Hispanic Heritage is for everyone

 

Hispanic Heritage is for everyone

Mrs. Sanchez my Spanish teacher is high school brought the life of Cesar Chavez to us. She taught Spanish, but the world was her textbook. While we were learning our Spanish, we were also learning about great contributions to art, literature, science, Human Rights, and music. she connected the dots of human rights across all the continents. She wanted us to see the beauty of language and of the people who speak it. Some of the cool kids thought she was corny, me I knew better, she was amazing. I was blessed with incredible teachers across all subject areas. 

I knew "Sí se puede", before President Obama ran for office, and so did he. Cesar, taught President Obama and Dr. Turner, that peaceful action can breakdown walls of injustice; Yes, it can be done.

Our teachers taught us about Cesar Chavez. I learned that in 1966 he walked with strikers on a 340-mile march from Delano to Sacramento to bring awareness to the cause of farmworkers. They taught about every Civil Rights activist that ever lived, the made sure we saw the connections between standing up for right and education. It was never about a job; it was always much bigger.

So, decades later in 2010, influenced by Cesar Chavez's walk, I decided to walk 400 miles from Connecticut to Washington DC to bring awareness to abusive high-stakes testing in our public schools. In 2015, I would walk it again protesting high-stakes testing and inequality in our public schools. 

Our teachers taught us about Civil Rights Activists like Cesar Chavez hoping those stories would inspire our own stories. They taught us there is no American History without, Hispanic Heritage, Black History, Women's History, Immigrations and Labor. America's story is all our stories. American History is all our stories, and everyday all our stories are relevant. 

Guess what teachers teaching students about Civil Right? 

Works,                                                                                                                                                            Dr. Jesse P. Turner

Central Literacy Center Director

Just in case you like to listen to the song that moved me today...its Barry Lane's Jesse Turner is a walking man trip down memory lane 2015 400 miles to DC
 > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSWx8YRTs4I&t=3s <