Trigger Warning: This episode includes discussion of systemic and individual violence, including sexual assault and rape. Please listen with care.
On March 18, 2026, Dolores Huerta, distinguished farmworker rights activist and feminist, published a statement sharing her personal story of surviving sexual abuse and rape perpetrated by Cesar Chavez. In her statement she shared that she, “carried this secret for as long as I did because building the movement and securing farmworker rights was my life’s work.” She put the movement ahead of herself because of her commitment to improving the lives of farm workers and their families.
In this episode we will be talking with April Tellez, Mt. SAC professor of History and of Ethnic Studies, who authored the book, Dolores Huerta: A Life in American History. Join us as we reflect on the message of Dolores Huerta’s work, the repercussions of intersectional oppression, and how we can contribute to providing safe learning environments for students.
Resources:
Huerta, Dolores. “A Statement from Dolores Huerta.” Medium. 18 Mar. 2026, https://medium.com/@dolores_huerta/march-18-2026-e74c20430555?
The Dolores Huerta Foundation For Community Organizing. “Sexual Assault Resources.” https://doloreshuerta.org/sexual_assault_resources/
Mt. SAC Behavioral Health (for students) multi-disciplinary, multilingual, and multiethnic team of licensed professionals that offer short-term confidential mental health counseling and crisis intervention.
Mt. SAC Behavior and Wellness Team (BW&T) Non-emergency multidisciplinary campus team that guides the campus community in effectively assessing and addressing concerning and/or threatening behavior. The B&WT aims to support students who may be experiencing an emotional problem or before their behavior reaches a potentially dangerous level. Mt. SAC employees can submit referrals to B&WT when they are concerned about a student. The team will follow up to provide support and resources.
Mt. SAC Employee Counseling Center Offers free, voluntary and confidential counseling, workshops, information and referrals for Mt. SAC employees. Bilingual counseling in Spanish is also available.
Mt. SAC Title IX protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance. Title IX states that: No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. If you have questions or concerns learn more on the Mt. SAC Title IX Contact Information.
AP3540 Sexual Misconduct, Dating Violence, Domestic Violence, and Stalking
End Rape on Campus Your experience is valid, it’s not your fault, and you are not alone. This organization works to end campus sexual violence through direct support for survivors and their communities; prevention through education; and policy reform at the campus, local, state, and federal levels. Survivor Resources are also listed on their website.
A Call to Men: Helping create a world where all men and boys are loving and respectful and all women, girls, and those at the margins of the margins are valued and safe.
Crisis Intervention Resources:
After Hours Emotional Support: Just need someone to talk to?
Run Time: 35 min, 19 sec
To Find the full transcript for this episode click HERE
Real change really stems from the bottom up. I mean, it is grassroots, everyday people, people who care will make not just can, but have fundamentally made the difference both in the trajectory of Dolores and her story in the UFW and its formation. The Women's Liberation movement and the Chicanx movement and the American Indian Movement. Everyday people who have these everyday concerns and everyday experiences that matter when they collectivize.
Chisa Uyeki [:Welcome to the Mount San Antonio College Podcast. I'm Chisa Uyeki, a Mount SAC professor and librarian, and I'm pleased to be your host for this season. Our goal is to keep you connected to our campus by bringing you the activities and events you may not have time to attend to share the interesting things our colleagues are creating and innovative ways they are supporting and connecting with Mount Sac students. Join me as we explore Mount Sac.
Trigger Warning: This episode includes discussion of systemic and individual violence, including sexual assault and rape. Please listen with care.
,: Chisa Uyeki [:Join us as we reflect on the message of Dolores Huerta's work, the repercussions of intersectional oppression, and how we can contribute to providing safe learning environments for students. April, thank you so much for being here. I wanted to ask you to tell us about your book, your process of researching the biography and what students it out to you about Dolores Huerta as a person.
