opportunity to share the tragedies, the happenings, the hopes and dreams of a great people in whose hands, it is my opinion, lies much of the tomorrow for this country of ours, especially as increased dealings with the 260 million people in the 26 countries to the South becomes more a political and economic necessity.

In 1968, a new phenomenon emerged for the first time among the Mexican Americans in this country. This came in the form of a spontaneous cry for equal education opportunities by the Mexican American high school students. This was a cry for quality education so that any Mexican American can choose to be what he or she desires-the promise of America.

It was not surprising that this cry came from the young themselves-the Mexican American youth. While the older folk were still debating on what to call themselves, the young were unwilling to see the patrimony of illiteracy, degradation, drop-outs and kick-outs continue.

They called themselves Chicanos, they raised their heads and for once, no longer dropping out of the halls of learning, as so many before them, in mass, walked out of their schools and challenged American society, the American education system to an accounting-accountability

Some of our young saw themselves kicked out of school and because of educational deficiency, unable to pass examinations were refused entrance into the armed forces to serve their country; others drafted in disproportionate numbers, killed and mutilated in Korea and Vietnam far beyond their national representation; others if lucky to get through high school saw, the cream of the crop, the valedictorian, the saluditorian, flunk out of college.

In case of the Mexican American young students in vocational educational, too often they stood naked in industrial life with tools and skills no longer marketable. Our young began to see, to understand something that has been suspicioned for a long time, our young Chicano first graders horded indiscriminately into the drear halls of mentally retarded classes.

Gentlemen, it was no wonder that it was the young who raised this cry, much to the consternation of the generations ahead of them.

Any one of us who view the tomorrow of our people, must realize that over 50% of the Mexican Americans are below 18 years of age. In a word, gentlemen, we have not yet seen our tomorrow. I am proud of our young, that they refuse, and rightly so, to stand mute. This country's institutions, educators, businessmen, government and churches, too long have stood mute during this national tragedy—this tragic waste of human resources, but our young raised their voices and we can't really blame them.

Senator Mondale, how long would you and I continue to do business with a lawyer who lost eight out of ten cases; a doctor who lost eight of every ten of his patients. Yet the institutions including government has remained mute to see eight out of every ten Mexican American children drop out, kicked out and pushed out of the educational institution of this country. No one has asked an accounting for the vast sums of public money that have been wasted. But the young are demanding an accounting and I stand with them.

What were the students saying. The students walk outs were not confined to any one area, the Mexican American young in Los Angeles-California; San Antonio Texas; Sierra Blanca-Texas; Chicago Illinois; Albuquerque New Mexico: Crystal City-Texas; Denver-Colorado; Abilene-Texas but to name a few of the places. Our young Mexican American students, notwithstanding, the great human sufferings, the jailings, the clubbings by police, the abuses by Texas Rangers, stood tall and continued to demand what this nation says they have a right to seek. What they demanded and how it was said varied from one area to the next, but the central theme and the demands were the same. "We want an education to prepare us so we can equally compete in the arena of American economic life." "We refuse to be relegated to the degradation and to the dead end life like so many of our parents." "We want a part of that dream America says is ours and for which many of our brothers have died in the battle fields for this country."

More specifically, the students demanded counselors who are empathetic. understanding and interested, not disciplinarians. Counselors who would provide information for academic courses. Counselors to provide a choice for the students who might want to enter higher learning should he wish. Counselors who would advise how and when college examinations came up. Counselors who would help to secure knowledge of college grants or Federal grants programs. They demanded Counselors-sufficient to take care of all the students. They were asking counselors to do their job.

They wanted a choice of academic courses to prepare themselves for college entrance instead of constant remedial courses.

They demanded that vocational courses be up-dated in order to develop marketable skills. They resented as a case in point, learning printing on printing presses no longer in use.

They demanded Mexican American principles and teachers. They wanted to see themselves in this institution which shaped their minds and their souls. This institution which has not developed the Mexican American teacher, when developed, was not utilized to fullest capacity.

They demanded that facilities be improved, be brought up-to-date. The Mexican American young were tired of second rate, run down facilities. They demanded the right to speak Spanish on the grounds of the schools and not be physically punished, as repeatedly was the case.

In a word, they demanded that the United States and their schools respect the Treaty of Guadalupe * made between the U.S. and Mexico.

They demanded bilingual and bicultural educational programs so that they could be adequately prepared for a pluralistic society which America professed to be. If they so choose, they wanted to function in two languages.

They demanded that teachers in the Mexican American schools be prepared to teach Mexican American students. That they be sensitive and knowledgeable to the cultural needs of the Mexican American students. They no longer accepted the teacher rejects from the Anglo schools.

They demanded to see themselves in history especially the history of the Southwest, the contributions of those who had gone before them. They demanded that American history be placed in its true perspective.

They demanded that the institution of the schools be more sensitive, to a sensitive people, that it become more human. They demanded to be treated like human beings.

