Mexican American Studies (MAS) has been offered in Texas public schools for nearly a decade. Recognized as an official course in 2018, approximately 12,000 high school students across the state are enrolled in MAS courses.
The University of Texas at San Antonio will host the Mexican American Studies Youth Conference this week, bringing together hundreds of students and educators to strengthen this growing academic field.
TPR’s Norma Martinez spoke with Liliana Saldaña, associate professor of Mexican American studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and Silvia Mendoza, associate professor of Mexican American studies at UTSA.
Mr. Saldaña began by explaining that the conference celebrates 10 years of MAS in public schools and 30 years of MAS at UTSA.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Saldaña: We thought it would be a good time to celebrate 10 years of Mexican American studies in public schools. This would be a great opportunity to bring together young people who are taking Mexican American studies courses not only in high school, but also in middle schools, community colleges, and universities.
So it’s a place where we can affirm our collective struggles and accomplishments, our identity, our history, to see what we’ve been able to do over the past decade, and to reflect on what we can do to sustain. It’s a place where we can gather. MAS for future generations. And it’s a historic gathering in the sense that it brings the whole class together.
Schools are bringing students into this space to learn, collaborate, share, and affirm what they are learning about the transformative power of Mexican American studies and ethnic studies at the local level. And I would say that’s part of the ongoing process of organizing and mobilizing that supports our city.
MARTINEZ: Sylvia, MAS, do you think its future is at risk of being curtailed? We’ve seen a lot of backlash against race-based education in public schools. By the time people get to college, they may be exposed to this kind of thing for the first time. So what are we hearing from students? What do you think about what’s happening in public schools?
Mendoza: I do think there is a threat. I think Mexican American studies, ethnic studies as a whole, is always under threat because of the concept and the affirmation and the power that it carries.
I think one of the interesting things about having this youth conference now is that it’s a legacy of a larger movement that’s been happening for decades. And during the Chicanx civil rights movement. When these youth conferences were held, it was a testament to the power of the youth community, parents and local organizations to come together to support this knowledge and support this sector.
So I think the answer is “yes, and”. Yes, I think there’s definitely a threat to Mexican American studies and ethnic studies with more legislation, but at the same time, there’s a hunger, a drive, a desire in the community to make sure that these histories are included. I think it’s always there.
MARTINEZ: Sylvia, Liliana was talking about how Mexican American studies can be transformative. And we talked to a lot of people in our program “Fronteras” about how their lives really changed through these particular programs. So, will this conference be a new initiative to maintain interest in secondary education, rather than letting it stall? Want to make it more of a lifelong endeavor?
Mendoza: That’s right. One way to maintain this interest is to develop direct relationships and contact with schools. So we try to not only have conversations at the higher education level, but also invite parents and young people in high schools and middle schools (levels). And then there are the teachers who work with us and teach at Bonham Elementary School. So giving students early access to this information is not only powerful for them, but also powerful for sustaining the field.
MARTINEZ: So this is kind of the first of its kind here in San Antonio, Liliana. Is there any precedent on which this is based?
Saldaña: Well, it’s all based on the past. And I remember seeing how they organized with local high school students when I was a student. They would create spaces in local UTSAs and bring young people together to talk about local history and their collective struggles to participate in society. students, youth, middle school, high school, and community college students. Because 20 years ago, MAS did not exist in public schools. And we were only about 10 years old when we enrolled at UTSA. So I keep thinking about this tradition of organizing with and for young people and creating these spaces.
And I think this is evidence that the MAS movement in San Antonio is connected to a larger movement in Texas, which is also connected to the larger ethnic studies movement in the United States.
For the past 10 years, we have worked with teachers not only in San Antonio, but across the state, including the Rio Grande Valley, El Paso, North Texas, the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and Austin. Here in San Antonio, we support our teachers in offering these courses. And teachers build curriculum, often from scratch.
But this is an opportunity to celebrate teachers, affirm what they’re doing, and allow students to share what they’re learning in class. And from there we’ll look at other additional strategies we can do. What to come up with to maintain MAS.
I think one of the things we wanted to emphasize is that MAS is…students taking Mexican American studies in public schools are very excited. This means they are learning about Mexican American history and culture for the first time. They are learning about their ancestral traditions. They learn about movements like the Civil Rights Movement and the Chicano Movement and try to connect them to our present.
And we want many young people to understand that MAS is not just a high school elective course, but that MAS is an academic discipline, and this academic discipline has been around for more than 50 years. That this field of study is a space where they can combine their personal aspirations, their professional aspirations, their community advocacy, their aspirations for social change…it really bridges all of these and provides an analytical framework. This is a place where you can continue to learn. We need to learn to change the world.
The Mexican American Studies Youth Conference will be held on November 7th from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. inside the Buena Vista Building on the University of Texas San Antonio Downtown Campus.
Information is available here.
Correction: An earlier version of this article misspelled Sylvia Mendoza’s scientific name. She is an assistant professor of Mexican American studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
