Part of: Cynthia Valadez oral history (5 objects)
Cynthia Valadez oral history - Cynthia Valadez oral history
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- Q: All right, picking back up again after that break, and -- here you go. (laughs)
- A: So, you know, having been active, very active, with Raza Unida and MAYO and all those things way
- back in the day, now, you know, I’m -- I remain active with Tejano Democrats, which is the second
- iteration of the Mexican American Democrats, which was used as the Latino arm of the Democratic
- Party, state Democratic Party, and I remain active with them, and go to all the statewide meetings
- with respect to our Latino population and how they’re benefiting from campaigns
- that the state Democratic Party has entered into, and fighting for dollars to be expended
- in our community. But we want those dollars to be handled by people from our community.
- We don’t want to see university students coming in from Michigan to come work a campaign in the
- Latino community, the Tejano community, let’s say, in East Austin or the Valley or whatever.
- That’s not what we want. We want the state Democratic Party to sit there and give our
- organizations and our communities the ability to decide for themselves how they’re best going to
- spend that dollar in order to register more people to vote, in order to get more people to the polls,
- and to maintain a level of participation in the political and electoral policy -- politics
- -- political arena. So that’s -- we’re still working on that. We’re still fighting for that.
- There are a lot of issues that have directly impacted the quality of our bilingual students,
- our special ed students that are also bilingual within the school systems.
- There are policies that have been enacted that we have fought against very hard,
- and -- including what kind of -- who can go onto a campus. A parent could not go to campus
- previously here in AISD. A parent could not walk onto the campus to go have lunch with her child
- unless they have legal status, unless they have proof of who they were.
- And I’m proud to say that I brought in some friends of mine who were with MALDEF.
- We had meetings with the administration, AISD. And we changed that policy so that
- all you had to do was provide a mica, or whatever. That means you didn’t have to have legal status,
- okay, just some form of ID, which could’ve been in the form of a pasaporte or a mica,
- you know, as opposed to, you know, some form of, you know, being a permanent resident, or
- having gone through INS, or whatever, which is what they were really trying to do,
- and we got them to stop that. They changed -- they had to change that policy,
- and that was because they bought software that Bush’s family (laughs) was actually selling to
- school districts around the United States. So anyway, things like that we still have to monitor
- all the time. Our special ed students that are bilingual, let’s say they’re eligible for
- speech therapy, okay. Of all the therapies in the special ed arena, the only one -- the
- only therapist that is equal to a teacher in the provision of services and resources to a student
- is a speech therapist. They’re equal to a teacher. So if you have a bilingual special ed student
- who needs to have speech therapy, if they’re bilingual,
- the speech therapist should be bilingual, don’t you think?
- Because what they’re doing is they’re going to teach that student. They’re going to be able to
- communicate with that student in their language. And they’re also going to be able to communicate
- with the parents, and let the parents know what is the strategy -- what are the strategies,
- what is being -- the -- what’s the curriculum, what’s the -- what is being put in place,
- so that that could be supported and reinforced in the house. So you have the school and the home
- working together to support the spec-- the needs of the special ed student, okay? AISD
- normally had previously, historically made sure that the therapists were
- bilingual for a bilingual student. They changed that policy and said, “Well, we don’t have enough
- bilingual speech therapists, or speech therapists that can speak to -- speak in this particular
- language,” which was Spanish, because that was the majority language. So what we’ll do is we’ll
- contract with a consulting firm, and we’ll pay our bilingual speech therapist to have
- consult time with the contracted therapist who only speaks English, doesn’t speak Spanish, and
- that person will be the person who is actually conducting the therapy
- on the bilingual student. Mind you, it’s an English-speaking speech therapist doing
- bilingual speech therapy to a bilingual special ed student. They can’t do it. They can’t do it.
- But all they were going to pay for was the consulting fee between the bilingual -- the
- actual bilingual speech therapist, who should’ve been providing the services,
- and letting the English therapist, speaking therapist do that. So when they first did that,
- and we found out, we went -- again, we fought that.
- Brought in our MALDEF friends -- Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund -- and
- they -- we made a big deal about it with the administration and the School Board members.
- So that policy, even though he had already been approved, they had to step back, undo the policy,
- and so now you get your bilingual speech ed -- or bilingual special ed students getting
- actual bilingual speech therapy, not the way it was that they had envisioned it to be.
- But those are little things that are continuing to happen to diminish the services that are being
- provided to our other-than-English speakers, okay? Q: Do you know when the bilingual program
- emerged? Because I know it prob-- A: Well, it was -- the Bilingual Act
- was approved in 1970. Q: Okay. And --
- A: That’s why it was 1970 (laughter) when my parents moved to Dallas.
