This essay provides an overview of the huelga schools established in Houston, Texas, in 1970. For 2 years, from 1970 to 1972, the Mexican American community opposed the Houston Independent School District's plan to integrate the schools by pairing so-called White Mexican Americans with African American students. While they protested this decision,…

Reviews recent historical literature on the education of Chicanos in the United States. Identifies two major approaches, one which attempts to identify what educational institutions have done to and for Chicanos and the other which attempts to focus on the Chicanos' quest for educational equality. (JDH)

Recently a great deal of attention has been given to Chicano education. Much of the agitation for Chicano recognition within the educational system has been spearheaded by the youth in the public schools and by a small number of older and respectable Chicano activists and educators. This paper analyzes various educational reforms suggested by some…

In the early 1970s, thousands of Mexican-origin students, parents, and community members participated in legal and political actions against the Houston public schools. Their actions were sparked by the school district's effort in 1970 to circumvent a desegregation court order by classifying Mexican American children as "white,"…

Despite the efforts of Mexican American groups, such as the League of United Latin American Citizens and the G.I. Forum, and court orders to end segregation, schools in Texas continued to segregate Mexican American children. The political liberalism of these groups kept them from developing effective strategies against segregation. (IS)

Historical studies have tended to take a simplistic view of minority groups as passive victims of an oppressive and racist public school system. This book looks at Mexican Americans as active agents in history and documents their quest for educational equality in Texas--a state notorious for its record of inferior and separate schooling for…