Chicano/a/x Student Activism at San Antonio College

Beginning in the late sixties and throughout the 1970's, San Antonio and the nation witnessed an era of Chicano activism stemming from years of inequality and racism. As the Chicano Movement gave rise to the Chicano Youth Movement, high school and college students across the nation participated in activism on their campuses ranging from organizing Chicano centered student groups to participating in school walkouts.

San Antonio College was no exception. As one of the only public college campuses in the city, the two-year institution was alive with campus activity ignited by the larger Movimiento.

This project focused on the recovery of Chicanx stories of activism on the San Antonio Community College campus during the height of the National Chicano Movement. The main sources for this project were the Ranger newspaper archives available digitally on The Portal to Texas History (https://texashistory.unt.edu/) as well as oral history interviews conducted with former students and Movimiento leaders who were involved with organizational efforts at SAC. A larger database of relevent articles and interviews is underway at www.sacchicanxhistory.com.

In 1969, the Mexican American Youth Organization (MAYO) was making waves in the press as the group openly challenged the 'gringo' political power structure in Texas. In April of 1969, Jose Angel Gutierrez sparked controversy in a press conference in west side San Antonio, in what would become known as his "kill the gringo" speech. Although Mario Compean explains that the term "gringo" represented a personification of the current political system, the press went wild. (1)

As the Chicano Movement and its most vocal leaders made headlines, a few SAC students felt compelled to respond within the Ranger newspaper. The articles shown below are written by students, at least one of which identifies as Mexican-American, and their criticism of Gutierrez demonstrates the larger debate occuring within the Mexican American community about whether these incidiary tactics were helping or hurting the community in their struggle for equal rights. Conversation surrounding the Movimiento had officially made its way into the SAC newspaper.

"It created a big sensation, I'd say. There was a buzz for several weeks." - Jose Luis Rodriguez (interview)

In 1970, shortly after the founding of the Raza Unida Party by MAYO members, Jose Angel Gutierrez is invited to speak on campus by the SAC Young Democrats at McAllister auditorium. In the aftermath, student debate on Gutierrez's speech again emerges within the Ranger. In these student commentaries, we see both the debate of terminology (between Mexican American and Chicano) and ideology (between assimilationist and "radical") emerge.

Gutierrez's visit to San Antonio College marks the beginning of a decade of hightened Chicano political activity on campus and we begin to see the convergence of the local movimiento with activity on campus.

A student who was involved in bringing Jose Angel Gutierrrez to SAC was Jose Luis Rodriguez. Active in the SAC Young Democrats, Rodriguez pushed to secure an invitation to Gutierrez and created posters around campus to publicize the event. Two weeks after Gutierrez spoke at SAC, Rodriguez would petition student council for the recognition of a MAYO student organization on campus. According to the Ranger, the group was rejected a few times and never officially recognized. Roriguez however, continued to raise awareness of the Movimiento, and stirred up more controversy by publishing and distributing an incidiary underground newspaper on campus called, "El Pinche Buey."

'El Pinche Buey' had three to five editions on campus and was comprised of student submissions ranging from poetry and artwork to coverage of pressing political issues. Father Louis Fritz, of SAC's Catholic Student Center made his distaste for the paper known publicly, both in the Ranger and to Paul Thompson, a San Antonio Express and News columnist.

In this Ranger article, Father Fritz again speaks publicly about Rodriguez and the paper theft incident. His reaction to Rodriguez and his newspaper once again demonstrates the debate on what is deemed socialy acceptable and appropriate activism. In a 2021 oral history interview, Rodriguez identifies the young woman who claimed the controversial ream of paper as Kathy Ferguson from Pleasanton, Texas. "She was really gung-ho...a real strong assistance." He recalls that she had gone on to attended a University in Mexico City where she stayed involved in student activism. He chuckles as he recalls the ordeal... "I didn't ask anyone to do anything; people contributed what they could."

Father Louis Fritz would make it into a cartoon that was circulated on San Antonio's Westside. This cartoon depicts Henry B. Gonzalez as the protector of Father Fritz, spearing down MAYO. It is unclear if this cartoon is in response to the Paul Thompson article, or if the Father had already established a reputation of distaste towards MAYO.

El Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) was founded in California in 1969. By the following year, students at San Antonio College would organize their own chapter. In November of 1970, MEChA coordinators petitioned the Student Council for official group recognition and became an official SAC group soon after.

The establishment of MEChA at SAC was an important part of the larger organizing efforts of the local Movimiento.

The story of SAC student, Edgar Lozano, best illustrates this point.

Before attending San Antonio College, Edgar Lozano had attended Lanier high school. In his junior year he was a leader in what became known as the Lanier Walkout, or “Lanier Action,” as he prefers to describe it. He identifies this experience as a radicalizing one. In his senior year, Lozano was asked to participate in the US Commission on Civil Rights hearings that took place at Our Lady of the Lake University. After graduation, Lozano left Texas to attend the University of Wisconsin on a scholarship and would also spend a few months in Cuba with the 'Venceremos Brigade.' Eventually, Lozanzo realized that the Movimiento was not going to last forever and he decided he needed to be in San Antonio, in the heart of the action, to help in some way. Lozano would end up playing a key role in forming the MEChA group at San Antonio College. As a MAYO organizer, Lozano decided to enroll at SAC with the sole purpose of organizing students through a MEChA organization. San Antonio College became the obvious choice for directing organizational efforts because it was, “the biggest school for Chicanos in San Antonio, ” Lozano noted.

