UMAS of Loyola-Marymount – CHST 404

This is part of a longer blog series, which you can find links to the previous as well as the next blog posts at the bottom of this blog.

I think its time I put some things into perspective and piece some of the history and blogs together.

I have complied a time line with the perspectives of the blogs but also some big events of the Chicano History.

1947: Mendez v. Westminster Supreme Court: This case is critical to the birth of the Chicana/o Studies program because it is the case that desegregated schools for Mexican and Mexican American students in Orange County California School.

1968:Chicano Blowouts: Stepping stone towards establishing a formal conversation around the development and implementation of the programs as students walked out in response to the lack of an inclusive curriculum and discrimination they felt in their classrooms.

Plan de Santa Barbara: Noted as the manifesto for implementing Chicano Studies educational programs.

United Mexican-American Students (UMAS) of Loyola-Marymount Proposes a Chicano Studies Department: In a pretty hefty document the students of UMAS began to demand a Chicano Studies Department at LMU.

1970:Chicano Moratorium: An anti-Vietnam war protest that united the Chicanos under one cause, yet it went terribly wrong.

1973: Loyola Marymount University(LMU) officially merge and changes its name to what we know it as currently.

Mexican-American Studies Program proposed at LMU: Five years after UMAS proposes an immediate implementation of a Chicano Studies Program, a proposal for a Mexican-American Studies program emerges.

1974: Chicana/o Studies Department is finally borned at LMU.

Mid 1970’s:Chicana feminist get recognized in El Movimiento thus allowing the discourse of our Chicana Feminism class to occur.

2010: Governor of Arizona signs HB2281 and Tucson Unified School District disbanded Mexican American Studies.

2012: LMU’s Centennial Celebration!

The start of my Chicana/o Studies blog series.

So although this is the end of the series, it is time to recognize this would not have been possible without the help and support of Dr. Annemarie Perez, Dr. Karen Mary Davalos, Raymundo Andrade, Mahnaz Ghaznavi, and Christine Megowan and all those who laid the foundation of the department that gave birth to my interest to its history. Gracias!

The Birth of the Chicana/o Studies Department, Setting the Stage, Students Propose a New Program, From Chicano Studies Department to Mexican- American Studies Degree Program, Capstone Project Gone Blog

This is part of a longer blog series, which you can find links to the previous as well as the next blog posts at the bottom of this blog.

Now the question was whether those expectations were going to be met.

The students knew they had to do their own research and put some work into the developing of the program so that is why within the Proposal for a Chicano Studies Department presented by the United Mexican American Students (UMAS) of Loyola-Marymount, they also include a preface to the actual program they wanted, an introduction and justification to the department and then even a description of the courses, and a suggested outline and bibliography cited from an introductory survey course at USC.

The Preface explains where UMAS did their reasearch and got their information from. It says that UMAS’s course proposal was taken from the proposal submitted at Valley State College (VSC), the precursor to California State University Northridge . The introduction was applied to Loyola University because of the inner-city environment it is also found in. While “the bibliography and the introductory La Raza course are borrowed from Professor de Ortega”, who is mentioned in the proposal but I did not find any information on. Although he is quoted to say that “there is no better environment for a Mexican American Studies Program than the humanist traditions of Loyola University… especially with the Jesuit influence in Latin American and Southwest History,” (page 12). Showing promise and someone who believed in what the students were doing. Through their work the students hoped that “a substantial portion of this proposal must be implemented by the fall of the 1970-71 session with core courses and introductory survey courses being implemented in the winter quarter of the 1969-70 session,” (page 12-13). The students had submitted something they hoped would ease the development because when you see the document as a whole you are taken back by how much thought and work was put into it. No wonder the students were expecting a quick turn around. And they knew it too, because they mention that “although the program is subject to revision, we [the UMAS students] do not consider it subject to extermination or delay” (page 13). They knew immediate implementation was unrealistic but demanded immediate action toward implementing the program. If the system failed, they even went on to state that it would cause Chicanos to continue to drop out and go somewhere else where the curriculum seemed more relevant. Additionally, UMAS states that they would discourage Chicanos from coming to Loyola-Marymount, if their demands were not taken seriously.

After such bold statements the department begins to develop with the introduction and justification coming from VSC and then we see the course proposal.

The course proposal has a four page long course list, broken into lower and upper division requirements. For upper division, the student has to choose a focus and thus gets the options to take humanities, social sciences, or education focused courses. It also has a course outline for a minor. Then it is followed by the outline and bibliography for an introductory survey course at USC which they hoped would serve as an example of the same basic structure that should be used at Loyola-Marymount.

And so it was left to the hands of those in charge because the students had done all that they could within the proposal.

Sources:

Loyola University. Student Affairs Record Group. UMAS Proposal, 1968. RG 7, Record Series E: Student Organizations, Box 5. Loyola Marymount University Archives, Department of Archives and Special Collections, William H. Hannon Library, LMU, Los Angeles.

Picture: http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/mecha_intro.htm

The Birth of the Chicana/o Studies Department, Setting the Stage,From Chicano Studies Department to Mexican-American Studies Degree Program, Capstone Project Gone Blog, So You Want to Take Introduction to Chicana/o Studies?, So Let’s Put Some of the Pieces Together