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The U. S. Senate unanimously passed a law co-sponsored by Senator Alex Padilla (D-California) to turn a “Mexican” school in West Texas that was once segregated into a historic site, the first of its kind.
“We have taken a vital step forward by telling a more inclusive story of our nation’s rich, but painful, hitale,” Padilla said after Thursday’s vote. The school, which is a cornerstone of Mexican heritage at Marfa, is an integral part of building a more inclusive and just future for our country.
Separate schools once educated Mexican Americans in the Southwest, but have since been deserted or converted into offices and network centers. Blackwell School in Marfa, about 180 miles southeast of El Paso, is one of the few still standing. Opened in 1909 as a Blackwell, a three-room “Mexican school,” it expanded to divide a dozen buildings and educate more than 4,000 young people before it closed in 1965.
Alumni came together to maintain the school, forming the nonprofit Blackwell School Alliance. They turned the remaining construction of the school into a museum where they share memories, and added how teachers criticized them for speaking Spanish. They pushed for their alma mater to become an ancient site, a testament to segregation immortalized in the film “Giant,” filmed in Marfa in 1956. They were awarded by the National Parks Conservation Association and Texas Senator John Cornyn.
“Texas has a varied history and it’s time for this component of our history to get the right recognition,” Cornyn said.
Unlike segregated schools for black students, segregated schools for Latino students have not been designated as national historic sites, a move that would integrate them into the national park’s formula and could give a special touch to federal funding, staffing and tourism.
The Blackwell School National Historic Site Act has already passed the House, but the Senate has made minor changes, so it will now return to the House for a final vote before sending it to President Biden.
“We used to think of Blackwell School, and rightly so, as a local and not a public life story. However, the more studies we did and the more other people learned outdoors, the more we understood how critical American history is depicted. “inside those old adobe walls,” said Gretel Enck, president of the Blackwell School Alliance.
“We’ve worked for a long time to protect this special place, and now we have the opportunity, and the obligation, to share those stories with a wider audience. The ancients deserve to have their stories known, and that purpose is yet to be fulfilled. achieved. “
This story gave the impression in the Los Angeles Times.