Posted in [Mike in the News], [Recent Posts]

12:00 AM CDT on Saturday, June 12, 2010

oliveramercedes@ymail.com

Dallas lawyer Jaime Ramón is understandably proud of his Texas roots – which go all the way back to a time before Texas was a state.

His mother's ancestors founded the town of Roma-Los Saenz, now in Starr County along the border, in the 1760s, when the territory was still a part of Spain. His grandfather's cousin, Eustorgio Ramón, was known in the early 20th century as the "Lion of the Border" and fought in the Mexican army under the dictator Porfirio Díaz.

But it is the Saenz family's efforts in the last century to be compensated for lands they lost after Texas became a part of the U.S. in 1848 that are worth mentioning here. The Saenz family is among several thousand plaintiffs whose ancestors had land grants for several generations before losing them to white settlers in the aftermath of the U.S.-Mexican War.

This and similar parts of Texas history would never reach the eyes and ears of Texas schoolkids if recent decisions by the state Board of Education were allowed to stand.

Christian conservatives on the board in May voted down requests to include more current ethnic and racial history, integral to Texas in the 20th century. Instead, the board focused on questioning the separation of church and state, among other issues.

It perplexes many scholars and legislators who recognize that Texas is now on a trajectory to become a majority-Latino state by 2020. In the state's largest school districts, the student populations are already 60 percent or more Hispanic.

Social studies textbooks should be written, educators say, so that the kids in the classrooms see themselves in the story.

That would be a good idea, because the history of many Latino fourth- and fifth-generation families in this state, who are themselves descended from Mexicans and Spaniards, has been either lost or suppressed or found only in the accounts handed down orally through several generations.

Dr. Roberto Calderón, history professor at the University of North Texas in Denton, is optimistic that, eventually, those names and faces will rise to take their place in the state's curriculum.

"The official narrative of Texas history is ample and fully capable of broadening its reach to be able to tell everyone's story and not have it be the exclusive or near exclusive tale of one group only," he said.

State Rep. Mike Villarreal , D-San Antonio, who sits on the education subcommittee of the House appropriations committee, is also optimistic that some of the state board's decisions can be undone or delayed. He said several legislators from both parties will be working during the next legislative session, which convenes in January, on setting a new direction for the state's educational system.

"We all share the same goal," he said. "If Texas is going to be a leader in science and industry, then Texas will need to be a leader in education, and not a laughingstock."