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1970 Uvalde Walkout Book Project

My name is Alfredo R. Santos c/s. I grew up in Uvalde, Texas in the 1960s and currently live in Austin, Texas where I am a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin. My GOFund me project seeks financial assistance in completing a book on the 1970 Uvalde School Walkout. The funds raised will help to complete interviews, transcribe those interviews, purchase a high quality digital recorder, rent a camera and cover transportation costs over the summer. It is my hope to complete this book within the next 12 months.  

Background:

In 1970, we had a school-wide walkout in Uvalde, Texas. I was in high school at the time. The walkout started because the school board refused to extend the employment contract of a popular elementary teacher, Mr. Josue George Garza. Within a week the number of students participating in the walkout grew to over 500.

To say the least the city was shocked! The Texas Rangers were called in and tremendous pressure was put on the students to return to class. The Mexican American Parents Association was formed to speak on behalf of the students. MAPA, as it was called, went before the school board many times to try and reach a settlement. Not long after MAPA was formed, a group called the German American Parents Association was formed (GAPA). Every time MAPA addressed the school board, GAPA would follow them, ridicule them, and say the same things only substituting the word “German” for “Mexican.”

The Uvalde school walkout would last almost six weeks and became one of the longest school boycotts in public education history. As punishment for participating in the walkout, many students were required to repeat the entire academic year. Lawsuits were filed and ultimately the Uvalde school district was cited for 49 violations of the Civil Rights Act. It took 12 years for the school board to finally resolve the lawsuits.

Forty six years have passed since the walkout and there is no book on what happened. This past April I took an Oral History class at UT and the whole class travelled to Uvalde and interviewed several people who knew about or were in the walkout. Among them were, Mr. George Garza, the elementary teacher at the time was interviewed as was Elvia Perez, Olga Charles, Olga Muñoz Rodriguez (first secretary of MAPA) Sergio Porras, Jose Aguilera and Lee Lugo.  The interivews produced a lot of insight into what happened how people felt.

I have a list of an additional 45 other people I would like to interview. Some were in the walkout, some were not. It is important to include those who were not in the walkout because they too have a very interesting perspective of what happened during those six weeks.

If you would like to be interviewed, please contact me. If you would like to make a donation to help me complete this book project follow the instructions that are provided. Gracias a todos and I look forward to hearing from you.

Organizer

Alfredo Santos
Organizer
Austin, TX

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