Guadarrama: The Children Before Us: Recovering Their Memories and Raising Their Voices

Today’s political controversy over the education of Texas’ children is as intricate and contentious as it has been since 1845. With the myriads of news and media outlets, we are routinely challenged with sorting out the facts from opinions. But to make sense of the arguments and tasks at hand, we can only infer by conducting a deep dive to examine the historically significant developments from the past to the present. Indeed, we often lose sight of the importance of a historical perspective when we try to figure out the endless reverberations of political discourse without a comparative reference point. Our democratic standards as a nation are constantly shifting, probing our inner instincts to understand the invisible ramifications of critical happenings in real time. History provides us with a framework of different perspectives and interpretations that are essential in understanding today’s complicated political debates.  

Recently, Texas legislators are poised to decide, yet again, on the fate of public education. A few years ago, political leaders touted public education as one of the most enduring and fundamental educational institutions in Texas. Indeed, public education was one of a few institutions that had the equal support of most Texans. However, today, the debate over how to fund state education is divided between those that support public education and those that support a voucher system to fund private schools. The latter position would reduce the amount of funds that are generally partitioned for public education. The voucher system is necessary, the proponents argue, because the public schools are not adequately serving their needs. It’s incumbent upon us to know and understand the historical nature of our public education institutions so we may have well-informed opinions on this matter.  

In this article, I highlight key events that merge the past with the present to comprehend the issues, problems, and thus, offer new and innovative possibilities that can truly make a difference. I analyze racial conflicts, court cases and other impactful events that have contributed to the current system of the state’s public education. My focus is on how children of color experienced school in the face of extreme negative social conditions in an era that was greatly impacted by the economic crisis of the state and country. During a most stressful period of early development of Texas as a State, some of the major policies and laws promulgated were not in the best interest of these children. The newly formed populous couldn’t be more starkly different from one another, but they all held a common vision created from the promise of a prosperous future. Opportunities to prosper were afforded, then, and now, to mostly the White, Anglo-Saxon groups, but were systematically diminished for the Hispanic and Black communities. The most directly affected were the children whom nonetheless persevered. They are the unsung heroes of our past whose notable courage and perseverance cannot be overlooked.

Editor’s Note: The above guest column was penned by Irma N. Guadarrama, Ph.D., as the beginning of a feature for her Bilingual Frontera website. Click here to read the full feature.

Editor’s Note: Guadarrama is a former UT-Rio Grande Valley professor who now works at UT-Austin. Bilingual Frontera offers news and commentary about the borderlands in the Americas. The website’s blog features topics and themes related to language, culture, social justice, discrimination, racism, education, and history. The column appears in the Rio Grande Guardian with the permission of the author. Guadarrama can be reached by email via: iguadarrama9@gmail.com.

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