Mario T. García - The mario garcia omnibus e-book. Includes Blowout! And The Latino Generation.

2011 The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Set in Arnhem and TheSans

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Garca, Mario T.
Blowout!: Sal Castro and the Chicano struggle for educational justice/
Mario T. Garca and Sal Castro.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-8078-3448-0 (cloth: alk. paper)
ISBN 978-1-4696-1898-2 (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Castro, Sal. 2. Hispanic AmericansEducationUnited States.
3. Hispanic AmericansCivil rightsHistory20th century.
4. Educational equalizationUnited States. 5. Race
discriminationUnited States. 6. United StatesRace relations.
I. Castro, Sal. II. Title.
LA2317.C36G37 2011
371.82968073dc22
[B] 2010032656

cloth 15 14 13 12 11 5 4 3 2 1
paper 18 17 16 15 14 5 4 3 2 1

To Ellen McCracken,
whose love and support has sustained me
MARIO T. GARCA

To the students for their bravery,
to my father, Salvador, for his wisdom,
and to my mother, Carmen, for her
tenacity and humor, y Carlota
SAL CASTRO

Many Chicanos have long waited for The Sal Castro Story.
Professor Rodolfo Acua

We saw reflected in the world that people thought that something could be done. We felt we had to do what we could with our lives as well. That was a time in 1968.
Moctesuma Esparza

Change wasn't going to come from within; it had to come from without.
Paula Crisostomo

Speak truth to power and things will happen.
John Ortiz

The strike of 1968 went beyond the objectives of [Sal] Castro and others concerned only with improving education. It was the first loud cry for Chicano Power and self-determination, serving as the catalyst for the formation of the Chicano student movement, as well as the larger Chicano Power Movement of which it became the most important sector.
Professor Carlos Muoz

The blowouts reflected the opposition to cultural and national oppression.
Professor Juan Gmez-Quiones

The students had not only taught their parents about education, they also expanded what civil rights meant in America.
Henry Cisneros

Whatever else he may be, man is a social and an historical actor who must be understood, if at all, in close and intricate interplay with social and historical structures.
C. Wright Mills

Sal Castro at eight months with his parents, Salvador and Carmen Castro

Sal Castro at age two

Sal Castro at First Communion, age nine

Sal Castro at basic training, Fort Ord, California, 1953

Sal Castro graduation from Los Angeles State College, 1961

Sal Castro, Belmont High School, 1963

Sal Castro and Csar Chvez, Riverside, California, 1965

Paula Crisostomo, Lincoln High School student leader, 1968

Los Angeles police at the Garfield High School walkout, March 5, 1968

Harry Gamboa Jr. at the Garfield High School walkout, March 5, 1968

Brown Berets

Walkout students at Lincoln High School with Freddy Resendez on top of car, March 6, 1968

Sal Castro with walkout students at Lincoln High School, March 1968

Walkout students at Hazard Park, March 8, 1968

Sal Castro at walkout rally, Hazard Park, March 8, 1968

Walkout rally at Hazard Park, March 8, 1968

Walkout students with Senator Robert Kennedy, Los Angeles, March 10, 1968

Sal Castro at news conference after release from jail, June 4, 1968

Picketing in support of Sal Castro, Lincoln High School, September 16, 1968

Picketing in support of Sal Castro, Lincoln High School, September 1968

Sit-in at the Los Angeles Board of Education, September 26October 2, 1968

Celebration after Sal Castro is reinstated to his teaching position at Lincoln High School, October 3, 1968

Sal Castro teaching at Belmont High School, early 1970s

Sal Castro at Belmont High School, late 1980s or early 1990s

President Bill Clinton and Sal Castro, May 3, 1996

Sal Castro at Chicano Youth Leadership Conference, Camp Hess Kramer, December 2007

Sal Castro lecturing in Professor Mario T. Garca's class, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2007

Sal Castro and Paula Crisostomo, May 2006

Sal Castro with sons Gilbert and James, May 26, 2006

Sal Castro and Mario T. Garca, February 20, 2008

I would first like to thank Sal Castro for his support and patience for this project. Sal spent many hours with me as we conducted our interviews, and he provided me with materials from his private collection, including photos. Getting to know Sal Castro very well has been perhaps the most enduring part of this entire process. I also want to thank Elsa Cisneros for her work on Sal's corrections and additions to the manuscript. For granting me additional interviews for this project, I am indebted to Paula Crisostomo, Mita Cuarn, Moctesuma Esparza, Harry Gamboa, Vicki Castro, John Ortiz, Carlos Vsquez, Albert Valencia, Luis Torres, and Raul Ruiz. I want to thank Chuck Grench and the staff at the University of North Carolina Press for sticking with the manuscript while I did the revisions and for their consistent support and editorial assistance. I am very grateful to the two anonymous readers, who fully engaged with the manuscript and who provided excellent suggestions to strengthen it. They both represent what exemplary reviewers should be. I was aided in my work by grants and support from the Academic Senate at the University of CaliforniaSanta Barbara; UC MEXUS; and the Chicano Studies Institute. I also benefited from a sabbatical leave in 20067 to work on the initial draft of the manuscript. For the permission to use some of the photos in the book, I want to thank Simon Elliot in Special Collections at the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles; Christina Rice at the Los Angeles Public Library; Carmen Gamboa; Harry Gamboa; and Paula Crisostomo. I am indebted to Maura Jess in Instructional Development at UCSB, who expertly processed all of the photos for publication and creatively suggested the cover image. Finally, as always, I want to thank my wife, Ellen McCracken, for her love and support, as well as my children, Giuliana and Carlo, for theirs.

Mario T. Garca

I walk into my office building, always a bit anxious before my class. But today will not be any normal lecture. Today we have a very special guest. I know he is already waiting for me, having arrived the previous evening. As I open the door to my building, where I have a first-floor office, sure enough, there he isbigger than life. He flashes me that wonderful smile and with twinkling eyes prepares to give me a big abrazo.

Sal, so good to see you, I say, as I prepare to be hugged. Thanks for coming to speak to my class.

Hey, no problem, Dr. Garca, glad to do it.