Press Release
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Media Advisory For More Information Contact: Pedro Ramirez English Instructor/CAP Committe Vice-Chair (209) 954-5612 pramirez@deltacollege.edu |
Educator and Activist Sal Castro presents his film, Walkout, Oct. 21
San Joaquin Delta College’s Cultural Awareness Programs (CAP) will present noted educator and activist, Sal Castro, on Thursday, Oct. 21st from 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. at Atherton Auditorium. A screening of the film “Walkout” based on his teaching experiences in East Los Angeles, will play from 11 a.m. – 12:20 p.m. Mr. Castro will take questions from the audience immediately following the film. This event is free to the public.
Salvador B. Castro (born October 25, 1933) is an American educator and activist. He is most well-known for his role in the 1968 East Los Angeles high school walkouts, a series of protests against unequal conditions in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) schools. Although he has retired, he continues to lecture about his experiences and the importance of education, especially for Mexican Americans.
Career and Activism
Around 1956, while still a student at LACC, he got his first job in education as an assistant playground director in Echo Park. He held various positions in the Los Angeles-area schools before being hired at Belmont High School in Downtown Los Angeles as an interpreter and social studies teacher. He began coaching Mexican-American students to run for positions in student government. At a campaign assembly, candidates from the new political party addressed the student body in Spanish; addressing the student body in Spanish was prohibited at this time. This prompted the cancellation of the assembly and the suspension of the offending students. Castro, who was ignorant of the rule, had given the go-ahead to use Spanish, and was immediately transferred to Lincoln High School in Lincoln Heights, East Los Angeles.
The result of the network was the holding of Chicano Youth Leadership Conferences (CYLC), training grounds for student activists. The first conference was held in 1963. Students discussed inequalities between schools within the LAUSD, the need for bilingual and culturally-relevant education, and the need for systemic reforms that would place students on the track to higher education. They founded the Piranya Café, which became the headquarters for the movement.
As Castro helped students make demands of the school board, underground newspapers floated the idea of a boycott of East L.A. schools. When district officials ignored the students' demands, calls for a boycott grew stronger. In March 1968, students from Wilson High School walked out after the school principal cancelled a performance of the Neil Simon play Barefoot in the Park. The next day, another walkout was staged in protest of a school policy prohibiting male students from wearing their hair long.
Following the small walkouts, students from the five public schools in East Los Angeles (Roosevelt, Wilson, Lincoln, Garfield, and Belmont), with the aid of local Chicano college students, coordinated unified protests. Dubbed the "Chicano Blowouts", the first day of protests were peaceful, but the second day was marred by police violence against students from Roosevelt and Belmont high schools, who, unlike protesters at the other schools, had no protection from college students.
In the wake of the demonstrations, Castro was arrested and charged with 15 counts of conspiracy to disrupt public schools and 15 counts of conspiracy to disturb the peace. Twelve others, many of whom were Brown Berets members, were also arrested and charged. The charges were dropped in 1972.
Anaheim's Savanna High School celebrates Sal Castro Day every March 27th.
Recent Activities & Honors
In the 2006 HBO film Walkout, Castro's role was played by Michael Peña. Edward James Olmos directed the film.
Also in 2006, Castro was highly critical of radio DJs who encouraged students to walk out of classes in protest of United States House of Representatives resolution 4437, which if eventually passed by the United States Senate, will impose stiffer penalties on unauthorized immigrants and their employers. While not opposed to the demonstrations themselves, Castro was concerned that those encouraging the protests did not accompany the students to protect them as he and the other organizers of the 1968 walkouts had.
On October 13, 2009, the Los Angeles Board of Education voted to name a new Middle School, located on the campus of Belmont High School, Sal Castro Middle School.
Castro continues to lecture student groups across the country and helps run leadership conferences for high school students.
For more information on this FREE Cultural Awareness Programs (CAP) event, please contact Delta College instructor and CAP Committee Vice-Chair, Pedro Ramirez, at:
(209) 954-5612, or, pramirez@deltacollege.edu.
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