- Q: Yes, but -- I know because I -- to my knowledge, there were some schools that
- would not allow -- A: Well, T--
- Q: -- any Spanish at all at school, and that’s what -- why I’m wondering -- kind
- of bringing it back a little bit, but -- A: Okay, so 1970 is when the Bilingual
- Act was passed, but the agency responsible for monitoring the Bilingual Act is TEA.
- TEA is only as strong as its administrators, okay? So if the administrators
- have shown less interest in complying with the intent and the spirit of the Bilingual Laws,
- there’s nothing anybody can do about it except sue. Okay, they forcing legal action in order to
- mediate, or remediate, what the administrative arm of the government has not fulfilled, and that is
- full compliance with the Bilingual Act. And so if you have a Republican, or you have a partis-- you
- have a Republican, a Republican legislature who thinks that we should only be speaking English
- in Texas, the attitude of the administrators -- they appoint all the executive directors for all
- the state agencies. That executive director that they -- it’s a political appointment.
- Those people are going to bring in their people, who are going to have the same mindset,
- the same thoughts, the same values system: English only, English only.
- And so if you want to ever enact full compliance, or you want to make sure that you’re in full
- compliance of the Bilingual Law, how are you going to do it if the people who are supposed to
- be monitoring those programs, or compliance with those programs, have that mentality?
- How is that going to happen? It’s not going to happen. That is exactly where we are at right now.
- That is exactly where we are at. That happens when people don’t vote. That happens when people don’t
- see the importance of registering to vote, of actually going out and voting, and electing
- people who have the same values system that they do. So if we believe that it’s important
- for us to be multicultural, multilingual, in order to be able to have a better chance of getting
- a job, or be successful in a global economy, in a global world, okay, then it’s not going to happen
- if you’re doing English-only. It’s not going to happen if you’re not providing the same level
- of excellence, of quality of programming, in something other than the English language. Ysleta
- ISD -- I’m going to use them as an example. Ysleta ISD for -- has for 20 years developed
- a successful dual language program. They’re graduating kids -- from the time they enter
- the school system, they’re graduating from high school, some of them are speaking more than
- two and three languages, fluently, and this is academic vocabulary, not just communication.
- You understand? Not just street communication. They’re graduating with an ama-- academic
- vocabulary, in more than two languages. And their students are being accepted at
- top colleges throughout the United States. Those are able to compete in the global economy, okay?
- They are able to compete in a world that is not English-speaking. And that’s the majority of the
- people in this -- on this Earth. The majority of the people on this Earth -- more people speak
- Spanish than English. More people -- it may be important now to know how to speak Chinese,
- because of the control over our economy. But that attitude, that mentality is what has got to
- change. So if I am a voter here in Travis County, City of Austin, what I urge our Board of -- our
- School Board to do is to enact policies like they have in El Paso and in Ysleta, where your
- mission statement is to graduate students who are prepared to succeed in a global economy,
- multilingual, multicultural. That’s -- that hasn’t -- that change has not happened here
- in Austin yet, but it has over there. And not only that, they’ve also developed
- grow-your-own programs that have been in place for decades,
- where they’re successfully growing teachers, their own teachers from their own poverty
- communities. They’re graduating from high school. They’re graduating from college.
- They’re going -- they’re coming back out, and they’re teaching in the same neighborhoods in
- which they were born and raised. Okay? They are doing that with doctors now that they
- have the medical school in place. They’re growing their own doctors who are culturally competent,
- because they came from the same communities that they came from, they were born and raised in,
- okay? That’s a -- talk about giving back to your community. Talk about raising the bar
- of consciousness and quality of life in a particular community. That’s how you do it.
- And when we start -- when we are forward-thinking, and adopting
- those what I believe to be very necessary -- they’re not visionary anymore; they’re practical.
- Those are strategies that need to be implemented in order for our students to become successful.
- And so we have to continue to be vigilant, to make sure that you, as a high school student going into
- college, graduating from college, looking to the real world in order to get a job, or if you want
- to go back home, make sure you’re bringing those skills, so that students behind you, generations
- behind you, are going to be able to benefit from what change you have made in your community.
- So there are a lot of people that have worked on these things. I’m not alone.