April Tellez [:Yeah, so I was ecstatic to receive the recommendation from one of my colleagues who put my name forth. He had been approached with the the proposal and he said, oh, I know the perfect person for this. So this is actually from a friend in my department, Hal Hoffman, and it was with Peg Lampier and Roseanne Welch, who both taught at Cal Poly and also taught adjunct at Mount San Antonio College. So I was excited to get this book deal and this was maybe about six months before COVID hit. So I, you know, didn't anticipate the trajectory as it went of scouring resources. But because of COVID the situation changed and I was not able to go to archives because they were closed. Some were closed for the first year of COVID some were closed into the second year of COVID So. So most of my research actually was done initially through any online databases that I could find.
April Tellez [:UCSD has a wonderful farm workers project online. And I listened. They're not transcribed, but I listened to the oral interviews and did my own transcription, which not only included interviews with Dolores Huerta herself, but also included interviews with UFW volunteers, priests who were involved, rabbis who were involved, students who were involved with Cesar Chavez as well with other members of what was formed into the UFW. Also, you know, transcribing interviews from YouTube. She's given a number of interviews, most of which were not transcribed at the time. So I have transcriptions of them now. I would like them to be added to YouTube. So I've reached out, but some of them have not been added yet.
April Tellez [:So it was. What I found with Lord's work story is that because the pretense is on her, right? Is that she's a. This. Which she is a major activist and organizer, right? She was more than human, but she's a human, right? Which of course, I knew, right? We're all human. But reading through her stories and transcribing her interviews, it was really demonstrated to me, like, this is a woman who bore not only the labor of the movement, but also. And was also truly the fruit of the movement, I would say, from the bottom of the ground up, right? So I like to use these analogies that really fit, right? Like cultivating it from the bottom bottom of. Of the soil up, but also a woman who bore, you know, the. The weight of just everyday, both systemic as well as familial situations that I could absolutely relate to.
April Tellez [:She was a single mama of what? You know, initially with her work, it was, you know, two children, then it was three children, then it became seven children, and then 11 children. And now with the revelations, now we find out it's actually 13 children. And she's working through being a mother and a single mother many times, while simultaneously agitating and organizing for a mass movement that people never thought would happen, right? So it's a woman who, when I was looking through the. And when I was able to go through the archives. So this is year two now, this is 2020. And I'm looking through these archives and I'm reading at Wayne State University because they have a wonderful collection of labor history, and in particular with Dolores Huerta. And so I'm looking through these archives, reading it and on the notes of, like, the ufw, when she served as secretary, when she was serving as UFW co vice president. You know, it's their grocery lists.
April Tellez [:There are reminders to call, you know, her son's teacher in regards to his test score or missing homework. Right. There are birthday cards for her children or received from her children. Children. And so it's like, it really personifies and humanizes this mass figure, but also to recognize, like, I think the biggest recognition for me was this is a woman who wore multiple hats at. At one time. And I could personally not relate completely to the organizing aspect of it, but just personally relate to, as a woman, as a single mom for many years myself, wearing multiple hats and being able to agitate for other people. And really the story, you know, the essence was putting other people above herself.
April Tellez [:That resonated with me so completely, so deeply. And I think that's. That's really the core foundation of who Dolores is. It's always putting movements and people, whether that be family, whether that be loved ones. In addition, though, right. The mass movement, the United Farm Workers, the, you know, the women's liberation movement above herself, which is very, very telling. And I think that. That we will see that throughout this interview, too.
Chisa Uyeki [:Right.
April Tellez [:With. Throughout the narrative and the changes in the revelations as well.
Chisa Uyeki [:So the second question I have for you is you'll remember that when I reached out to you about the idea of doing this interview following the release of her statement, your response to me was that you were devastated by the news, but honestly and sadly, not entirely surprised. So I was hoping you could tell me more about your reaction.
April Tellez [:Absolutely. Definitely devastated. I felt intimately connected to Dolores. I still do. I spent four long years with her. I mean, and these were years of solitude, truly, because some of them, you know, a year and a half of them, I was at home. It was Covid. Right.
