Pump Up the Blowouts—Zinn Education Project 1 WHEN ONLY ONE OF THE 22 STUDENTS raised her hand, I was not surprised. It is the rare student who begins college having learned the history of Mexican Americans in schools. This time, the question was how many knew about Mendez v. Westminster—a 1947 case that resulted in the elimination of de jure segregation for Mexi- can students and was influential in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. I probably would have received a similar reply had I asked about the Lemon Grove Incident of 1931 where the activism of Mexican immigrant parents resulted in the first successful desegregation case. Typically, a few more students know about the 1968 Chicana/o School Blowouts, but these overall patterns of historical exclusion are deep and their ramifications are real. Not only are many students denied access to crucial history, but also the myths about educa- tion, meritocracy, and equality are kept intact. By not providing students with the tools to understand the his- torical continuities and changes in schools, we may be reinforcing beliefs that so-called student failure is rooted in individual students, families, and teachers—not in a legacy of structural and educational injustice. As I hear students’ anger about not learning this history until college, I also think about the millions of students who are not able to attend college and may never learn this history. Thinking in particular about the Chicana/o School Blowouts, how are our K-12 schools teach- ing this important movement? Does it appear as an assignment, a lesson, a paragraph, a footnote, or is it left out completely? Is it taught as an event Pump Up the Blowouts Reflections on the 40th Anniversary of the Chicano/a School Blowouts BY GILDA L. OCHOA Associated Press Chicano Blowout organizer Carlos Montes, shown here at a 1968 rally for the Poor Peoples’ March to Washington, was also a founder of the Chicano rights group the Brown Berets. Montes and 12 other students were arrested for organizing the Blowouts.