:02:50.960 this guy is very romantic. 0:02:51.400 --> 0:02:52.760 I love it, you know. 0:02:56.520 --> 0:03:03.200 Loved you level. 0:03:03.840 --> 0:03:06.760 As the two slow danced into the CRISP December night, 0:03:07.280 --> 0:03:13.520 a fifty year love story began, and soon something else began. 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:21.079 Too, a movement that was going to set the course 0:03:21.320 --> 0:03:23.320 for the rest of their lives together. 0:03:27.600 --> 0:03:31.240 Ram Fudro Media and BrX It's Latino USA. I'm Maria 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:35.880 Jojosa today. A love story but also a story of 0:03:36.000 --> 0:03:44.040 student activism. It's almost Valentine's Day and we couldn't help ourselves. 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:47.720 So we're bringing you a love story but also a 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:53.200 story about student activism. We were taking you back to 0:03:53.240 --> 0:03:57.280 the late nineteen sixties when thousands of Los Angeles students 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.080 participated in protests that were part of the Grown Chicano movement. 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:06.560 They're known as the East La walkouts or blowouts. The 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.040 majority of the students were of Mexican descent, and for 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:13.280 most of them, this was their first experience with activism. 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:16.599 They walked out of their classrooms to protest discrimination in 0:04:16.640 --> 0:04:20.120 their schools and to demand change. It was one of 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.800 the first mass movements of Chicano youth in a major 0:04:23.880 --> 0:04:29.800 American city Throughout the country. Nineteen sixty eight was a 0:04:29.839 --> 0:04:33.400 year of tragedy, fury, and hope in the civil rights movement, 0:04:34.120 --> 0:04:36.800 but for young people who lived it, the unrest was 0:04:36.800 --> 0:04:40.920 happening alongside their everyday lives. They were starting families, or 0:04:41.000 --> 0:04:44.839 going to college, or like Bobby Verlugo and Joli Rios, 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:48.839 they were falling in love. Producer Jennie Yamoca picks up 0:04:48.839 --> 0:04:49.680 the story from here. 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:52.240 Bobby Anyoli grew up on the East side of Los 0:04:52.279 --> 0:05:00.440 Angeles and one of the city's oldest neighborhoods, Lincoln Heights. 0:05:01.600 --> 0:05:04.680 It was the nineteen fifties and the community was majority 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.400 of Mexican and tight knit. Here's Jolie. 0:05:07.640 --> 0:05:10.520 Our circles are very small when you grew up in 0:05:10.520 --> 0:05:13.560 the city, in the vadios, you know, we don't get 0:05:13.600 --> 0:05:14.200 out much. 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:17.560 Bobby and Joli lived about eight blocks apart. They didn't 0:05:17.560 --> 0:05:20.919 know each other as kids, but they lived almost parallel lives, 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.400 both from working class families and both the oldest. Other 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:28.000 siblings Bobby werememberus his early years when the neighborhood was 0:05:28.080 --> 0:05:29.280 one big family. 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:30.200 In those days. 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:33.800 I mean, I remember many of the mothers who were 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.440 not mine, you know, pulling me by the year and 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.839 taking me home if they saw me doing or getting 0:05:38.839 --> 0:05:41.280 involved in some things that I shouldn't have been doing 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:42.080 as a little boy. 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.640 But I had a real good childhood, you know. 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:48.680 I didn't feel some of the things that I would 0:05:48.880 --> 0:05:54.640 realize later about being oppressed and being treated as a 0:05:54.680 --> 0:05:57.359 second class citizen, you know, those kind of things I 0:05:57.360 --> 0:05:59.039 didn't realize until much later. 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.360 In nineteen sixty five, Bobby and Yoli met at Lincoln 0:06:05.440 --> 0:06:08.240 High School. At first they were just friends, but. 0:06:08.960 --> 0:06:13.679 Was beautiful bad I tell you, I immediately was drawn 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:14.159 to her. 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:17.960 Julie had dark, shiny hair that just brushed her shoulders, 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:21.919 and her presence was warm and nurturing. Friends at school 0:06:21.920 --> 0:06:26.080 would call her Mamma Yoli. Bobby was a football player, 0:06:26.240 --> 0:06:28.880 and he looked like one. He had broad shoulders. 