April Tellez [:So I was isolated from many aspects of society and simultaneously not with everything that was happening with the Black Lives Matter movement, the mass shooting of people of color. Right. And so in so many ways, it was. It was isolating during that time. And so I was very intimately connected with her and her story. So of course I was devastated, but I was not entirely surprised. And that's a very sad reality, not only given Dolores and me knowing her story and also knowing about the UFW and also knowing already having knowledge about, you know, accusations made against Cesar Chavez. All right.
April Tellez [:And not to the. To the extent that they were revealed recently in the last months, but about his philandering. I knew I had read about that I had read through and some. Some is outwardly stated and Some of it's more implicit in the interviews that transcribed from the, from the farm workers ucsd, from their farm workers interviews that, you know, he, he was known to, you know, maybe step out on his wife and, you know, and those types of things. So. But in a larger framework, knowing about, like the era that it was knowing about, you know, it's simultaneous with the women's liberation movement, which didn't erupt out of nowhere, didn't erupt out of and originate out of a vacuum because there were systemic issues then as well as today still exist, where women are fighting for recognition, bodily control, control over our reproduction. Right. It's coming out of this era where women are no longer.
April Tellez [:Not that we ever were okay with being silent, but it's a mass movement and we contextualize it with everything, with the civil rights movement and the broader movements. And so it wasn't surprising that as a woman, she would face this type of misogyny because it was represented in the larger, the larger narrative and the larger reality and experiences of women inside the United States. Now add in two that I also recognize and teach about in my Chicanx history courses that women like, for example, like with the Chicano movement, right. It was called the Chicano movement. It wasn't called the Chicano and then A or X movement. Right. We didn't have this, although it's very indigenous in our heritage, we didn't even have this real open talk about non binary, two spirit people in our, in our own ethnic affiliation, ethnic background, and in our movements in the 1960s. So women, there were silence as well in the Chicano movement.
April Tellez [:For example, even in, like the Brown Berets, very seldomly were they allowed positions of power. They were expected to cook for the meetings. They're expected to be secretarial workers, to take notes, but to not really voice their positions or their opinions. And anytime a woman would say anything about, hey, okay, yes, it's not about, not just about we care about la raza. We care about the racism that we face holistically with, in this movement as well, but also what about the sexism that we face? And then, you know, the retort was typically like, oh, get off that women's lived, you know, and I quote, get off that. That's secondary to the movement, if it's going to be addressed at all. So I knew that as well coming in. That's why organizations such as Las Adelitas emerged, because it was an organization of women who were like, yes, we're fighting for racial justice, but we are equally fighting for gender justice.
April Tellez [:And so that being said, too, so in a larger framework, right, we had a system that still didn't federally recognize domestic violence as a federal offense. Right. All states had not abided by that. I mean, that's not until 1992. Right. So, I mean, this is an era where, you know, men were able to beat their. Their wives, they were able to step out on their wives. Right.
April Tellez [:And there were very little, if any, repercussions of, like, legal enforcement. Right. So when you place it into that broader context, it wasn't surprising to me that she, too, would have faced this. What was surprising to some extent, however, was that it was Cesar Chavez. Right. Not that I see him as, you know, don't purify him or glorify him to the extent of, like a God figure. Of course not. But somebody who she had proclaimed was shy and she even stated a little bit boring when she first met him, and she was unimpressed.
April Tellez [:But then again, sometimes it's the people, right? It's the men who are, you know, the quietest or ones that you wouldn't expect to be so forward about these things that's. That still are able to be perpetrators. And I think that that's also an important discussion, that we can't characterize it as just one type of person, right. Being responsible for these types of atrocities and this. This rape and sexual assault.
Chisa Uyeki [:So you've mentioned some already about systemic oppression. I know you teach, and we talked about. You teach American history, you teach ethnic studies, you mentioned Chicano studies. I know that you've got advanced studies in Mexican American history, Native American history, and gender studies. So in thinking about and teaching these subjects, you teach your students, I'm sure, about systemic oppression. So I'm interested to hear your insight on the impact of intersexual systemic oppressions on women's safety and women's decisions to not disclose incidents of sexual assault and sort of your take on how those things weave together.
