Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Resisting the “death of diversity”: A historical analysis of the formation of the César E. Chávez Center for Higher Education at Cal Poly Pomona, 1990–1995

La resistencia a la “muerte de la diversidad”: Un análisis histórico de la creación del Centro César E. Chávez para la Educación Superior en Cal Poly Pomona, 1990-1995

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Latino Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article chronicles the strategies and efforts Chicana/o and Latina/o student activists employed in the demand and creation of the César E. Chávez Center for Higher Education (CECCHE) at Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) between 1990 and 1995. We situate the center’s establishment as the result of student activism. CPP served as a stage whereon students resisted negative campus racial climate by institutionalizing the CECCHE as a counterspace. Student activism at CPP reflected broader resistance efforts in California in the 1990s. The student leaders, like activists from California’s social movements, resisted conservative rhetoric and systemic racism by mobilizing cross-racial coalitions and enacting public protest. Using critical race history, we analyze ten oral histories of students, faculty, and administrators involved in the establishment of CPP’s first Chicana/o and Latina/o cultural center. We situate the formation of the CECCHE as an example of student of color commitment to antiracist activism in higher education.

Resumen

Este artículo registra las estrategias y los esfuerzos que utilizaron activistas estudiantiles chicanas/os y latinas/latinos para exigir y crear el Centro César E. Chávez para la Educación Superior (CECCHE) en la universidad politécnica de Cal Poly Pomona (CPP) entre 1990 y 1995. Ubicamos el establecimiento del centro como un resultado del activismo estudiantil. La CCP sirvió como escenario sobre el cual los estudiantes resistieron el clima racial negativo del campus institucionalizando el CECCHE como contraespacio. El activismo de los estudiantes de la CPP reflejó los esfuerzos de resistencia más amplios que ocurrieron en California en la década de 1990. Los líderes estudiantiles, al igual que los activistas de los movimientos sociales californianos, resistieron la retórica conservadora y el racismo sistémico movilizando coaliciones interraciales y llevando a cabo protestas públicas. Partiendo de una historia crítica del racismo, analizamos diez entrevistas con estudiantes, docentes y administradores que participaron en la fundación del primer centro cultural chicano y latino de la CPP. Ubicamos la creación del CECCHE como ejemplo del compromiso de los estudiantes de color con el activismo antirracista en la educación superior.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. See Jurmain and McCawley, O, My Ancestor.

  2. We use Latina/o/x to include gender nonconforming and transgender peoples within communities from Latin America living in the United States. We similarly use Chicana/o/x for individuals of Mexican American descent. At times, we use Latina/o/x and Chicana/o/x interchangeably. For historical purposes, we use Chicana/o and Latina/o mostly when referencing the 1990s because Latinx and Chicanx are contemporary terms that became popularized in the 2010s. Raza was also used by narrators in this project. Popularized in the 1960s Chicana/o movement, it’s a word in Spanish that symbolizes the empowerment of Chicana/o, Mexican American, and Latina/o people.

  3. García and Guzman-Alvarez assert that “Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) are federally defined as nonprofit, degree-granting postsecondary institutions that enroll at least 25% Latinx undergraduate students” (2019, p. 2).

  4. See http://www.calstate.edu/as/stat_reports/2018-2019/f_eth18toc.shtml.

  5. For 1990 demographic data of Latinas/os, please see http://www.laalmanac.com/population/po13.php. For 1990 Pomona demographic data, please see https://socds.huduser.gov/Census/race.odb?newmsacitylist=31100%2A0600058072%2A1.0&msavar=1&metro=cbsa. For 1990 CPP demographic data, please see https://www.cpp.edu/~arar/just-the-facts/Historical-Reports/Just_the_facts_96.pdf. The 18% reference comes from student leadership that used the data on picket signs during the May 1993 protest.

  6. See Delgado Bernal’s (1999) essay “Chicana/o Education from the Civil Rights Era to the Present.”

  7. See Gómez-Quiñones’s (1978) Mexican Students Por La Raza: The Chicano Student Movement in Southern California, 1967–1977.

  8. MEChA recently changed its name to Movimiento Estudiantil Chicanx de Aztlan, embracing Chicanx as an inclusive gender-neutral term.

  9. For a more complete history of MEChA, see Chicano Coordinating Council on Higher Education, El Plan de Santa Barbara (1971) and Urrieta Jr.’s (2004) essay “Chicana/o Activism and Education.”