0:06:29.200 --> 0:06:31.760 I thought he was handsome. He had a lot of 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:35.000 facial hair. I said, Oh, man, that's a man as 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:35.719 a real man. 0:06:36.839 --> 0:06:40.159 Before Yoli officially started at Lincoln High School, her uncle 0:06:40.160 --> 0:06:42.040 gave her one piece of advice. 0:06:41.800 --> 0:06:44.440 When you go to high school, you are going to 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:48.720 demand to be a math major. When you go see 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:49.360 that concert. 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:53.039 He was referring to the public schools tracking systems. You 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.960 could take college prep classes or be placed on a 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.600 vocational track, and Mexican American students were generally put in 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:02.920 the vocal courses to prepare them for things like factory 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:06.359 or secretary work. But Yoli had the grades for college. 0:07:06.880 --> 0:07:09.360 So Yoli demanded to be placed in math classes. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.320 And I could tell it was different because my friends 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.560 who didn't insist, we're taking typing and a little bit 0:07:16.640 --> 0:07:20.280 of bookkeeping, and we're all in the home economics, you know, 0:07:20.320 --> 0:07:22.120 And I was I would never see them, I'd never 0:07:22.160 --> 0:07:23.080 see my girlfriends. 0:07:23.440 --> 0:07:26.880 In the fall of nineteen sixty seven, Bobby and Yoli 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.000 began their last year at Lincoln High and that's when 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:32.160 they slow danced on that December night. 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:35.480 That night, you know, we hung out to the rest 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.000 of the evening, you know, And then weeks after that 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.360 we started getting closer and closer and kind of like 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:46.200 unsaid words, but it was kind of exclusively seeing and 0:07:46.280 --> 0:07:47.200 talking to each other. 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.240 They started talking more and more over the phone. They 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:52.880 had a few classes together, and Yoli would call Bobby 0:07:52.880 --> 0:07:54.920 at seven in the morning to wake them up for school. 0:07:55.440 --> 0:07:58.560 Bobby, you know, he was in my class and I 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.960 don't think there was a day class where he didn't 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.040 crack a joke. And they would march him up to 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.520 the front of the room and just bend over, grab 0:08:06.560 --> 0:08:09.240 your knees and boom, get paddled. 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:12.520 Bobby Jeseus front and center. What you're hearing is a 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:15.200 scene from the two thousand and six HBO film Walkout. 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.680 What I Do You spoke Spanish? 0:08:17.720 --> 0:08:18.120 You Know the. 0:08:18.200 --> 0:08:20.560 Rules, which is based on the events and the East 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.480 Side schools in nineteen sixty eight. Bobby's character gets into 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:28.920 trouble with the teacher first, and just like Yolie said, 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:33.440 he swatted in front of the class with Jolie's character 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:35.400 watching as. 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.199 The young Chicano want to be tough, so you don't 0:08:38.240 --> 0:08:41.320 want to complain too much, thinking, well, you know what, 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:43.720 I's right, and I could take this. You know, go 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.599 ahead hit me if you're gonna break me or anything. 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:49.839 But it hurts the spirit, you know, little by little 0:08:49.880 --> 0:08:50.800 they were breaking me. 0:08:52.320 --> 0:08:58.200 It was humiliating. It angered you. I felt really powerless. 0:09:03.800 --> 0:09:07.360 Corporal punishment was common at Lincoln High, but there were 0:09:07.440 --> 0:09:10.720 other more subtle ways that Bobby and Joli felt mistreated. 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:15.320 In her trigonometry class, Yoli noticed a complete lack of 0:09:15.360 --> 0:09:16.560 interest from her teacher. 0:09:17.320 --> 0:09:20.360 One day rang out this little green carpet and it 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:22.880 had a little putting thing at the end, and then 0:09:22.920 --> 0:09:25.840 it brings out some golf clubs and he's at the 0:09:25.920 --> 0:09:29.559 front of the class and he starts putting, and I said, Wow, 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.559 this guy is going to go golfing. You know this teacher, 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:37.040 this Anglo teacher, was teaching in Mexican school, So why 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:39.880 Amon put forth the effort. 