Introduction
While working at Yale University on this curriculum unit, I have learned more about the privilege of coexisting at such an elite and prestigious university. This institution has been part of a strong tradition amongst the elites of a global society who, from all geographical locations, send their children to acquire the skills and knowhow to impact the world. The stunning architecture and the plentitude of resources available give insight into why the most privileged in society send their family here. Unfortunately, just across the street of this university you see impoverished people asking for money and finding ways to get by and survive under unjust social structures. The true state of inequality in a society that encompasses class, race, gender, and other variables hits us all constantly regardless of how privileged one might be. The blatant inequality of our society does not just showcase itself at Yale but all over the world; which is why, in my perspective, we as a society are still clearly in the struggle to attain full civil rights for all.
Intimately, I have deep feelings about equality and civil rights; raised and loved by working-class immigrant parents from Mexico, I take the injustices that people of Mexican descent have suffered in Mexico and in the United States personally. As a child, my mother would tell me of the impoverished conditions my father lived under in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. As the oldest in his family, my father had to drop out of school in third grade to help support his family financially. He eventually immigrated to the United States with no other goal but to make a better life for himself and his future family, a reasonable and just objective. My father made a living in Mexico as a construction worker and worked just as hard in the United States despite suffering through constant discrimination to be able to support his family on both sides of the border. My father was selfless in this sense and never complained, yet even as a child I was aware of the injustices that my father suffered through and could not understand why any society would let this happen to any one of its people. Growing up in San Jose, California, I began to see that these injustices were mild compared to other stories within my community. Hardships such as whole families crossing the border under dangerous environmental conditions without any sympathy; people working in menial labor jobs and then getting swindled out of their pay and basic benefits by their boss; some sacrificing their bodies working in the highly toxic Silicon Valley tech factories and getting “let go” when their productivity declined from the poison they breathed in day in and day out. These stories became part of my history and identity because I knew my family’s past and where I came from: immigrant working-class people who suffered through injustices without a complaint due to the historically founded disempowerment of the non-elite and non-white of the United States. As I grew older, I began to analyze the narratives of people like my family more deeply and I wanted to work against these injustices. I eventually realized how existing economic and political structures have established and continue to drive the injustices and inequalities people like my family have endured. These structures deny equality of opportunity to people in order to maintain exorbitant wealth within the elite, create blatant lack of respect for people's lives, and encourage an inhumane social norm in society. This normalization of dehumanizing people through social inequality became part of my community’s identity-- which in effect left us without a voice to set forth our grievances and keep us from being fully seen or acknowledged in society.
Through personal experiences of injustices based on race, class, and education on this very topic, I realized I wanted to be seen. I wanted to be heard. I wanted equality and I wanted it for everyone. My community has been victimized, but I am committed to do everything within my power to prevent us from adopting being voiceless victims as part of our identity. Fighting for equality has been a part of my identity for about 20 years of my life, and as a history teacher I still see narratives that exist in a number of history books perpetuate the structures of oppression and inequality of marginalized groups. This is the reason why I believe it is important to teach my students to find their voices through marginalized historical characters to rewrite a more accurate history and gain a greater sense of self and humanity.
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