April Tellez [:Yeah, absolutely. So it's already hard enough for a white woman to come forward with allegations of rape. Because what I always state is, you know, openly. I teach women's history Mount Sac as well. And we just covered this with the 62 million views per month of the Motherless Academy. I mean, it's where husbands are doing this to their own wives, let alone giving information to other men on how to do it to their wives or other. Other women in their circle or other women that they want to gain access to. Right.
April Tellez [:So, you know, it's hard enough For a white woman to come forward, what typically happens is that the woman has to first even in cases and. And even in police stations and in the allegations, they have to prove their innocence. The woman does before they are taken seriously. What were you wearing? Who were you with? Did you kind of give off the wrong impression? Did you do X, Y and Z? A white woman has to already prove her innocence. Now let's add on the additional layers. Let's look at ethnicity. Let's look at race. Let's look at socioeconomic background, class.
April Tellez [:Right? I mean, let's look at a number of factors, but those particularly now when a. A black woman or a Mexican woman comes forward or Native American woman comes forward. Now there's. There's two preter. Pretenses against her. There's two, you know, intersectional identification factors against her. And then if they're also poor, right. If they're uneducated.
Chisa Uyeki [:Right.
April Tellez [:Then there's additional layers. So if we're not even believing white women, and if we still have not made any arrests in the Epstein files, then what is that going to look like for women of color? Because there's already these suppositions, these notions, these stereotypes, these arguments that black women are all angry, right? Mexican women like to have all these children and they're in multiple relationships. We hypersexualize women of color and then add an additional layer of, like, if you're uneducated or.
Chisa Uyeki [:Or.
April Tellez [:Or. And I shouldn't even say uneducated, what is perceived. But there's cultural capital that is education. There's education within the home. There's education in the cultural realm that we live in, right? So it's just like the lack of formal education, then it makes it that much harder for a woman to be taken seriously, let alone a lot of times. What happens is that not only are they not taken seriously and not. And their question, but then they lose their positions, their jobs. The society starts to look at them like they're faulty, like they did something.
April Tellez [:They're not to be trusted. And this is not an isolation. It's not in a vacuum. This is historic, an element. I mean, the first act was not for the exclusion of the Chinese, was not with. With men and women equally. It was the 1875 page act because of notions of that Chinese women, Chinese immigrants were, you know, women, you know, female immigrants were we hyper. They were hypersexualized in the notions and they were sensationalized and exoticized and they were coming over here to be prostitutes and they were rooting you know, the social fabric of America, and they were committing moral decay.
April Tellez [:Right. So these go way back in history. I mean, I could name a number of examples. So when it comes to intersectionality, I always teach my students in every class regard if it's a women's history or not, that gender, ethnicity, race, class, age, region, citizenship status, and a number of other religion, you know, sexual orientation. All of this matters and more in how society will treat them and how the system has been developed without them in mind and not developed for them, not only, not by them, but not developed for them or for their protection. And in fact, many times in many realms, not only historically, but in, you know, contemporarily how laws have been created against, you know, women of color and the oppressed groups of systematically marginalized groups.
Chisa Uyeki [:I think, you know, you and I were talking before we started, and one of the things I keep thinking about to sort of balance is I want to make sure that we don't ever fall into the narrative that puts the onus on the survivor to disclose or to report. And we know, particularly, you know, you mentioned citizenship or being documented or undocumented right now, the level of trust between people who may be undocumented or have mixed status families, I. I think I could completely understand feeling like I'm not gonna go to the police. Right. You know, that the. That and what positive might come from it. Right. So I think it's important, and I appreciate you talking about all of those different components of the intersectionality, because that is the reality of people's existence and experience.
Chisa Uyeki [:So when they're making these decisions, it is really important to be able to see all of those. I'm thinking of it as literally like a weaving where they're. You're looking through all of these components that play together and that regardless of whether someone reports or discloses, that the assailant is always at fault and that misogyny and patriarchy and the other systems are enabling these things to happen. So one of the reasons I really wanted to talk to you was thinking about, as both of us as faculty at a college, and knowing that one of our roles is to try and create a safe learning environment for our students. So I wanted to ask you to reflect on. On things that we can do as professors, in the classroom, in the lab, on the field, wherever we may be with our students, in making environments safe for students.
