on bilingual education was routinely cut.
While all Hispanic Americans are
affected by the debate, the issue has affect-
ed Mexican Americans in particular since
they make up a higher percentage of the
foreign-born Hispanic population in the
United States than all other Hispanic
immigrant groups combined. Hispanic
immigrants want their children to learn
English, for they recognize that it is the
primary language of advancement in the
United States. Yet the debate over bilin-
gual education has continued to the pres-
ent day, a symbol of underlying tensions
between the Hispanic minority and the
non-Hispanic majority.
In 1998, a coalition of civil rights
groups in California lodged a lawsuit to
block Proposition 227, an English Only
initiative passed by voters that year. The
groups argued that the initiative violated
the Equal Educational Opportunity Act of
1974, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964, and other federal laws guaranteeing
the right of non-English-speaking stu-
dents to appropriate language programs,
which ensure meaningful access to equal
educational opportunity. Joe Jaramillo,
staff attorney for the Mexican American
Legal Defense and Education Foundation
(MALDEF), put it this way:
Proposition 227 violates the
fundamental right of national
origin minorities to participate
on an equal basis in the political
process of advocating for effective
educational programs for their
children. This Proposition shuts
off the basic means to advocate
for or to change local educational
programs designed to overcome
students’ language barriers.
We’re now forced to turn to the
courts to vindicate the rights of
parents and students to advocate
for effective and appropriate
education programs for limited
English proficient children.Jaramillo was joined by Juana Flores,
a mother of two daughters who were
enrolled in bilingual classes in San
Francisco schools. Speaking through an
interpreter, Flores said, “Although I do
not speak English well I have been able to
help my children with school. As parents,
the more we are involved the more our
children are going to see that education is
important. If they take away bilingual
education they are going to take away our
communication with the teachers, and
we will no longer feel welcome at the
schools, nor will we be able to participate
in the school community.”
Not all Hispanic Americans—nor
even all Mexican Americans—see the
bilingual education issue the same way.
Two years before the passage of
Proposition 227, a Los Angeles parents
group called Las Familias del Pueblo
(Village Families) organized a boycott of
a local school that they claimed refused to
teach their children English. As one par-
ent, Lenin Lopez, put it in Spanish, “A lot
of us want our kids to learn Spanish so
they can write to their grandpas or what-
ever. But I want my children to learn
English so they won’t have the problems
that I’ve had.” Although the principal of
the school in question tried to explain
that her school’s had decided to begin
English classes by the third grade, a year
earlier than they had previously been
taught, many studies had shown that
young non-English- speaking children
also needed a solid grounding in their
native languages before learning English.
Nonetheless, the debate illustrates that
finding the best means of adapting to a
new culture is never easy.A CHANGING COMMUNITY 201Young Chicanos in El Paso's barrio near the Mexican border, 1972 (National
Archives)