“My primary goal at SAC was to organize a MEChA and heighten awareness of the Chicano Movement at that school.” -Lozano (interview)

Ultimately, he believed a MEChA chapter would serve as a better organizing tool than a MAYO chapter at SAC and the reason came down to language.

“MAYO was an organization of chicano organizers but our name didn’t say Chicano. So if we wanna promote chicanismo..you dont want to promote the term Mexican American. MECHA had Chicano in the title and estudiantil." -Lozano, (interview)

While Roger Heredia did not attend SAC, he was also active in the effort to organize students on campus. Heredia graduated from Central Catholic highschool in 1968 and attended St. Mary's University the following year. At St. Mary's, he was introduced to MAYO organizers and worked to establish a MEChA chapter on campus in which he served as President. As part of a larger organizing effort, the St. Marys MEChA members developed a plan to organize a MEChA chapter at San Antonio College. The goal was to unite student groups across university and college campuses, forming a, "consortium of students."

"Let's see if we can make a web of student organizations and try to see if we can enlighten more minds." - Roger Herredia (interview)

Heredia would describe SAC as a "shining star," because of its large population of Mexican American students and its potential for political organization. With the help of SAC student Rogelio "The Killer" Aguilar, St. Mary's MEChA organizers advertised the creation of the group on campus and waited for students to inquire. The efforts of both Heredia and Lozano demonstrate that the SAC campus was seen as a significant location in which to bring MAYO organizational efforts.

Heredia was also involved in la Universidad de los Barrios where he ran the GED program.

"We announced it in the school newspaper...and a couple students showed up and we started 'rappin.' That was our deal, to 'rap.' That's all we could do, you know, to wake up that lightbulb in thier head. Yea, you want to become successful in life, but you dont have to betray your heritage and be ashamed...back then they had us ashamed of being what we are." - Heredia (interview)

A key component of the Chicano Youth Movement was the call for a culturally relevent education. At SAC, A Mexican American History course was offered in 1970 by Johnny McCain, who also served as the MEChA faculty sponsor. The course may have been the first of it's kind in San Antonio.

SAC student and Chicano Times editor, Jose Luis Rodriguez, would advertise the course in the June 1970 edition of the newspaper. He describes Dr. McCain as, " a man of depth and understanding who is sincerely interested in the advancement of La Raza."

Con Safo, a hugely influential Chicano art collective emerged thanks to a group of talented and politically motivated Chicano artists that included SAC student Felipe Reyes and SAC art instructor Mel Casas.

Mel Casas began teaching at SAC as an art instructor in 1967.

“There was an artistic component that came out of SAC and one of those was Felipe Reyes. There was a very vibrant, very energetic Chicano arts movement throughout the city, and I remeber SAC had some good artists at that time.” -Edgar Lozano

Felipe Reyes was a student at SAC in 1969 and a student of Casas. During this time Reyes was part of the group “Los Pintores de Aztlan, A precursor to Con Safos. Reyes would approach his professor about joining the then splintering group and eventually the group would be rebranded to Con Safos under Casas’ influence. (Cordova)

In late 1971, Los Pintores de Aztlan would exhibit art at SAC as part of the Semana de la Raza activities coordinated by the SAC MEChA organization. The exhibit was titled, “Con Safos, Art From the Barrio,” indicating the imminent evolution of the group.

On December 19, 1971, Casas would publicize his influential work, “The Brown Paper Report.”

He would continue to work at SAC for a span of 30 years, eventually becoming the chair of the Visual Arts and Technology department. Reyes would return to SAC as an art instructor in the 1980’s.

Between 1968 and through the 1970's, San Antonio college experienced a wave of student activism as students fought to make thier voices heard on campus. The 1970's saw the introduction of a Mexican American History course and the birth of Chicano student organizations such as MEChA, UMAS, and the NCHO. Chicano's were carving out thier place on campus and demanding recogniztion from campus officials.

Local Chicano organizers recognized SAC as an ideal location to organize students and SAC became part of a larger effort of chicano political organizing. The MEChA chapter at SAC was central to this larger effort. Chicano activists and students meandered seamlessly between MAYO, Raza Unida, MEChA and campus activism, as part of the mission to educate, inspire, and actively pursue change for the Chicano. Students involved in these efforts still recall these events and the deep sense of purpose they felt in thier participation.

Other campus organizations, such as The Student Representative Assemblage, were also involved in discussing topics of the Movimiento, such as supporting the United Farmworker Movement and the Farah garmet worker strike. These conversations were not limited to Chicano Student groups.

Although San Antonio College did not establish a Mexican American Studies program on campus until 2016, it was the effort of those who organized during the Chicano Movement that paved the way for this program to eventually find footing at SAC. In this recovery project, we honor their efforts.

As we look back on this history, we might ask ourselves: what does it mean to know where we come from and the struggles our community has endured? What lessons can we learn from these students? How do we best honor their stories? How do we continue the fight for equal rights today?