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:42.760 Like Yoli, Bobby was a bright kid and he was 0:09:42.800 --> 0:09:45.880 active on campus. But as he got older, he started 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:46.920 noticing a change. 0:09:47.160 --> 0:09:51.360 My performance level kind of tapered off. I wasn't getting 0:09:51.440 --> 0:09:54.120 the straight a's in the seventh and eighth grade that 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:58.880 I used to. They turned to c's, d's. In my 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:01.360 junior year, I realized I was in trouble. 0:10:01.640 --> 0:10:04.360 Bobby said he was repeatedly told by teachers, many of 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.640 them might that he wasn't worth their time, and it stuck. 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:10.480 So I started to believe it and I started to perform. 0:10:10.679 --> 0:10:14.679 Likewise, so by the time I got to eleventh and 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.880 going into my senior year, I started realizing. 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:18.600 I'm not going to make it. 0:10:19.040 --> 0:10:23.520 I'm not going to graduate, and I realized I had 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:27.480 to take responsibility for my actions or inactions. But there 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.640 was a lot more to it than just me being 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:33.800 a failure. I was being failed by the schools that 0:10:34.280 --> 0:10:37.520 my parents entrusted them to teach me. 0:10:37.800 --> 0:10:39.120 They weren't doing their job. 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.240 What was happening to Bobby was a common story at 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:46.720 Lincoln High in nineteen sixty eight. Lincoln had a huge 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:51.520 dropout rate, almost forty percent, and the kids affected well 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:54.640 over ninety percent of the student body was Latino, mainly 0:10:54.679 --> 0:10:58.880 of Mexican heritage, and that segregation wasn't just by chance. 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.240 Families had been pushed into Eastside neighborhoods like Lincoln Heights, 0:11:03.280 --> 0:11:07.080 Foil Heights, and East la displaced by freeway construction and 0:11:07.200 --> 0:11:12.360 other development. The public schools in these neighborhoods were underfunded, overcrowded, 0:11:12.679 --> 0:11:15.679 sometimes forty five kids to a class, and teachers came 0:11:15.760 --> 0:11:18.480 here after year with low expectations and a lack of 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:24.240 cultural sensitivity. In the sixties, there was no shortage of 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:28.280 inspiration for young people who felt mistreated, communities of color 0:11:28.280 --> 0:11:31.320 that had been oppressed for centuries were crying out for revolution. 0:11:32.720 --> 0:11:36.160 The civil rights movement, the war in Vietnam, and especially 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:38.200 the farm worker strike led by the Lotus wed then 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:44.800 Sasta Chavez began to politicize Mexican Americans. At the time, 0:11:45.120 --> 0:11:48.720 Mexican American youth were calling themselves Chicano and Chicana, which 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:52.679 historically was used as a derogatory term towards people of Mexican. 0:11:52.280 --> 0:11:55.839 Heritage, and we are going to take that negative terminology 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.680 and make it revolutionary, making it to it We're standing 0:12:00.080 --> 0:12:06.800 up against discrimination, against racism, against second class citizenship. For me, 0:12:07.400 --> 0:12:09.440 I accepted that that we were going to be a 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:17.840 part of a movement of change. 0:12:14.880 --> 0:12:18.360 And the discrimination you only mentioned. Shared stories from friends 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:21.840 about police profiling young Mexican Americans in the neighborhood. 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:25.559 We knew when we would cruise down Wadier Boulevard we 0:12:25.559 --> 0:12:28.440 were being stopped and searched and seized. 0:12:28.520 --> 0:12:32.480 Underground newspapers were being passed around in the schools, newspapers 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:36.520 like Larissa magazine with articles informing the students about civil rights. 0:12:36.960 --> 0:12:40.360 Even the cartoons made a statement. One depicted corporal punishment 0:12:40.440 --> 0:12:46.400 with the saying, teach the best, spank the rest. As 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.720 they grew closer, Bobby and Julie were also gaining a 0:12:49.760 --> 0:12:52.760 new understanding of social injustice in their community. 