April Tellez [:Yes, absolutely. And that's one of my foremost, if not my foremost concern is just safety, period. Right. And being accessible to students. And I think those go Hand in hand. I think it really begins with the moment the student walks into the door, right? Or if it's DL, then with your syllabus and also your introduction. I believe it's very important for faculty to be. I know everyone's not as open book as I am, and I recognize that and I can appreciate, appreciate that.
April Tellez [:But to be as, as open and accessible as one can with the students, to be human with the students first and foremost. And that doesn't mean that they have to divulge. Each instructor has to divulge the same amount of information as I do. But for me, what I do is very clearly in my syllabi. I give a list of resources, I give a community agreement in my syllabi, what, you know, what is acceptable behavior in the classroom, but also not only in the classroom. In my second paragraph of that, I give an institutional saf. I talk about institutional safety, what that looks like, if any student, regardless of gender, regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, et cetera, if ever feeling unsafe on campus. Here are a list of resources.
April Tellez [:Begin here with me. And I tell them that I have an open door policy, that they can come to me. And I may not have all the answers, but I definitely know that there are resources available and I will direct them to these campus resources as well. And I think that's really strong to begin with, that in the classrooms that the students know, not only A, am I safe in this class, but B, this instructor has my back, right? And so it's, it's really important to create and I think even to have it like documented that this is where the professor is at and the student feels a level of safety in addition to that, to listen to students, right? To take students seriously. When I gave my lecture on, I mean, all my lectures in women's history cover misogyny at some point in every part of the lecture, right? It doesn't matter where we're at chronologically in US History, but, you know, I always will give the resources at the beginning of the class and students came forward, especially when I was talking about Epstein, right. And the motherless academy that I already discussed. So, you know, keep it more minimum here. But I was very honest with my students and I told them because they, and they, they want to hear these things.
April Tellez [:I can tell from their, their demeanor, from bodily language like that. They want, you know, they're leaning forward, they want it, you know, and I, and I asked them, you know, how many of you have had a situation if you're, only, if you're Comfortable, have had a situation where you have felt unsafe, like, with a man. And 90% of the students raised their hand. So then I said, well, do you know, I would like to be honest with you. And I've also faced that. And would you like me to. To give any detail on that? I mean, I don't go into every specific. I don't give names, but I ask them, like, would.
April Tellez [:Would that help you with. So to open the floor, to open this space to them, to give space and time and pause for identifying the issue and making it humanized and personal. And so I tell them, like I told them in my class, I, too, have been a victim of sexual assault. And I tell them, you know, we call it sexual assault, but let's call it what it is, rape. I, too, have been a victim of sexual harassment on different occasions. And I'm very honest with them. I've also faced sexual harassment at Mount San Antonio College because of the conditions of sexual harassment. The person was on my tenure probationary committee.
April Tellez [:I could not lose my job. I was a single mom of two. I could not lose my job. And I did. And it was. This is what women deal with. We have to weigh our options, especially when we look at intersectionality, especially when we look at the fact that I am a sole breadwinner because I'm taking care of my children alone. What does that mean? If I come forward and I lose my job and I don't pass tenure, what does that mean for my children? Right? But I'm very open with them.
April Tellez [:And you know, what happened? Jesus, after that was four students after class, four students total came up to me, or two in class, like I said, came forward, raised their hands and wanted to share that they had been raped. And for one student, it was the first time that that student had ever come forward. So obviously generating the safe space for them. Right. And. And I don't expect them. I always tell my students, you don't share anything that you don't want to. Like, you are free to share what you want to.
April Tellez [:You are free to share what you, you know, to not share what you don't want to. You can just listen. There are resources available to you after I'm available in private. So two did choose to come to my office hours after both in tears. Right. And I, I contacted, like, different services for them, both on campus as well as off campus. So to generate that discussion, I think is. Is.