- There are a lot of people who have worked with me, and I have worked with a lot of people. I’m not
- going to take credit for anything. I’m not going to be like that. I know what I have done. And
- a lot of this, somebody will say, “Oh, yes, that was Cynthia’s idea. She did that. She fought
- for that.” But I think it’s much better -- it’s a much better approach for us to look at how we have
- effected change, how we have brought more people to the table, and how we are becoming more open
- to including, you know, more -- how we become more inclusive as opposed to exclusive,
- how we brought more people to the table that actually have benefited from
- the -- what it is that we believe to be important, and made them a part of the process.
- That’s what’s important. So -- Q: Okay, well, I guess another question
- that I have -- again, this might be going back a bit to a little earlier in the conversation, but
- as -- when you were a UT student, how did you feel about, like, seeing your professor being actively
- involved, like Armando Gutierrez, like, his involvement? Like, what did it mean to you to see,
- like, a professor being actively involved, or as -- corresponding with you, working with you,
- rather than how would you maybe see the administration or anything like, you know,
- that relationship, I guess, versus someone -- A: Well, it was real. In dealing with it, most
- administrators and most old-school professors have an arm’s -- at least an arm’s-length relationship
- with their students. They may not even want to talk to their students. They would bring in a
- TA. “You deal with the TA, because, you know, I’ve got to concentrate on doing my research,
- and it being published, if I want to maintain my position here at the University of Texas.”
- And I understand that attitude. I understand that culture. But I don’t think that that culture
- is right, not when I can look to see what billions of dollars are being expended on
- programming, such as athletics, that has nothing to do with academia,
- okay? Which is why the University of Texas was created. It was to provide academics. It was to
- improve the educational attainment level of our citizens, of our Texas residents, and not to win
- football games, okay? I can understand how that brings money in, but that money is of no use to
- a student trying to get an education if it’s only dedicated to improving an athletic program,
- okay, where somebody can end up developing some brain traumatic injury (laughter)
- that’s going to put them on the healthcare rolls that somebody else -- that they may not have
- even access to healthcare after they graduate from the university,
- or drop out of the university because they suffered this brain traumatic injury, okay?
- So in dealing with the professors that I came to know and have a great respect for at the
- University of Texas, people like Mando -- Armando Gutierrez -- or Emilio Zamora, or Nacho Campos,
- or, you know, Alberto Treviño, or, you know, all these other people -- Evie Chapa -- these
- are professors that made a direct impact on their students’ lives, because they had relationships
- with them, because they were not held to be students at arm’s -- kept at arm’s-length. They
- were equals. They were somebody -- they were peers who had the benefit of everyday conversations,
- whereby each were learning from the other. That -- there’s nothing more important than that, because
- those shared experiences and shared conversations is what remain, as far as I’m concerned,
- most important in a human’s life. You know, when you have that personal interaction,
- that personal communication, and that personal relationship with a professor, you know,
- who we’re benefiting from their experience, their knowledge, their perspective, even though we may
- not necessarily agree with it, we’re benefiting from that. And the fact that they are willing to
- engage us at that same level is what is most important, I think, about the learning process.
- And that is what we students will take with us to the next level when we’re no longer
- on that campus. We may be in a workforce, and in order to bring up someone behind us, okay,
- how can we best know to do that? We can know that -- we can -- we are mo-- if we can model the
- behaviors that we learn from our professors that we had a hands-on, basically, relationship with,
- then we can help in the arena -- the economic arena outside the university or academia, academic
- arena. We can bring those people up, too. And as we bring each other up, we raise that bar, you
- know, that quality of life for everybody, okay? So that’s a big difference in a culture, in changing
- a culture, in changing a mindset, is to be able to have that experience of working with and sharing
- with, and viewed as an equal to or a peer with -- peer to -- you know, a professor and a student.
- Yes, they’re the professor. They can give us the grade, (laughter) and tell us what to do. But to
- be able to actually have a relationship, and be able to communicate with them as an equal, and,
- you know, being given that same level of respect that we give them, is the lesson to be learned,
- and to be benefited from. Q:
- All right, well, let’s see -- what else can I touch back up on that you’ve mentioned before?
- A: Was that okay? Q: Yes, oh, yes, that was fine.
- (laughter) And I wasn’t looking for, like, a specific, like, example, but I was just wondering,
- like, how that shaped your activism as, like, having a relationship with -- a good relationship
- with a professor. You know, because I feel that does affect part of your student activism,
- if you’re involved, if you’re very sort of -- if you feel you have a, you know, a certain level of
- support from somebody else, you know, especially if you’re trying to gain administrative attention.
