The First Decade

F4 | Sunday, September 15, 2019 | lmtonline.com | Laredo Morning Times  $QQLYHUVDU\ Texas A&I Kingsville, they walked the stage at their alma mater in the Maravillo Physical Education Build- ing on the LJC campus. Degrees were awarded in three ar- eas: elementary education, second- ary education and business admin- istration. The university went on to create more degrees that decade as it brought on bilingual education, criminal justice and international trade. On the cusp of a new decade, the center started during a time of fren- zied politics and activism. With the VietnamWar, the civil rights movement and o t h e r FRQÁLFWV VWXGHQWV SURWHVWHG WKH HV - tablishment in various ways. Green said he remembers when community college students from Laredo Junior College, now called Laredo College, and the center held sit-ins for several issues. “It was a hot, supercharged at- mosphere politically,” Green said. “I remember one time they called a strike and they walked out of the classes and were sitting around smoking and drink- ing sodas around the campus. Now you just wouldn’t have that now. It wasn’t al- lowed then, but they did it.” 6SHFLÀF WR /DUHGR WKHUH ZDV DOVR the Chicanomovement which started in the 1960s and sought to empower 0H[LFDQ $PHULFDQV 5HQRZQHG photographer and civil rights activ- LVW 0DQXHO ´&KDFDµ 5DPLUH] KDG hung a poster of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara in a stu- dent center of an LJC building. “Leo Cigarroa came speeding down in his Cadillac, walked into the student center in front of the students, took the poster off the wall, ripped it up into pieces and took it over and threw it down on the vice president’s desk,” Thompson said. During a time of fervor and anti-establishment sentiment, LW ZDV ÀWWLQJ WR KDYH VHYHUDO bold faculty members take on the center to provide education in South Texas when the state could not. First Bilingual Program 7KH ÀUVW ELOLQJXDO education program LQ WKH 8 6 EHJDQ in 1963 at Miami- Dade School Dis- trict in Florida. There were still very few pro- grams after that around the country, and in Texas there were i n i t i a l l y no laws manda t - ing bilingual instruction until 1973. Yet a successful program in Lar- edo started in 1971 before this law to serve the large population of Span- ish-speaking families. Education professors Julio Mad- ULJDO DQG 5DPRQ $ODQL] VDZ KRZ desperately Laredo needed to teach students English. With lots of grant writing and discussions, Alaniz and Madrigal helped secure funding for a program to travel the region to teach teachers bilingual education through the center’s master’s program. Alaniz and a few faculty taught courses in Crystal City, a hotbed of political action where frustrated high school students spurred the Latino civil rights movement. In 1969, they walked out protesting racist school policies against Hispanics. “Crystal City at the time was going through a commotion, so we worked with them very closely,” Alaniz said. In 1973, Texas passed the Bi- lingual Education and Training Act, mandating that all elementary schools provide bilingual instruc- tion if they have 20 or more children of limited English ability in a grade level. With this, Alaniz and Madrigal tweaked the master’s degree to cre- ate a bachelor’s degree in bilingual education. With lots of grant writing and dis- cussions, the center secured funding to travel around the region starting LQ IRU WKLV QHZ FHUWLÀFDWH “We went about halfway in Crys- tal City, and we moved to Zapata and offered the same services,” Al- aniz said. “People needed course- work, and it was quite a distance and people couldn’t travel, so Dr. Cow- art allowed us to go there and teach courses on site.” Alaniz said several professors WDXJKW /,6' 8,6' DQG =DSDWD Second wave of staff recruited in 1972