April Tellez [:And not that every instructor has been through sexual assault, has been raped. That's. That's not what I'M saying, but to identify it as being very real and to humanize your yourself as an instructor. Right. That there are life experiences, maybe you haven't gone through it, but there are, there are other people who are instructors, even staff, who may have been through these things.
Chisa Uyeki [:Right.
April Tellez [:And, and it's okay and good to seek help. It's okay to talk about it, but you're not pressured to talk about it. You talk about it when it's, when you are able to talk about it, just like I talked about it when I was able to talk about it and I had passed my statute of limitations, I think.
Chisa Uyeki [:I mean, it's so powerful for you to share that. April, I appreciate it so much. And in thinking about your students, I just think of what a difference it is to teach the whole student. Right. To not just, it's not just about okay, what's on the lecture topic outline. Right, right. Because. Because that's not what it is.
Chisa Uyeki [:And when we think about what students gain from the education, from their education, when their whole, whole person is being taught, that really changes what they're able to walk away with. Absolutely. One of the things in preparing for today I was thinking about was in thinking about students disclosing, as you mentioned, to faculty, to staff. I know that if students are under 18, we're mandated reporters if we suspect child abuse. And based on Mount sac's board policies and administrative procedures, we are expected to report any sexual harassment, misconduct or violence. So I'm wondering, as a clearly compassionate professor, you mentioned some about how you have handled disclosures. I'm wondering if you can share maybe for other faculty to think about if these instances happen, how they can approach working with the students.
April Tellez [:Definitely. So I would begin to. I think students are most comfortable it just how you, how an instructor presents himself first in class, how open they are. But you always have an open door policy with your students. And I know that's not always feasible. I know that obviously we can't meet at 8pm on a Friday necessarily. But an open door policy in the sense of just being very kind, very compassionate, very open and also telling students that, that they matter and that their experiences matter. So that first of all will open the door to students coming to you.
April Tellez [:Right. Whether that be via email, whether that be in office hours, whether it be in a deal class from there, I really strongly suggest that instructors have resources at hand to help. I would be happy to share the resources that I have. I can link them later or pass them along to you. But the mental health services on Campus Ryan Wilson, Title IX at Mount San Antonio College as well to direct them to hr. I know it's really good that we have in all of the restrooms that I've ever used, both faculty as well as student restrooms on campus that we do have the Title IX and it's posted in most of the stalls, which I really appreciate and I think that's wonderful. I think that we should have a copy of that and, or just know those resources, where that's located, what the extension is for our students to have that handy as well. And also definitely if we, we do have on our rosters, we do know when a student is underage.
April Tellez [:Right. It is itemized like with the check mark or minor. Right. So if they come forward to us then definitely to have like child protection services numbers, local, local services, local institutions handy. But I think it's also to distribute that in the syllabus. Right. To have that available in the syllabus because sometimes students aren't able to, willing to come forward for a variety of reasons and that's understandable. But to have those resources listed there as well so that the student can on their own time when they feel comfortable, have, you know, have the indication that there are resources to help the student.
April Tellez [:What I like to see instructors do too is to follow through with the students. Not that they have to give all of the details or information, but I did that with all four of my students who came forward. Just a check in, a quick check in. How are you doing? Do you want to talk about anything? Do you need to, Are you okay? Anything I can do? Any, any navigation you need? I know I, I gave you some resources, you know, wherever you're at with that, that's wonderful. I'm here. Let me know if there's a next step involved. Right. And sometimes I noticed for one of my students who opened up in class for the first time, didn't attend for the next two sessions and that's understandable.
April Tellez [:I, I, I know it's, I, I've experienced that on a personal level. Right. How it's not, you know, a linear trajectory of healing, of reporting. So just making a check in a simple email. I care, I'm here. I may not have all the answers, I may not be able to take away all the pain, but I am here and I care. So just those simple elements too. So I would say, you know, also those follow up emails are really important and as well as having like CPS numbers, you know, directing to, to Ryan Wilson title nine of hr, you know, the mental health services, the physical, you know, the medical services, physical health services and medical center on campus as well, as well as being able to utilize the, the counseling services that we do have.