- It helps you have some staff support, as well. A: That’s right. And not being ego-driven,
- okay? It can’t be ego-driven. So when you have those mentor relationships,
- it’s a mutual -- it’s a mutually benef-- it’s a mutually beneficial relationship,
- when that experience and that process is actually in play. You know, so administratively -- when
- you’re going to the administrators, you know, my experience has been -- well, at UT, (laughter) my
- experience has been, forget it, man. You can go speak until you’re blue in the face, [Spanish],
- because they aren’t going to change one damn thing! And what I’ll find -- that’s today.
- Even today, going to -- speaking before the Board of Regents -- you know, the Board of Regents at
- the University of Texas, oh, my God, when they have their meetings, you may have one -- you know,
- the Mexicana from Houston, she may listen to you and want to particip-- want to talk to you,
- and may talk to you afterwards, but I promise you when she’s -- when they’re in the meeting,
- the chair, el manda, okay? And you better not go crosswise with that. So that proves to me
- that very little has changed in that system. Very little has changed. And I think that that
- would be reflective -- I mean, the proof of that is if you look at level by level,
- have the numbers changed? Have the demographics changed? You know, level -- from the top
- down? From the top down, if they haven’t, that’s proof things are the same. Things are the same.
- And since we -- they rely on the legislature,
- okay, they rely on the legislature, and we’ve seen how the legislature has changed, you know,
- and is becoming much more exclusive, much more ideological, much more partisan-oriented,
- you know, there’s going to be less chance of that changing, okay, now, in this environment,
- until something drastic happens. And like I said, you know, the vote makes a big difference.
- Political participation makes a big difference, because that is where we’re going to see change
- occur: at the top. And it’s not going to happen unless we have a whole new slate of legislators,
- different minds-- with a different culture and a different mindset. Because then,
- they can sit on the Board of Regents, and tell the Board of Regents, “Well, we’re going to hold
- back your money, because you’re not doing this, this, and this,” okay? They’re the only ones that
- can do that. No one else can. So -- Q: All right. Well, let me see,
- what -- there is one thing that I did want to ask you, too, that you had mentioned earlier,
- and this is, like, a bit -- way back. Do you -- your phone is ringing. Do you want
- me to pause it? A: No.
- Q: Okay, so still continuing. One thing that I thought was interesting you mentioned was, like,
- the Brown Berets. And usually you hear about them more in the San Antonio area,
- at least from what I’ve read. You know, you don’t really hear about them in Austin. You
- know, can you tell me a bit more about that? A: Oh, yeah. Well, they still exist here in
- Austin. They’re -- they, you know -- Paul Hernandez is still a Brown Beret. Gilbert
- Rivera’s still a Brown Beret. There’s still leadership. They’re not as -- they’re not
- as big an organization as they used to be. I don’t think we’ve gone back to that level of
- activism, you know, where we’re marching in the streets, screaming, yelling, and demonstrating,
- sometimes with violence that you often saw when you were dealing with the Brown Berets. And there
- were. They’re in Dallas. They’re in the Valley. They’re in Austin. They’re all over the place.
- And they serve their purpose, too. You know, they have -- every group has a purpose,
- but only when we work all together. You know, because there’s many ways to skin a cat,
- so all -- by all of us working together to effect that change, you know, it requires that
- there be different kinds of organizations with different skillsets and different perspectives
- on dealing with things. So they still exist here. Paul -- like I said, Paul’s still around,
- but he’s got some neurological issues. But Gilbert Rivera has medical problems. He’s just now pulling
- out from everything. But they’re still around. Basco, a lot of people still here. If you wanted
- to talk to them. I can give you Gilbert’s phone number. (laughter) You can talk to him. And he’s
- the one that’s married to Jane, Jane Rivera, who used to be a professor. She’s retired from UT.
- They live right down the street. Q: Okay. (laughs) I guess, in all, how
- would you just sum up your activism, if you were to sum it up in, like, one word? Like --
- A: I’ve always tried to feel like I stand true for what I believe in,
- that I’ve got integrity. I stick to my guns. I will ultimately acquiesce. If I -- you know,
- I can admit that I’m wrong to a person that convinced me. They can convince me of that.
- I’m not afraid or ashamed to say, “I’m wrong. Okay, I’m sorry, I made a mistake.”
- I sh-- you know, I apologize if I offended someone in my tactics. But never take what I say
- or what I do personally, because they’re not done with any malintent. They’re done
- because that is a strategy that may -- I may have perceived needed to be used at the time.
