Re: [Marxism] Speaking Spanish in Kansas high school leads to suspension

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Zach is also fluent in his dad's native language, Spanish -- and
> that's what got him suspended from school.
>
> "It was, like, totally not in the classroom," the high school junior
> said, recalling the infraction. "We were in the, like, hall or
> whatever, on restroom break. This kid I know, he's like, 'Me prestas
> un dolar?' ['Will you lend me a dollar?'] Well, he asked in Spanish;
> it just seemed natural to answer that way. So I'm like, 'No problema.'
> "
>
> But that conversation turned out to be a big problem for the staff at
> the Endeavor Alternative School, a small public high school in an
> ethnically mixed blue-collar neighborhood. A teacher who overheard the
> two boys sent Zach to the office, where Principal Jennifer Watts
> ordered him to call his father and leave the school.
> . . .
> For Zach's father, and for the Hispanic organizations that have
> expressed concern, the suspension is not a closed case. "Obviously
> they've violated his civil rights," said Chuck Chionuma, a lawyer in
> Kansas City, Mo., who is representing the Rubio family. "We're
> studying what form of legal redress will correct the situation."
>
> Said Rubio: "I'm mainly doing this for other Mexican families, where
> the legal status is kind of shaky and they are afraid to speak up.
> Punished for speaking Spanish? Somebody has to stand up and say: This
> is wrong."


The Mexican-Americans at my rural high school in Beaumont, California,
were a long-time integral part of the community. On the other side of
the tracks, of course.

In those days (1950-53), there was an official, and undoubtedly
written, rule against speaking Spanish anywhere on the school grounds.
I thought that those days were long behind us.

My only connection with the Mexican-American students was through
athletics. As a transfer student--not having grown up in Beaumont, I
can't claim to write from instinct; however, I don't think socializing
would have been frowned on. Yet the geography of the town, the division
between the protestant faiths and Catholicism,* combined with the
language/cultural differences meant that our mini-worlds were
different.

Every summer, a frozen-food business took over some buildings next to a
railroad spur. Cribs of corn were brought in by truck from Coachella
Valley and elsewhere. The corn was washed and the kernels stripped off
on the way to packaging. The highest quality was closely inspected by
one of the major food processing plants. But the lower-quality corn,
bound for our "boys" in Korea (most likely to the services in general)
went by without checking. It was accepted practice to put some of the
kernels that had fallen on the floor back on the belt for this
packager.

Most of the workers were Mexican-American women who lived nearby. There
was no distinction regarding wages. Except for the head supervisor and
a couple of others, I believe that we all got a dollar an hour.

I worked there for two summers, beginning after my sophomore year. The
first summer I was too young to work beyond a certain number of hours.
There must not have been a rule regarding time of day, for my job was
to clean the equipment in the evening with a steam hose and wash down
the floor.

The next year, I worked outside using a large rake to pull corn out of
cribs onto a conveyor belt. The rake was somewhat like a garden rake,
but quite specialized. The prongs were smooth, about a foot long and
about as think as a man's thumb and welded onto a triangle, which was
welded onto a long steel handle. We pulled the corn out of the crib,
taking care to spread it evenly over the belt, which took the corn to
women who stripped the husks from the kernels. I don't recall what
tools they used for this.

There were usually two of us doing this, although I sometimes had to
work alone, for my partner was a teenage alcoholic who often didn't
make it to work on time. ** We worked all day without shirts. The minor
melanoma on top of my shoulders that appeared several years ago
probably came from that summer.

Pay was by the hour. The only hours that counted were the ones actually
on task. If there was a break in the work, you weren't paid for the
down time, but you had to stay on the job. If you ran out of work, the
workers were sent home. Once a truck pulled in, for various mechanical
reasons, there was a delay in getting the cribs mounted for my work.
Additionally, the conveyor belts were constantly breaking down. If it
took an hour to fix them, you didn't get paid for that hour of standing
around.

The days commonly lasted from 7 hours to 10 or 11. However, because
most of the workers lived nearby, they were often called in for just
2-4 hours of labor.

One day, after twelve hours on the job, the supervisor gathered us and
said that we had to process the two trucks that had just come in.
Normally, we would have waited until the morning. He claimed that we
would be able to unload and process it in an hour. I knew, however,
that it would be take three to four hours to unload and process what
was in front of us. I protested this in front of all the workers and
speaking primarily to them.

I was fired on the spot. I never did find out how long that day was for
my fellow workers.

There was not much to the summer. I spent it reading and hiking the San
Jacinto Mountains, a massive outcrop just above Palm Springs.
http://www.idyllwild.com/

Brian Shannon
_________________
* Anti-Catholicism was very strong in the U.S. until after the election
and death of John Kennedy. It was also reinforced on the liberal side.
Paul Blanshard's "American Freedom and Catholic Power" was a popular
and influential book. My father, an apostate of the faith, knew
Blanshard when they were both in the League for Industrial Democracy.
http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/239.htm

** Years later I heard a rumor that he and three others were arrested
for rape. Their punishment, or at least his, was forced enlistment into
the Navy for a 4-year stint. It was only a rumor, but it certainly
corresponded to how both rape and service was thought of at the time.




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