Educating Mexicano Children

By Felix Alvarado, Editor

October 14, 2014

Going back to Colonial Spain, social order determined a child’s access to education.  Children of the aristocracy had the highest priority, mestizos, second and then indigenous Indians.  This was also true for Spanish Colonial Texas.   Most of the education was provided by the Catholic Church.  Education changed in 1836 when schools were established for White children.  Spanish speaking Tejano children could attend White schools however these schools were taught in English. 

Between 1910 and 1920 hundreds of thousands of Mexicans crossed the border going in a northerly direction.  Some went as far north as Illinois, Iowa and other northern states.  Most stayed in Texas.  Thousands came to the Metroplex. 

The arrival of the numerous Mexican children to the Metroplex beginning in 1910 posed a perplexing problem to the Fort Worth Independent School District educating children that were neither White, nor Black.  Educating these little children created a legal, moral and financial dilemma to the district.  This was a dilemma for which the Anglo power structure was not prepared.  These children were entitled to an education however building schools where the children lived was not economically feasible. This moral and financial dilemma had a simple solution, build schools for Mexican children where they were clustered together and in areas with few Mexican children allow them to attend White schools.  Perhaps this was hypocritical but it was effective in maintaining a segregationist policy for Mexican-Americans as inexpensively as possible. 

Some history regarding where children of Mexican immigrants were educated is available.  A Mexican school was located at Henderson and West Belknap.  This school was located in a temporary building and taught grades 1 and 2.  At Peter Smith School there were sixty (60) Mexican children in a temporary building.  These children could have been accommodated in empty rooms at Peter Smith School.  The school board considered building a district school for Mexican children.  A Fort Worth map of 1891 shows a school in this area.  This was probably the school used for Mexican children.  It was close to the first three barrios Mexicans settled in, Hell’s Half Acre, La Diecisiete, La Corte and later El Papalote.  This school would have been within walking distance.

A school for Mexican-American children was built at Katy Lake, 3900 St Louis St in 1929.  The school taught grades 1, 2 and 3.  The normal school for children living in the Katy Lake area was South Fort Worth Elementary now Richard Wilson Elementary School.  The school was closed in 1954 and the children sent to Worth Heights Elementary School.  Supposedly this school was built for the convenience of those Mexicans that worked at La Fundición.  In the Northside, MG Ellis was largely for Mexican children but the presence of a few lower class Whites kept the school from being labeled as a Mexican school.  Some Mexican immigrants preferred to send their children to get a Catholic education at San Jose Elementary school.  Once the children made it through the third grade they went to their regular home school. 

In 1931, the Strayer Report made the following comments:

“Two distinct issues emerge from a study of the problem of educating the Mexican children in Fort Worth.  The first concerns itself with the task of getting the children into school and the second has to do with the language handicap which must be eliminated. 

The report further states, “…..the best solution from which to start would be to get the Mexican child into school while he is still too young to be of great economic value to his family.”  “….the first two years of schooling for a Mexican child of necessity must deal almost entirely with the learning of the English language.”

The lack of an education had a devastating effect on the political, social and economic development of the Mexican-Americans.  Without an education Mexican-Americans would find it difficult to go up the social, economic and political ladder.  Without an education the Mexican-American would be ill-prepared for the rapid social changes of the 60’s and 70’s.  It was the lack of social, economic and political progress that would lead to the Chicano Movement of the late 60’s and early 70’s.

In preparing this article, I am indebted to the Fort Worth ISD Billy W. Sills Center for Archives.  The staff was very helpful in providing me the information which they had available.  The information on the location of the barrios I took from Carlos Cuellar’s book Stories from the Barrios.  The segregation of the children was the most insidious because it would have a long term negative impact on the education of subsequent generations of Mexican-Americans.  Mexican-Americans are still underrepresented in positions of leadership in government and industry.  Today, the Latino children are still clustered together and many still have the same language barrier.  There is a saying that goes something like “The more things change the more they stay the same”.