Students can experience the hardships of Latino Americans in Los Angeles during the 1960s tonight at the keynote speech for Hispanic Heritage Month given by Paula Crisostomo.
In 1968, Crisostomo was one of the leaders of a peaceful walkout against the injustices of the public school system in East Los Angeles. This walkout of Chicano high school students helped pave the way for equal rights for Latino Americans.
The Ohio University Multicultural Center brings a speaker to OU each month. When Winsome Chunnu, assistant director of the Multicultural Center, saw that Crisostomo was being considered for the Hispanic Heritage Month speaker, she was ecstatic.
Chunnu saw the movie Walkout, based on the Chicano high schools' walkout, which demonstrated how the students in the East Los Angeles schools were disenfranchised. The story is similar to the story of integration in the South in that students could not gain access to facilities in their own institutions, she said. For example, Chunnu added, that Latino students were restricted to using restrooms in schools during certain hours.
Chunnu said that Crisostomo is a great speaker to bring to OU because of the topical issues surrounding the Hispanic/Latino experience in the United States right now
such as immigration.
Chunnu hopes that students will attend Crisostomo's speech to experience the essence of her leadership because it shows that you can stand out and you can speak out in the face of injustice she said.
Crisostomo will speak tonight at 7:30 in the Baker University Center Theatre. Admission is free.
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Caitlin Price
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Paula Crisostomo led a peaceful walkout in 1968 to protest injustices against Latino students in the East Los Angeles public school system. She will speak at 7:30 tonight in the Baker University Center Theatre.