- I’m not here because I -- I’m not here to -- I don’t believe that it’s my role
- to be only one way, with respect to whatever it is, issue I’m addressing. You know,
- if I need to be this way, if I need to be very hard-lined, or very -- perceived to
- be aggressive or assertive, then I will be it. If it -- if I need to be more mellow,
- and low, you know, it’s -- you know, what cauti-- precau-- what is it? Not cautious, but more
- flying under the -- flying under the radar -- (laughter)
- Q: Anonymous? A: Not --
- it’s not anonymous, because they’ll know it’s me. (laughter) But if I have to be more
- in the front, I’m not afraid of playing in the back, and trying to work on things behind the
- scenes. Okay, that’s what I guess I’m saying. And I can be very firm, just as I can be very gentle
- in addressing a particular issue, and depending on what the situation requires,
- okay? Because each situation may be different.
- But I’m not afraid to play whatever role I need to play. And I think that’s all of us in life.
- Okay? And in trying to achieve a particular goal. Q: Mm-hmm. All right. So I guess that’s how you
- would sum up, like, what you have -- what you had done in the ’70s. Like, you played both roles. You
- played (overlapping dialogue; inaudible) -- A: Oh, back in the ’70s I was very --
- Q: You were [always at the front?]. A: -- in-your face! Oh, yeah! (laughter) Well,
- back then I was very much in my -- in-your-face, and not so -- (sighs) (pause)
- I guess not so -- not quiet. I wasn’t a -- I didn’t walk -- what is, quietly? And carry a
- big stick? (laughter) No! I was -- walked loudly and carried a big stick. Well, that’s just the
- way I was. I tended to be much more -- things were more black-and-white for me back then.
- Now I can step back, in my old age, and realize there’s other things. You know, I can understand
- better where they were coming from, when you take in the historical context of their environments,
- and how they were raised, okay, and what was appropriate for them in the situation here.
- I was born and raised in the Valley. I was very proud. I came from a people who were
- very proud of who and what they were, of their culture, of being brown, okay?
- Very, very proud. So my self-esteem level, my confidence level is way up here, even though
- I don’t have a college degree. As far as I’m concerned, it’s what’s in between my two ears
- that is my war chest. This is where -- this is what makes me who I am,
- and not a little piece of paper. However, that may not be the case for other people, depending
- on where they were born and raised. It’s been my experience, just my observation,
- that the further north you went from the Valley, from the Rio Grande, from the river -- because
- this could be -- you could be in the Rio; you could be in El Paso; you could be where,
- Brownsville -- the further north you went, the further away from your roots that you got,
- the easier it may have been for you to assimilate, or become acculturated,
- and lose your identity, and therefore not necessarily have that confidence, that esteem
- in who and what you were. Because at that point, you really don’t know who or what you are, because
- you don’t have that historical perspective. You don’t have the roots. You don’t have that tie.
- You may come from a second or third or fourth generation living in an area,
- let’s say, like Austin or Dallas, where if you’re not coming from first-generation -- because
- the Val-- when you’re in the Valley, when you’re along the riv-- born and raised along the river,
- you’re too close. You’ve got family -- it’s all -- it’s on both sides. You come further north
- and you’re dealing with people who may have been much -- the breaking down, taking away of your
- language, taking away of your culture, taking away of your -- who -- you know,
- your self-confidence may have been easier to do, because you’re not next to or surrounded by people
- like you. Okay? So if you’re just a few people in a sea of white, if you’re a few people of color
- in a sea of white, it’s easier to -- for you to have learned lessons, you know, from your parents,
- or their -- your grandparents who may have been second or third generation in that sea of white,
- who were always, you know -- may have been put down, or may have been
- not allowed to reach their full potential, because of fear of the white society,
- okay? Because of their fear, not yours. Because of their fear. So their fear, for you to be an
- equal to them, is you look different than they do, you speak differently than they do, and so
- that’s fear of the unknown. We’re just going to put you down or shut you up. And generations of
- being put down and shut up, what is that going to do to a grandchild or great grandchild when
- all they ever saw was their families being put down or shut up, or forced to shut up?
- You understand what I’m saying? Q: Mm-hmm.
- A: So I think that being in an environment, and raised in an environment, where you have
- people like you, who look like you, who have your same values system, is a strengthening process,
- and something that we should allow and not take away from, because that’s strength,
- okay? That’s each community, each population being allowed to reach their full potential.
- And we shouldn’t be afraid of that. We should be welcoming of that, because we can always learn
- from each other as such, and bring those benefits and those differences, you know, to the table,
- and all of us learn from it. Q: All right.
- Is there anything else you’d like to say, or -- A: No. Thank you for spending your time
- with me. (laughter) And if you need for me to expand upon something that I didn’t quite cover
- correctly, call -- feel free to call me back. Q: All right, well, thank you for your time.
- A: All right, thank you, mija.