Senator Mondale, the Mexican Americans did not have elementary and secondary schools and even colleges built for them by the Federal Government. He has always had to compete in an institution that was not geared to deal with him, that really in many instances did not want him, that viewed him only as a laborer and which was intentionally or unintentionally trying to shuff him out. How else do we explain the loss of eight of every ten students? A few years ago, Mr. Almando Rodriguez, Chief of the Mexican American Affairs Unit of the Office of Education was asked to be a part of a team looking at student's unrest in this country. One of his conclusions from his tour over the country was "Public education has been an exclusive institution and now is trying to become inclusive." The Mexican American community is well realizing this now.

As we mentioned above, it was the students who raised the first serious challenge to American Public Education as it related to the Mexican American student. During this challenge, aided by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund's litigation some major points were observed.

In the San Francisco, California; Santa Ana, California and San Diego, California law suits, sufficient documentation has been gathered to show that Mexican American children have been placed in mentally retarded classes in disproportionate large numbers. Some were placed in these classes as the answer to the inability or unwillingness of school administrations to cope with the reality that some children in America come to school with a language of the home different from that of the school; others were placed in these mentally retarded classes through the use of instruments of measurement, i.e. the I.Q. tests which were not geared for, nor intended to be used for the bilingual, bicultural child, in our case the Mexican American. Evidence has been had where school income for a child in mentally retarded classes is considerably higher than for a child in an ordinary class. What questions can this raise?

In the Elsa-Edcouch case, it was observed how School Administrations were indiscriminately using suspension and expulsions on the youth who challenged the Administrations failure to provide quality education.

In Los Angeles, Professor Sal Castro case, we saw an effort to accuse this teacher, who assisted the Mexican American students challenge for quality education, with a seldomly used "law conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor is a felony."

⚫ February 2, 1848.

In San Antonio, Texas, it was shown that the Mexican American schools. those predominately in the area of high concentration of Mexican American, e.g. Lanier High School, the calibre and range of educational instruction was marked different from that of the Anglo area of town.

In San Antonio, Kelly Air Force Base, in Del Rio Air Base,* we even saw where the air bases bus their children away from the school district where a busy concentration of Mexican American students lived. Here is public evidence that one school is better than the other; the Air Force is party to this kind of action-government herself remains mute.

In the Senora, Texas case, the first time the Federal Government through the Justice Department has ever entered into a law suit for Mexican American education, seemingly different standards were applied to the Mexican American educational segregation problems.

I would like to inject here one final example of the dilemmas in which our young Mexican American students find themselves.

At the University of Colorado at Boulder, Colorado-the Mexican American college students helped increase the Mexican American college student presence on that campus, from 35, two and a half years ago, to 350 today, with a goal of 800 this coming September. Much of the funds for this I understand are Federal Education Opportunity grants. This program has received acclaim and commendation from the President of the University. However, the students within the last few months had to march and picket the officials of this University in order to maintain this fine program at its present strength. It seems quite incongruous that the students must march and picket for a program that is not only needed, has been successful, and has received public commendation by the President of the same University. Another dilemma for the Mexican Americans.

I am to understand-the Mexican Americans at University of California at Ervine must fight to get even one half of the Education Opportunity Program slots, yet they make up 4 times as many in the county population than the competitor.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Senator Mondale, I offer these next points as recommendations:

1. Help implement through appropriate funding "the recommendations in the report by the National Advisory Committee on Mexican American education-1968-U.S. Office of Education" . . . "The Mexican American Quest for Equality." [See attached copy]

2. Help secure adequate fundings to guarantee the publication of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights major study of the Mexican American's in the 540 school districts of the Southwest. This data is invaluable in proving the points of our Chicano students.

3. In the Senate Bill, on desegregation S.-3883, make sure that the Mexican Americans and Spanish speaking are contained and referred to in your legal terminology. The Civil Rights' Study above shows that segregation is as serious and as damaging to the Mexican Americans as any other group.

4. Build into your appropriations funding for those organizations that stand ready to challenge school districts not providing quality education for the Mexican American young or those who are abusing their authority. e.g. the funding of the Mexican American Law Students Association Casa Legales or the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund.

5. Help us secure moneys to get young Mexican Americans into the schools of law since it is from the ranks of these young men the legal minds will come to protect the guarantees of quality education and educational opportunity for our young.

6. Move HEW to be more aggressively involved in state wide class suit actions on behalf of the Mexican Americans, similar to the recent action in Texas.

7. Recommend that the HEW Civil Right Section review each of the school districts were large segments of Mexican Americans reside. I am sure you will find districts that although approved for compliance in Civil Rights educational designs, are not in reality.

8. Help us build a truly bilingual, bicultural society.

9. Help us make the public schools of America more human, more sensitive.

Del Rio Air Base was presented in testimony before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights-San Antonio Hearings-1968.

more responsive to the educational formation of the Mexican Americans, the Spanish speaking and the poor.