April Tellez [:We can direct students, even students who necessarily don't say they want it, but that, hey, we think that they may need these services. We pass it along to these men, mental health health experts, and then they will check in with the student as well.
Chisa Uyeki [:That's reminding me of the behavioral health. Yes, right. That. So, so faculty can, if you have a concern about a student, you can report that and they'll be contacted. It's just another way to follow up. I love the idea and we'll definitely include in the show notes the links and resources, information about the AP's and BPS so that faculty are aware of them, but also then information that they can share with their students as well. So I do want to for a second come back to the book and just in thinking about sort of the messages through working on the book, kind of what, what do you hope that people understand and understand about social justice and, and movements, particularly thinking of Mount SAC as a learning environment, but also Mount Tech students as, as agents of change. Anything you can share with us about that?
April Tellez [:The number one lesson that I learned from, you know, navigating through Dolores's life, her trajectory is that everyday people make the difference. We do like everyday people. You don't have to be, you know, this a lawyer or a published author or you know, this, this person with the, you know, another, an organizer title behind your name to make the truest difference. Because it really emerges real change. As I have seen both through her narrative, but also being a faculty at Mount San Antonio College for 18 years, real change really stems from the bottom up. I mean it is grassroots, for example, right. I always love to give this example. Ethnic studies movement, before it became an ab, before it became an assembly bill, was really initiated on our campus by Fabian Pavon and Alejandro Juarez through, you know, their passion, their conviction for real history to be taught instead of this neutral history that really takes the side of the oppressor, takes the side of, you know, it's very Eurocentric, takes, you know, a very top down approach to history.
April Tellez [:So everyday people, people who care, will make not just can, but have fundamentally made the difference both in the trajectory of Dolores and her story in the UFW and its formation, the women's liberation move, the Chicanx movement and the American Indian movement. Everyday people who have these everyday concerns and everyday experiences that matter when they collectivize Another really important lesson that we need to take that's instrumental and it's available to us at Mount San Antonio College is to utilize and captivate on the. The diversity that exists at Mount San Antonio College. Right. There's not only strength in numbers, but there is strength in solidarity to move past and beyond, to celebrate, but also organize and come together beyond ethnic racial differences, beyond sexual orientation differences, beyond, you know, gender differences, to capitalize on this. Because that is truly the formation of the strongest movements that I have seen is when they are intersectional, when they come from the bottom of society up, when they recognize that divide and conquer is a mechanism that is long employed in colonial America before the United States was even founded. When in 1619, you have the separation of blacks and whites who are both called servants initially, but were no longer called servants for blacks because they wanted to create terminology change and with that allocation of privileges that were systematically denied to blacks who were now slaves and white indentured servants, to create a hierarchy of difference. So that is instrumental and I think that we need to recognize that and we need to really put that into a force of change and recognition in our institution itself.
April Tellez [:You know, I love that we're a Hispanic serving institution. We're trying to get a black serving institution allocation as well as a, you know, API serving institution. And, and absolutely we should. And we, we need to use all of this experiences and this diversity to the benefit of a true education, which is like earlier, it's. It's holistic. We should not just be simply concerned with how well populations academically perform in our classroom, but how well they are treated in the broader society. And that only comes through us. And when I say us, including students, but also instructors mandating change that is truly in sponsorship and truly fundamentally in support of diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, anti racism, homophobia, gender inclusion.
April Tellez [:Like when we become the initiators of change. And that is completely evident. Instrumental in Dolores Story, but also in the story of Mount Zach.
Chisa Uyeki [:I love that so much. April, thank you so much for your generosity of time and sharing so much about yourself here, but also, as you do in the classroom. I appreciate it and as always, enjoyed talking with you.
April Tellez [:Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor.
Chisa Uyeki [:Thank you for listening to the Mount San Antonio College Podcast, brought to you by Mount SAC'S POD Office and created in partnership with Avant Haüs Media. Original music created and edited by Nira Azira. Be sure to check out our growing library of over 230 episodes and let us know your thoughts. You can reach me. Chisa Uyeki at C U Y E K I at mountsac dot Edu. Wishing you an amazing year and happy listening.