Chicano Student Walkout 50th Anniversary Celebration!

Activists, community leaders, and academics will hold a conference at Our Lady of the Lake University, UTSA-Downtown and the Guadalupe Theater November 20-22, 2019 (Wednesday through Friday) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mexican American high school student strikes of the 1960s and early 1970s. Known as walkouts the strikes occurred in several Texas cities, California and other states.

In San Antonio protests occurred at Edgewood and Lanier High Schools in 1968. Our own Manuel Garza, Chairperson of the WETC Advisory Board, a lifelong resident and advocate for the Edgewood community, not only participated in but also orchestrated the walk outs in Edgewood. In addition to Manuel, several others, including Mario Compean, Nacho Perez and Diana and Richard Hernandez, did as well and continue to live in and/or serve the Edgewood and Westside San Antonio community.

The conference will honor the courageous students that organized the strikes and will assess the impact the strikes had on the educational system. It will also look at the current status of education of Mexican Americans.

The Conference is free and open to the public. For more information and to register go to: https://chicanohistorytx.org/. Please attend!

And the next time you see Manuel at WETC, why not thank him for his efforts on behalf of Mexican American students? Gracias!