In March 1968, thousands of Chicano students walked out of their
East Los Angeles high schools and middle schools to protest decades
of inferior and discriminatory education in the so-called "Mexican
Schools." During these historic walkouts, or "blowouts," the
students were led by Sal Castro, a courageous and charismatic
Mexican American teacher who encouraged the students to make their
grievances public after school administrators and school board
members failed to listen to them. The resulting blowouts sparked
the beginning of the urban Chicano Movement of the late 1960s and
early 1970s, the largest and most widespread civil rights protests
by Mexican Americans in U.S. history.
This fascinating
testimonio, or oral history, transcribed
and presented in Castro's voice by historian Mario T. Garcia, is a
compelling, highly readable narrative of a young boy growing up in
Los Angeles who made history by his leadership in the blowouts and
in his career as a dedicated and committed teacher.
Blowout!
fills a major void in the history of the civil rights and Chicano
movements of the 1960s, particularly the struggle for educational
justice.