Whitewashing the past

Forty-six years ago, a group of Denver high school students and Chicano supporters participated in a walkout. Some were beaten by police and arrested. They were protesting the fact that a history teacher was teaching them a washed-over, ethnocentric version of history. When they asked to include more of their own experience in the lesson plan, they were ignored.

Carlos Santistevan was arrested during that walkout. He was a founding member of the Chicano rights group, Crusade for Justice, which organized the event with the high school students. As the anniversary for his walkout came a few days ago, on March 20, Santistevan reflects on that day and notes that many of the issues fought for that day are still being fought today in Colorado schools.

In 1969, Jeannie Perez was in Denver’s West High School. She was the daughter of a member of Crusade for Justice and one of a small number of students of Hispanic descent in the school. One day, Santistevan says, Perez’s history teacher belittled her identity.

“One of the things that came up, first of all, was her teacher at West High School was mispronouncing her name,” Santistevan says. “Her name was Perez, and she corrected him. The teacher, being spiteful, started calling her ‘Parrish.’ And he did it purposely, even though she corrected him. So Jeannie began to correct some of his history. He was talking about American history, and he was not too happy with [being corrected]. So he challenged her and said, ‘Bring some teachers to class, and let me hear what they have to say about American history.’” 

The teachers to whom Jeannie’s teacher was referring were members of Crusade for Justice, including Santistevan, Chicano leader Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales and others. The group decided it might be a good idea to take the teacher up on his offer.

“[Gonzales and others] went to the class and when they got there, [the teacher] left the class so he didn’t even give them the privilege of even caring what they had to say,” Santistevan says.

So the group reconvened and galvanized support to remove the teacher from the school. By consulting with Perez, other students and their parents, the group sought to gain support before making a push to remove the teacher.

“[Members] said, ‘Why don’t you talk to your parents? Let’s see if we can talk to them and gain support so they as parents can get involved with this so we can resolve this problem.’ That was the important part,” Santistevan says. “That was a key thing that we just didn’t want the students to start something and then it wouldn’t go any place. But by having their parents support them, it would make more sense.”

So Gonzales called the principal, Santistevan says, and arranged a meeting with him, administrators and parents. He says “there were a lot of people to listen” at that meeting, and when it was adjourned the principal “agreed … that it was important to get rid of this teacher.”

But after a few days, the Crusade learned that the administration was not going to get rid of the teacher and that, in fact, “even the teachers at the school supported the teacher.”

In response, the group reconvened and discussed the topic at their next meeting.

“[Crusade members] said, ‘Well, what do you want to do?’ and [Perez and the students] said, ‘Maybe we should stage a walkout to get the attention of the school.’ So we asked them, ‘How many fellow students support you?’ and they said, ‘Maybe 50.’ 

 “So that night, the Crusade members helped them put together leaflets and picket signs, and the plan was the students would go to school the next day and hand out leaflets calling for a walkout at about 9 o’clock. And some of the adults and members told them we would be there to support them.

“So about 9 o’clock, a few students began to leave. Pretty soon 300 people were outside plus some of the adults that were there to support them.

“Well the police were there in riot gear, and they blocked the entrance to the school. But the student organizers had a blow horn, and they were talking to the kids about why they felt it was important to walkout. And the crowd started to get a little larger. And [a student] asked Corky [Gonzales] to come up to the steps to speak, and when Corky was going up to speak, the police ordered the crowd to go across the street to the park.

“Some of us didn’t hear the order so we just sort of stood there. So the police began to push the crowd and some of the students fell. Some of the students were kicked by police that had fallen. So some of the students started to fight back because they didn’t want to get hit by police. And that sort of started a riot.”

Santistevan lets out a big laugh at this point in telling the story.

“And it was not a happy scene. Then the police started to use mace and clubs, and they were really going at it. Some of the girls were dragged by their hair into the street.”

A neighborhood newspaper writer at the time, Jim Hall, was at the event and wrote in the West Side Recorder after the fact that, “Everything broke loose — night sticks started swinging and cops were pulling girls’ hair by the handful. Nearly every cop I saw had a mindless look and was beating kids savagely.”

“I happened to look up,” Santistevan says, “and saw this guy in street clothes and he’s rushing and throwing Corky to the ground so immediately my response was, ‘Hey, what are you doing?’ and went over and tried to pull them off, and that’s how I got arrested.”

By the end of the episode, 25 people were arrested and six people were injured including a police officer. Santistevan was taken to jail and he says they were told they would be held for investigation, which means they’d be in jail for 72 hours. In jail, Santistevan remembers a swell of support from those on the outside.

“We were on the top floor, and I remember looking out the window, and all of a sudden we see a bunch of people turning the corner, and there was a lot of support for us, and they demanded that they let us out,” he says.

In actuality, 1,200 students of varying races from several Denver middle and high schools had gathered together and organized a march to nearby Lincoln Park. Shortly thereafter, the arrested protestors were released after Gonzales, a former bondsman, was offered release on bail, but he refused until all were let go. The authorities obliged and Santistevan and the rest were released.

Santistevan says the event has personal and cultural impacts. It remains as a symbol of the power of protest, he says, and several Denver schools installed their first Latino administrators after the fact. He says teachers who had changed their names from Spanish pronunciations to sound more Americanized felt freer to change them back, or at least, those who would have changed their names didn’t necessarily feel compelled to do so.

The Chicano movement as a whole, Santistevan says, was responsible for a lot of growth in his life — he set up the first Chicano art gallery in 1968, and organized Chicano artists in the late ’70s for a humanity and arts council.

Santistevan says the West High School walkout and protest certainly differed in violence and impact from the ones seen last year in Jefferson County schools, but the impetus was unfortunately similar: that history was being misrepresented and manipulated.

“I saw that,” he says of the Jefferson County schools walkouts. “I support the students because some of the students were protesting the way American history is being fed to them. I compliment them because they had the guts to say, ‘Teach us what real American history is. Don’t try to teach us this filtered, right wing of what American history is. We are a nation of many things to many people, and we should acknowledge that.’” 

And now History Colorado, a Smithsonian Affiliate, is hosting a new exhibit, El Movimento: Chicano Movement in Colorado through October 25 to celebrate, commemorate and remind people of the efforts and outcomes of the movement. The exhibit examines some of the larger outcomes of the Chicano movement including how Mexican and Latino cultures have shaped what it means to be American.

“One of my favorite sayings is, ‘As a Chicano we’re a slice of Americana. And Americana has different slices,’” Santistevan says.