A National Institution Paves Over Latine Movements

The pivotal role of Latinas in the U.S. civil rights and militant power movements of the 1960’s and 1970’s is being pushed to the front in response to attempts to make that herstory invisible.

From leading revolutionary groups like the Young Lords Party, to coordinating massive school walkouts, Chicana, Puerto Rican and other Latine women hit the streets with defiance and a vision for transformation, organizing young people and communities for action. They challenged mass sterilization policies, police brutality, racism, the denial of basic services, colonialism, sexism, and the exploitation of workers, leaving a foundation of resistance to oppression for the next generation.

Some of this history was slated to be a part of an exhibition by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino. But right-wing Latinos attacked this project and a previous one, claiming that “the museum was being used to advance an ideologically biased narrative” and called for defunding it. The Smithsonian and Museum then nixed the exhibit, replacing it with a salsa music project.

After reports surfaced last fall about the shelving of the exhibit, former Young Lord Iris Morales was outraged but not shocked. "It's not surprising to me that they want to control the narrative, which is always controlled by those in power," she said.

“It's not surprising to me that they want to control the narrative, which is always controlled by those in power”

Primarily based in the east coast, the Young Lords Party (the YLP) was known for direct actions, including taking over a Bronx hospital to force New York City to address horrible conditions there. While predominantly Puerto Rican, the YLP included African American women like Denise Oliver-Velez and Cleo Silvers, meaning that the exclusion at the Smithsonian goes beyond impacting Latines and also departs from efforts to dismantle a white-centered lens on U.S. history.

“One little museum is not going to erase us,” Morales said. “As a matter of fact, if they don’t include the people’s stories, it will not be a very successful museum in the long run.”

History professors and guest curators Johanna Fernández and Felipe Hinojosa were in charge of putting together the canceled exhibition which was already 65% underway, according to Hinojosa. “These conservatives are using fear to push through their agenda and now this has reached a federal museum and not just any federal museum, but the largest network of museums in the world,” Fernández said in an interview with Democracy Now!.

The attack on the exhibit is in the context of an assault on BIPOC studies and books, attacks that have been relentless in recent years but that also date way back.

To increase awareness about this erasure, the Department of Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies (CLS) at California State University, Los Angeles will host a March 19th town hall. “This meeting is going to be iconic,” said Rachael Ochoa, who was a leader in the 1968 student walkouts. “We are all united at this age because what’s more important than to get the word out to anybody who can be part of our legacy?”

The 1968 East Los Angeles Walkouts, or Blowouts, brought attention to the systemic educational discrimination against Mexican American and other Latine students. Some teachers and schools openly prohibited students from speaking Spanish while the system steered Chicanos to domestic or vocational programs instead of college preparation.

“God forbid if you spoke Spanish,” Ochoa said. She recalled how an elementary school teacher grabbed a bar of soap and yelled at a Spanish-speaker, “‘wash your mouth out!’ That was the threat and humiliation for speaking Spanish.”

In March of 1968, thousands of largely Chicano high school students left their classrooms and marched in protest through a coordinated walkout that would help build momentum for a wider Mexican American movement.

Margarita “Mita” Cuarón remembers the hostility she was subjected to after walking out. “I was returning to school to resume classes after being suspended an extra two weeks,” Cuarón recalled. “The teacher looks up and says ‘look who’s decided to come back after all the trouble she caused in preventing all of you from getting an education.’”

Cuarón is furious about the cancellation of the exhibit. “This is just history repeating itself. It’s not amnesia, it’s not forgetfulness—it’s willful neglect.”

In the end, the three women agree: to confront this issue they see strength in unity. “We were young back then but we are not afraid anymore. As elders, we are more determined than ever to inspire young aspiring activists,” Ochoa said.

“They disregarded us, thinking that ‘oh, those old women, they’re not going to do anything.’ Well, they were rudely awakened,” Cuarón added.

“Our power always lies in the masses of people making their demands heard,” Morales said. “Young people will continue to search for their stories, every generation does that. They're not going to erase us.”

Information about the “Willful Neglect & The Future of Latina/o/x History at the Smithsonian” Town Hall can be found here.