10. Join forces with the Mexican Americans in asking for a moratorium in the use of I.Q. tests until better instruments are devised.

11. Investigate the use of mentally retarded classes in the U.S. Senator Mondale, I urged you to keep up with your aggressive leadership. I have observed what you have done for our people in the Migrant Hearings. Education of the Migrant needs a Hearing by itself. You are a gleamer of hope in an otherwise callous institution.

Listen to the demands of our young, they will not stop and I hope and pray they do not, until the notion of Equal Opportunity is meaningful for them. A few years ago, my esteemed friend here with us, Dr. Hector Garcia, as alternate Ambassador to the United Nations, stood in that illustrious hall as a Mexican American, Doctor of Medicine, and representative of this country. He spoke on nuclear disarmament in the Spanish language. Later he expressed the condolences of the American people to the one of the Central American countries, on the occasion of the death of their leader. He won the admiration and respect of the representatives of the countries throughout the world, not only for himself, the Mexican Americans, but for all Americans.

May, Senator Mondale and members of this committee, with your help, these same scenes become a common occurrence for our young Mexican Americans and only then, when this happens, will the voices of our young really have been hard.

Thank you.

STATEMENT OF CARLOS VELA, ATTORNEY, FORMER COORDINATOR, TEXAS STATE OFFICE OF CIVIL RIGHTS, HEW OFFICE, CORPUS CHRISTI, TEX.

Mr. VELA. Senator Mondale I would like to also echo my appreciation for the efforts of this committee, and I hope it will provide the spark that is needed in this area.

Before beginning, I introduce myself presently as an attorney at law, having been in the past an assistant attorney general for the State of Texas in Austin, Tex., a general attorney for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in Washington, D.C., a civil rights specialist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, D.C., and a civil rights specialist and Texas State coordinator for the regional Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in Dallas, Tex.

I was employed with the Office for Civil Rights in Dallas from April 21, 1968, until June 20, 1970, when I resigned to return to private law practice.

As Texas State coordinator for the regional Office for Civil Rights, I was basically responsible for obtaining compliance with the Civil Rights Act from school districts in the State of Texas.

MEXICAN AMERICAN DISCRIMINATION AND OFFICE FOR CIVIL RIGHTS

Implementation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 against school districts discriminating against Mexican Americans has been virtually nonexistent. despite the fact that it is an acknowledged fact. that such discrimination has been historically widespread, specifically in Texas and in the Southwest.

First, let us look at the Office for Civil Rights itself. It is composed of three branches: Education; Health and Welfare; and Contract Compliance.

In addition, there is a general counsel's staff exclusively assigned to the Office for Civil Rights. The Education Branch, of course, is

responsible for obtaining compliance from school districts throughout the country.

As of June 1970, the date of my resignation, and it is my understanding, as of today, in the Civil Rights Division in Washington, D.C., no Mexican Americans are employed in the Education Branch, in the Health and Welfare Branch, in the General Counsel Branch, and only one Mexican American is employed in the Contract Compliance Branch.

It is my further understanding that no Mexican American has ever been employed in the Education Branch of the Office for Civil Rights in Washington, D.C.

It should be understood that the National Director of the Office for Civil Rights does have a special assistant for Spanish-surnamed affairs, but he does not work specifically for any of the above-mentioned branches.

It should further be added that no Mexican American is employed as regional director of any regional Office for Civil Rights or as branch chief of any of the above-mentioned branches of any regional Office for Civil Rights in the country.

The Dallas Office does have a Mexican American Deputy Director, but he is basically in charge of personnel and administration for that office. He was once Acting Branch Chief of the Education Branch in Dallas, but he no longer holds that position.

I point out these facts to this committee because the resultant is that no Mexican American, with the exception of the Special Assistant to the National Director, is employed in a policy-making position by the Office for Civil Rights of HEW.

I ask then, how can the Office for Civil Rights advise school districts that they have been discriminatory in employment practices, when the office itself is guilty of this practice

COMPLIANCE: MEXICAN AMERICANS

Now, with respect to what has actually been accomplished in the Mexican American area by HEW, let me first say, that until the 1967-68 school year, the Office for Civil Rights was obtaining statistics on a black and white basis only.

In 1967-68, it added another column called "other." meaning other minority groups. So that it was not until the 1968-69 school year that the Office for Civil Rights started obtaining statistics of Mexican American scholastics.

The resultant of this was that the office was accepting plans from districts, which in several instances were merely combining blacks with Mexican Americans.

The areas in which these problems were most severe were in Texas and New Mexico. Both of the latter States segregated blacks by law and both have substantial percentages of Mexican Americans.

By the time I was employed in Dallas-April 1968-every school district in New Mexico was considered to be in compliance. By that time, a great number of school districts in Texas were also considered to be in compliance.

This is so even though today the attendance reports of a substantial number of districts reveal segregation between both races in many schools in both States.