UUCOC Conversations

Posted By Melissa Bartell on January 27, 2010

Crystal City 1969 was an inspiring play about the student walkout of Crystal City High School in 1969.

In the play, just a few students (three of them) were able to organize and have the courage to maintain the walkout to gain equal rights and opportunities for 85% of the population of the city.

The students, my age in fact, were able to rally the other students to get their families involved so where other protests had failed this one succeeded. A previous walkout had failed in 1963, and the students were drafted and vocal protesters were sent to the front line. Out of the soldiers sent, 9 out of 10 were Hispanic students, and almost all of them didn’t return home.

The 1969 protest succeeded because they got the entire community involved: the students in the high school, their siblings in the elementary school and their working parents. This was not without risk; the leaders were taunted and sometimes brutally beaten, and their parents would risk being fired if they dared join their children and leave work.

After the play the narrator said that if we wanted to stay and discuss it, we could. Most of the audience stayed we broke up into small groups of about three, and one of the actors came over to discuss the play with us. Still absorbing the play, I listened quietly as they talked about being around when this was happening. Then I started on how amazing I thought it was hat three students my age could change so much in so little time, and how these problems still exist in our society today. Although some of the players have changed, the game has not: there is still discrimination and hatred and there will always be groups scape-goated.

When I finished, the actor we were talking to looked at me and asked how old I was. “Sixteen,” I said proudly, and he just looked me over and said, “You don’t speak like a sixteen-year-old.” That sent a tingle down my spine, and I thanked him.

Then the director got on to the stage and asked us (the audience) if anyone wanted to share their thoughts on the play and any personal experiences.

Several people spoke about how they became bilingual teachers, because at that time students were beaten if they were caught speaking Spanish in class. After one of the leaders was sent to Washington, one result was that bilingual and bicultural education could be taught in schools.

One man, who was sent to Vietnam after the 1963 walkout, shared that if he had been more vocal he would have been sent to the front lines where he believes he would have been killed.
One woman found it very interesting that after the Chicanos won and had gained seats on the school board, in the next set of elections the men were not including the women in the discussions, and the women weren’t going to have any of that. You’ve seen what happens when Chicanos banded together: they were then included in the conversations.

Several people who were there at the 1969 spoke about being the in the walkout, which was quite moving, and then I raised my hand for the mic. I was one of the last to speak, and I wasn’t quite certain what to say.
I was one of the last to speak when I got the mike I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to say.

I stood up with the mic in my hand, and started talking: I said what I had said to the actor about how people will always find someone to blame and someone to discriminate against, and how programs like this are so important so that we learn how stop injustice. Trying to keep my voice steady, I explained how inspired I was by the fact that three students that were my age could really make a difference. Then I said that people like me are already making a difference – that my teen group at church had invested in Kiva microlending and had helped over 70 people in the developing world. I concluded with how important plays like this are so that we remember the past and we can change the future and that people can change the world.

Categories: Social Justice, Teen Talk
Tags: Teen Talk