UC Riverside

This research analyzes the oral histories of five Chicanx students and their educational experiences in the Los Angeles Unified School District between the years 1950 and 1969. By using Anzaldúa’s (1967) theory of Nepantla, I analyze how Chicanx students experienced the complexities of belonging to multiple identities, languages, and cultures in the United States. Specifically, this study analyzes how educational spaces marginalized and oppressed Chicanx individuals who entered educational spaces speaking Spanish. In this oral history analysis I demonstrate, first, that K-12 educational institutions promoted language ideologies that deemed Chicanx speakers as deficient and in need of remediation through schooling practices that attempted to eradicate their linguistic repertoires. Second, I demonstrate that schooling practices, such as the segregation and the racialization of the Spanish language, led Chicanx students to question their identity as Mexican Americans living in the United States, resulting in school spaces feeling like a place of alienation for them. Last, I demonstrate that Chicanx students were able to resist and reclaim their identities by creating spaces of belonging through community uplifting efforts. Collectively, the efforts of Chicanx communities led to a movement that reconstructed Spanish speakers’ home language and culture as an asset, ultimately enhancing students’ educational experiences and awareness of discriminatory school practices. This research reiterates the importance of embracing the intersection of identities that Students of Color enter schooling spaces with, while simultaneously acknowledging that identities are not rigid social constructs. The implications of this research is to connect Chicanx history to the present to ensure that the efforts of Chicanx in the 1950’s and 1960’s are recognized and that the same linguistically and culturally oppressive practices are not repeated in today’s educational practices.