This Is My Revolution
This Is My Revolution: Thoughts on Resistance, Resilience, and Re-imagination in Boyle Heights was written by the 2014-2015 9th grade Ethnic Studies students at Roosevelt High School
Introduction
DEAR ROOSEVELT SCHOLARS,
When we first embarked on our journey toward critical consciousness and healing through our “Boyle Heights and Me” course, we could not have imagined the amount of growth and resilience we as teachers would be witness to, both within you and ourselves.
When we first planned this course and this project, our goal was to facilitate a space where we could unlearn everything we knew about ourselves, our community, and the world around us. This learning and unlearning would ideally create a space where we could re-imagine our current realities. We were driven by the idea that in the spaces between and around the reimagining, we could find transformative hope and creative problem-solving solutions to the less-than-ideal conditions that we are constantly confronted with.
After identifying our assets and strengths as a community came the challenging work to identify, name, and analyze the root causes of that which creates harm and trauma in the spaces we live, work, and learn in. We had courageous conversations about racism, sexism, colorism, homophobia, poverty-to name a few of the various forms of oppression we experience every single day. In these conversations we challenged that which we thought to be the norm, or “just the way things are.”
In collectively creating this curriculum our goal was to provide you with a different historical context than the stories traditionally marginalized in history courses as well as the tools to analyze various issues that were relevant and important to you. This book project was meant to serve as a counter-narrative to the very hegemonic structures we critiqued and challenged in our classes. Our course and curriculum and this project were deliberately created to place you, our youth, our critical scholars, and our future at the forefront of the conversations that will undoubtedly shape our communities and our world.
The themes that guided our practice and projects throughout the course of the year were knowledge of self, mapping memories, resistance, resilience and reimagination. It was our intent that in relearning ourselves and our community, in inquiring and asking ourselves critical questions, in finding transformative ways to resist and reimagine the status quo that we would continue to grow the resilient spirit that we each carry. We are convinced that witnessing your growth and transformation facilitated our ongoing healing and transformation as critical pedagogue maestras/os. Our experiences with you, our students, in this particular journey exceeded any expectations we could have ever imagined. You have left within our classroom walls and throughout our Ethnic Studies curriculum your essence of critical hope, healing, and resilience. For that, we are grateful.
WHY DO WE NEED ETHNIC STUDIES?
November 18th, 2014, was the beautiful, energy-filled day we collectively made history in Los Angeles schools. We filled up buses and headed towards LAUSD to demand Ethnic Studies be offered to all students in Los Angeles high schools. Inspired by the content of our classroom community and the critical values of Ethnic Studies, you brought the word “agency” to life, in joining the movement for Ethnic Studies. You crafted signs, protested, and marched. You chanted, “What do we want? Ethnic Studies! When do we want it? NOW!” The school board heard your voices. Through our organizing efforts, leadership and passionate call for Ethnic Studies, we won the right to a culturally relevant curriculum. That day, we witnessed one of the most moving and empowering moments as educators. It was the culmination of a struggle, the closing of hours of an action, as we heard you chant in a radiant, emotionally charged voice, “We won! We won! We won!” That day, you began a journey that many of us as People of Color didn’t get the chance to experience until our first Ethnic Studies course in college. Because of your demands and efforts, students in LAUSD will have access to empowering curriculum and a history that speaks to our story and experience.
Ethnic Studies is important because it interrupts eurocentric curriculum that has historically disempowered children of color, and served as a tool to marginalize students in schools within the traditional school system. Learning about institutional racism, systematic oppression, and historical inequities that have affected and continue to affect communities of color instills in students a sense of urgency to change those existing conditions and structures. Ethnic Studies has the potential to open up a space for youth to become agents of change, and acquire the skills and tools to transform and imagine a more democratic society. Ethnic Studies offers a rich curriculum that highlights achievements and cultures that are traditionally ignored in whitestream curricular texts. When students learn about their history, culture, and movements our people have led, it instills a sense of pride and love for our communities. Learning from a multi-ethnic/ racial lens creates in students solidarity with communities of color.
We were intentional in making our Ethnic Studies course community responsive by specifically emphasizing the community history, culture, and experience. Paulo Freire (1970) reminds us that all learning must begin with the experiences of people and we believe that this is what has made our course relevant and engaging. The learning in our course is participatory and you drive what we all learn because you are at the center of the purpose of our course. Ethnic Studies continues to transform identities of youth where we continue to see young people begin to self-identify as scholars, poets, artists, and activists. This is powerful because young people are transforming into what they reimagine and reflecting the change-makers and revolutionaries they learn about in class. With transformation comes a positive ripple effect on the school culture, community, and your academic success. Ethnic Studies is the future to a more just Los Angeles and you are driving that change!
HOW DID THIS HUMANIZE US EDUCATORS?
Restorative justice (RJ), the buzz word you heard spoken in class perhaps did not have any real meaning to you as we began our Ethnic Studies course. Nonetheless, RJ was crucial in providing a humanizing experience for all of us. As unfamiliar as it was or is for students it was a vague term for us too, even as social justice educators. As we developed the curriculum of this course we decided it was not going to be a survey course that only highlighted the many accomplishments people of color had achieved in American history. Taking a critical Ethnic Studies approach meant we would challenge the dominant narrative—the hegemonic structures that exist in our society. We were treading unchartered waters at Theodore Roosevelt Senior High School.
Often times we were not sure of the path our class discussions would take and the harm and trauma that could or would surface. One way to address this concern was by interweaving RJ community building circles into the course. Together we cautiously sat in a circle where core guidelines driven by a sense of respect for all stakeholders eased us into a transformational experience many of us found to be new and uncomfortable. By the end we all developed a sense of pride knowing this indigenous practice had been common amongst our people. The paradigm shift that the circle provided went hand in hand with the shift
Ethnic Studies provided all of us. This form of building a communidad where adults can be open and vulnerable permitted you to be “real” with us. We cried, smiled, and laughed together. RJ allowed us to audaciously hope with you. Jeff Duncan-Andrade (2009) refers to audacious hope as the collective struggle where educators alongside students share in the victories and pains of life. In healing from our traumas together this solidarity we formed with you had a direct correlation to improving achievement. Ultimately, the work we created with you was driven from a place of love, love for Boyle Heights, the Roosevelt community, the families, and most importantly the love we have for each and every one of you.
Roxana Dueñas Jorge Lopez Eduardo Lopez
Ethnic Studies Teachers at Roosevelt High School