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:55.800 They can't do that. They're violating your civil rights. So 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.520 all of these things peaked up. What are our rights? 0:13:00.400 --> 0:13:03.960 It was a quick joke in our minds and in 0:13:04.000 --> 0:13:05.320 our consciousness. 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.000 Not all the teachers were bad, though, and not all 0:13:08.040 --> 0:13:11.000 the teachers hit, and not all the teachers would say 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:13.160 things that would try to dehumanize you. 0:13:13.880 --> 0:13:16.559 I had some very good teachers. Selcastro, of course one 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:16.960 of them. 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.160 Sel Castro was Bobby's social cities teacher at Lincoln High. 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:22.840 He was young, in his early thirties. Here he is 0:13:22.880 --> 0:13:26.760 being interviewed in archived newstape from the PBS series Chicano. 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:29.800 Most teachers approach to Mexicans with a negative attitude and 0:13:29.800 --> 0:13:31.719 that you have nothing to give to me. I am 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:34.560 going to make you an angle, come hell or high water, 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:36.600 and whatever you have to say about it. 0:13:36.440 --> 0:13:38.959 Makes no difference, he related to his students. He grew 0:13:39.040 --> 0:13:41.880 up on the East Side, and he was Mexican American 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:43.319 like many of his students. 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:47.720 For years, the schools have wrapped or blamed the Mexican 0:13:47.760 --> 0:13:50.800 home for not doing a good job and educating the kid. 0:13:50.880 --> 0:13:52.559 In other words, if the kid doesn't go to school, 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:55.560 it's a Mexican parents fault or the Mexican homes fault. 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:58.320 That has never been the fault of the Mexican home. 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:02.040 Sel Castro, who died in twenty thirteen, became more than 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:04.600 a teacher to Bobby. He became a mentor. 0:14:04.960 --> 0:14:07.000 It's okay to be angry, but what do you do 0:14:07.080 --> 0:14:09.760 about it? And I think that's really what I learned 0:14:09.760 --> 0:14:10.160 from Sal. 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:13.040 Sal began to help Bobby Yoli and the other students 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.640 at Lincoln High organize it was time to demand more 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:21.880 from the schools. Students from several Eastside high schools began 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:25.680 getting together with the help of seal Castro. Some of 0:14:25.720 --> 0:14:27.200 their parents and others helped too. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:29.520 A lot of college students were the ones who were 0:14:29.560 --> 0:14:33.720 actually hosting, letting us into their homes to discuss these things. 0:14:33.840 --> 0:14:35.920 And these college students, many of them, had gone to 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.240 high school on the East Side and experienced the same problems. 0:14:40.200 --> 0:14:42.080 Even though Bobby had little chance at this point of 0:14:42.120 --> 0:14:45.240 going to college, he became one of the group's leaders. 0:14:45.320 --> 0:14:48.920 And My involvement was a very personal one. Even though 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:52.200 I didn't think I was going to graduate. I said 0:14:52.320 --> 0:14:55.120 to myself, I need to be involved in this. I 0:14:55.200 --> 0:14:57.960 need to be involved in making change. It may be 0:14:58.040 --> 0:14:59.880 too late for me at this point. 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:01.400 I'm a senior. 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.280 I got a zero point one five great point average 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:08.440 at this point, and whatever it was, I'm not going 0:15:08.520 --> 0:15:09.040 to make it. 0:15:10.160 --> 0:15:13.720 But I still need to fight to make some change. 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.320 As the students started to organize, they weren't sure of 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.360 what actions they should take, but they knew it needed 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:28.320 to be big. One of the first steps was smaller though. 0:15:28.840 --> 0:15:31.720 They handed out surveys asking how the students felt about 0:15:31.720 --> 0:15:32.240 the schools. 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.520 We were taking our cues as the information we'd come 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:40.760 back again. Our job was to communicate to our classmates. 