´At the root of these walkouts were the deplorable conditions in the four predominantly Mexican-American high schools of Eastside,ö (61). Such walkouts demonstrate how just a handful of students who refuse to tolerate injustice can spark a full blown social protest that yields improvements.
In Blowouts! we see that students requested a variety of issues be resolved in their ômanifesto.ö Such issues included absolution for any students involved in the walkouts, full rights for Chicano students, bilingual and bicultural education, and smaller classes. One of the requests also demonstrates the unfair conditions at these schools for students, mainly the fact that they were required to perform janitorial services at what was supposed to be an educational institution. Further, the largest request pertains to improving the understanding and education of educators who all too often had little knowledge or understanding at best of Chicano culture and concerns. As the studen
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