  10. Informed by Barnett’s (2013) oral history with Horacio N. Roque Ramírez, titled “Recording a Queer Community: An Interview with Horacio N. Roque Ramírez,” we use “narrator” instead of “research participant” to situate the interviewees’ memory as part of the historical record. Beyond having participated in the efforts between 1990 to 1995, the narrators, through oral history, narrate the historical past. This intervention is informed by Trouillot’s assertion that “history begins with bodies and artifacts: living brains, fossils, texts, buildings. … In history, power begins at the source” (1995, p. 29; emphasis added). The narrators in this project embody history; their memories are living historical artifacts.

References

  • Acuña, R. F. 2011. The Making of Chicana/o Studies: In the Trenches of Academe. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Aguilar-Hernández, J. M. 2016. Si se pudo! Student Activism in the Chicana/o Studies Movement at UCLA, 1990–1993. In White Washing American Education: The New Culture Wars in Ethnic Studies, ed. D. M. Sandoval, A. J. Ratcliff, T. L. Buenavista, and J. R. Marín, 249–275. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Aguilar-Hernández, J. M., and D. Delgado Bernal. 2018. 50th and 25th Anniversaries: Historical Lessons of Chicana/o Student Activism in Los Angeles. CCRS Research Brief 12. Los Angeles: Center for Critical Race Studies at UCLA.

  • Allain, Jean Paul. 2017. Interview by José M. Aguilar-Hernández, 11 August.

  • Barnett, T. 2013. Recording a Queer Community: An Interview with Horacio N. Roque Ramírez. In Oral History and Communities of Color, ed. T. Barnett and C. A. Noriega, 132–152. Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, T., and C. A. Noriega, eds. 2013. Oral History and Communities of Color. Los Angeles: UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blackwell, M. 2011. Chicana Power! Contested Histories of Feminism in the Chicano Movement. Austin: University of Texas Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brooks, J. 2004. Colonial Flashpoints. American Quarterly 56 (4): 1107–1113.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chicano Coordinating Council on Higher Education. 1971. El Plan de Santa Barbara: A Chicano Plan for Higher Education. Santa Barbara, CA: La Causa Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • Correa, Stevan. 2017. Interview by José M. Aguilar-Hernández, 31 March.

  • Delgado Bernal, D. 1998. Grassroots Leadership Reconceptualized: Chicana Oral Histories and the 1968 East Los Angeles School Blowouts. Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 19 (2): 113–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delgado Bernal, D. 1999. Chicana/o Education from the Civil Rights Era to the Present. In The Elusive Quest for Equality: 150 Years of Chicano/Chicana Education, ed. J. F. Moreno, J. F. Berumen, and F. Garcia Berumen, 77–108. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Educational Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Esther. 2016. Interview by Corina Benavides López, 9 December.

  • García, D. G., and T. J. Yosso. 2020. Recovering Our Past: A Methodological Reflection. History of Education Quarterly 60 (1): 59–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • García, G. A., and A. Guzman-Alvarez. 2019. Descriptive Analysis of Graduate Enrollment Trends at Hispanic-Serving Institutions: 2005–2015. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education (March). https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192719835681.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gómez-Quiñones, J. 1978. Mexican Students Por La Raza: The Chicano Student Movement in Southern California, 1967–1977. Santa Barbara, CA: Editorial La Causa.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gutiérrez de Soldatenko, M. 2005. Justice for Janitors Latinizing Los Angeles: Mobilizing Latina(o) Cultural Repertoire. In Latino Los Angeles: Transformations, Communities, and Activism, ed. E. C. Ochoa and G. L. Ochoa, 225–245. Tucson: University of Arizona Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harper, S. R., and S. Hurtado. 2007. Nine Themes in Campus Racial Climates and Implications for Institutional Transformation. New Directions for Student Services 120: 7–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, Fred. 2017. Interview by Rebecca Gutierrez Keeton, 21 April.

  • Hesse-Biber, S. N., and P. Leavy. 2006. The Practice of Qualitative Research. Los Angeles: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurtado, S., and D. F. Carter. 1997. Effects of College Transition and Perceptions of the Campus Racial Climate on Latino Students’ Sense of Belonging. Sociology of Education 70 (4): 324–345.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jurmain, C. K., and W. McCawley. 2009. O, My Ancestor: Recognition and Renewal for the Gabrielino-Tongva People of the Los Angeles Area. Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ladson-Billings, G. 1998. Just What Is Critical Race Theory and What’s It Doing in a Nice Field Like Education? International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education 11 (1): 7–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ladson-Billings, G. 2010. Race to the Top, Again: Comments on the Genealogy of Critical Race Theory. Connecticut Law Review 43: 1439–1457.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leon, Norma. 2016. Interview by José M. Aguilar-Hernández, 18 November.