0:15:41.240 --> 0:15:44.600 Early in nineteen sixty eight, rumors began to swirl that 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:48.040 a massive student walkout was in the works. The students 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:50.160 were beginning to drop the long list of demands to 0:15:50.200 --> 0:15:53.960 present to the school board. They wanted bilingual education, more 0:15:54.040 --> 0:16:02.960 Latino teachers, and an end to corporal punishment. Bobby and 0:16:03.000 --> 0:16:07.400 Joli and their friends continued organizing, and then on Friday, 0:16:07.600 --> 0:16:12.080 March first, something happened at another Eastside high school, almost 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:17.560 two hundred students walked out. The blowouts had officially. 0:16:17.200 --> 0:16:25.600 Begun, coming up on Latino USA the walkouts. 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:27.880 Truthfully, I didn't even know if I was going to 0:16:27.960 --> 0:16:31.440 walk up, you know, I wanted to, but there was fear. 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:32.680 There was real fear. 0:16:33.720 --> 0:16:47.160 Stay with us, get out when. 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:58.320 Through much more do Latino Music and Miss Angri and 0:16:58.840 --> 0:17:07.480 m Andre which are at the Pronto. 0:17:09.080 --> 0:17:12.280 Hey, we're back. And when we left off, it was 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:16.119 March of nineteen sixty eight and the East Side walkouts 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:21.360 had officially begun. Producer Jennie Yamogun tells us what happened next. 0:17:23.680 --> 0:17:26.920 Bobby Vardugo, Joli Rios and their classmates left into action 0:17:27.080 --> 0:17:29.600 that day when they heard that the students at another 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:32.360 high school Wilson, had walked out of class. 0:17:32.640 --> 0:17:35.320 There was a message that when now people were calling 0:17:35.560 --> 0:17:38.159 each other on the phone or seeing each other at 0:17:38.200 --> 0:17:41.240 school or going over to each other's how we got 0:17:41.240 --> 0:17:43.840 to meet because Wilson walked out? 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:45.040 What are we going to do? 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:48.160 And we didn't anticipate that was going to happen so soon, 0:17:48.840 --> 0:17:50.880 But there was a lot of agreement and there were 0:17:50.920 --> 0:17:52.400 those who were really anxious. 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:55.879 So the organizers at Lincoln High School, including Bobby, started 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.840 planning their own walkout. They had to do it soon 0:17:58.880 --> 0:18:00.879 if they wanted to continue the momentum. 0:18:01.040 --> 0:18:03.399 There was a sense of urgency about what we're going 0:18:03.480 --> 0:18:06.640 to do, and we needed to talk about what our 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:10.000 goals were, but also to realize what the consequences may be. 0:18:10.720 --> 0:18:13.560 The students and organizers knew that the police could get 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:18.680 involved and it could get violent. On Tuesday, March fifth, 0:18:19.000 --> 0:18:22.879 students from another Eastside high school, Garfield, walked out. The 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.040 Chicana newspapers that were passed around in schools reported that 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:30.480 over two thousand students left their classrooms. The next day, 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:33.800 it was Lincoln High School's turn. The organizer spread the 0:18:33.800 --> 0:18:37.240 word to other students walk out at ten am. 0:18:37.280 --> 0:18:43.359 Truthfully, March sixth, that Wednesday, I didn't even know if 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:44.280 I was going to walk up. 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:46.639 I really didn't, you know. 0:18:46.840 --> 0:18:50.399 I wanted to, and I had been preparing for that moment, 0:18:51.240 --> 0:18:52.800 but there was fear. 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:54.000 There was real fear. 0:18:54.600 --> 0:18:57.160 As I was headed out to school, I went over 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:01.359 to my mom to remind her. Mom, get we're walking 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.120 out today, and she was. She turned around. I guess 0:19:04.160 --> 0:19:07.960 she had forgotten, so she goes okay, Well, just be careful, 0:19:08.320 --> 0:19:10.160 you know, she just said, be careful. 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.240 My mom knew I was gonna walk out before I did. 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:13.600 You know. 0:19:13.760 --> 0:19:16.119 She was already waiting outside to make sure that I 0:19:16.119 --> 0:19:20.439 wouldn't get hurt, as were a lot of parents. My 0:19:20.520 --> 0:19:23.880 attendance record was never all that great, but I remember 0:19:24.200 --> 0:19:27.399 really wanting to be at school that day to walk out. 0:19:27.720 --> 0:19:31.040 The timing ten am was strategic. It was meant to 0:19:31.119 --> 0:19:33.960 hit the school where it hurt it's funding, because that 0:19:34.040 --> 0:19:37.520 funding was partly based on attendance, and since the teachers 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.920 took attendance around ten am, they'd have to report all 0:19:40.960 --> 0:19:51.119 the absences and the school would lose money. This is 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:54.720 another scene from the HBO film Walkout, which shows the 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:58.320 students standing up from their desks and leaving their classrooms. Right, 0:19:58.359 --> 0:20:03.440 let's take attendance, right as a teachers took attendance, and 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:05.439 student leaders running down the halls yelling. 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.920 We were just kind of like waiting to hear the call. 0:20:11.280 --> 0:20:15.639 You know, we weren't exactly sure who was somebody was 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:17.919 going to knock on the door, or how it was 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.720 going to go. But then we heard Bobby, you know, 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:22.720 the different students coming by. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.200 I remember being in the hallways yelling walk out, and 0:20:26.240 --> 0:20:29.439 I've been confronted by the vice principal telling me to 0:20:29.480 --> 0:20:30.480 go back to my class. 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:32.919 One thing that was going through my head as we 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:36.040 were walking out is I could see there was two 0:20:36.080 --> 0:20:40.560 teachers and I can't remember their names, but they look 0:20:40.840 --> 0:20:45.639 so sad because I had never seen that expression, you know, 0:20:45.680 --> 0:20:50.040 and I said, good, I interpret that expression that good. 0:20:50.359 --> 0:20:54.960 Feel bad because you have been discriminating against us. We 0:20:55.040 --> 0:20:59.239 have been abused, we have been treated badly, poorly as 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:00.480 second class citizens. 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:10.000 We walked out and we were in the courtyard, all 0:21:10.040 --> 0:21:15.120 the students, fifteen hundred plus students in the courtyard, and 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:18.600 we didn't know what we're going to do. You know, 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:24.320 there was like no plan of action, and I wanted 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:26.720 to stay you by you only side and my brother 0:21:26.800 --> 0:21:31.360 seemed to make sure that they nothing would happen to them. 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:33.639 While the student leaders were trying to figure out their 0:21:33.640 --> 0:21:36.760 next steps, one of their fellow organizers gone on top 0:21:36.800 --> 0:21:38.959 of a water fountain in the courtyard. 0:21:38.640 --> 0:21:43.399 And started yelling Chicano power and this and started getting 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:48.120 everybody all excited and being like the voice. 0:21:47.840 --> 0:21:51.040 You know, he got up and just not saying Chicano power, 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:53.679 he was saying we have the highest dropout rate. You know, 0:21:54.080 --> 0:21:59.280 it was a period of education for all the students 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.560 to hear. These are the grievances we are going to demand. 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:05.600 There should be no corporate punishment. 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.960 And I think it was either he or someone made 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.320 the decision, Let's go outside. What are we doing in here? 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:15.880 Nobody can see us in gire? What kind of statement 0:22:16.040 --> 0:22:16.240 is this? 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:24.920 They eventually spilled out from the courtyard into the streets 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:29.680 and continued chanting Chicano power and walk out. Over ninety 0:22:29.720 --> 0:22:32.159 percent of the student body from Lincoln walked out of 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:36.119 their classrooms that morning. The students walked to a local 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:39.400 park called Hazard Park, about a thirty minute walk from Lincoln. 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:43.040 The school board had an area office there. They swarmed 0:22:43.080 --> 0:22:46.199 the building, but there was only one superintendent there and 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:49.200 he wasn't able to address their concerns. Most of the 0:22:49.240 --> 0:22:52.200 students went back to class later that afternoon, but this 0:22:52.440 --> 0:22:53.840 was just the beginning. 0:22:53.840 --> 0:22:56.880 So it didn't last all day. The walkout itself. 0:22:57.160 --> 0:23:00.400 We went back into school, which was interesting to see, 0:23:00.800 --> 0:23:02.920 Like you really said, some of the teachers look sad, 0:23:03.000 --> 0:23:05.359 some of them looked excited. Someone that came up to 0:23:05.440 --> 0:23:08.359 us and without any words you know, either hugged us 0:23:08.440 --> 0:23:10.600