  • Lozano, A. 2010. Latina/o Culture Centers: Providing a Sense of Belonging and Promoting Student Success. In Culture Centers in Higher Education: Perspectives on Identity, Theory, and Practice, ed. L. D. Patton, 3–22. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Macías, Z. 2019. Students Protest Racial Profiling on Campus. Poly Post, 26 November. https://thepolypost.com/news/2019/11/26/students-protest-racial-profiling-on-campus/.

  • Marchi, R. 2013. Hybridity and Authenticity in US Day of the Dead Celebrations. Journal of American Folklore 126 (501): 272–301.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Matsuda, M. J., C. R. Lawrence, R. Delgado, and K. W. Crenshaw. 1993. Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Assaultive Speech, and the First Amendment. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mora, Juana. 2017. Interview by José M. Aguilar-Hernández, 30 March.

  • Pastor, M. 2018. State of Resistance: What California’s Dizzying Descent and Remarkable Resurgence Mean for America’s Future. New York: The New Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Patton, L. D. 2010. A Call to Action: Historical and Contemporary Reflections on the Relevance of Campus Culture Centers in Higher Education. In Culture Centers in Higher Education: Perspectives on Identity, Theory, and Practice, ed. L. D. Patton. Stylus: Sterling, VA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Resendes-Herrick, J. 1993. Protest at Cal Poly Ends in Compromise. Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, 8 May, B1.

  • Rhoads, R. A. 1998. Freedom’s Web: Student Activism in an Age of Cultural Diversity. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rodriguez, Ernesto. 2016. Interview by Rebecca Gutierrez Keeton, 1 December.

  • Santillan, Richard. 2017. Interview by Corina Benavides López, 25 May.

  • Saucedo, Manuel. 2017. Interview by Rebecca Gutierrez Keeton, 26 January.

  • Solórzano, D. 1997. Images and Words That Wound: Critical Race Theory, Racial Stereotyping, and Teacher Education. Teacher Education Quarterly 24 (3): 5–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suzuki, Bob. 2017. Interview by Corina Benavides López, 17 April.

  • Trouillot, M. R. 1995. Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Urrieta, L. 2004. Chicana/o Activism and Education: An Introduction to the Special Issue. High School Journal 87 (4): 1–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • WASC (Western Association of Schools and Colleges). 1990. Team Visit Report to California State Polytechnic University Pomona. Washington, DC: Western Association of Schools and Colleges.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yosso, T. J., and C. Benavides Lopez. 2010. Counterspaces in a Hostile Place. In Culture Centers in Higher Education: Perspectives on Identity, Theory, and Practice, ed. L. D. Patton, 83–104. Sterling, VA: Stylus.

    Google Scholar 

  • Yosso, T. J., W. Smith, M. Ceja, and D. Solórzano. 2009. Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate for Latina/o Undergraduates. Harvard Educational Review 79 (4): 659–691.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the ten narrators in this research project: Jean Paul Allain, Stevan Correa, “Esther,” Fred Henderson, Norma Leon, Juana Mora, Ernesto Rodríguez, Richard Santillan, Manuel Saucedo, and Bob H. Suzuki. We also thank the reviewers and editors of the Latino Studies journal for their critical feedback on this manuscript. Finally, we thank our student research assistants: Isaura Peña (CPP), Netasha Pizano (CSUF), and Lizbeth Zuñiga and Anthony Amaral (CSUDH).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cal Poly Pomona, CA, USA

    José M. Aguilar-Hernández

  2. California State University, Carson, CA, USA

    Corina Benavides López

  3. California State University, Fullerton, CA, USA

    Rebecca Gutierrez Keeton

Authors
  1. José M. Aguilar-Hernández
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Corina Benavides López
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rebecca Gutierrez Keeton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to José M. Aguilar-Hernández.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Aguilar-Hernández, J.M., Benavides López, C. & Gutierrez Keeton, R. Resisting the “death of diversity”: A historical analysis of the formation of the César E. Chávez Center for Higher Education at Cal Poly Pomona, 1990–1995. Lat Stud 19, 27–46 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-021-00284-w

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41276-021-00284-w

Keywords

Palabras clave

Search

Navigation