Political Activism: The Chicana/o Studies Movement At California State University, Northridge, 1968-1975

By 1975, the Chicana/o Studies Department (CSD) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) became a major geographical center for the Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies Movement (CSM) at the national level.How did this... [ view full abstract ]

By 1975, the Chicana/o Studies Department (CSD) at California State University, Northridge (CSUN) became a major geographical center for the Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies Movement (CSM) at the national level.How did this occur?According to Rodolfo Acuña, “Today, California State University, at Northridge (CSUN), is the largest Chicana/o Studies department in the United States, offering 166 sections per semester.” How did it begin? During the 1960s, San Fernando Valley State College (SFVSC), now known as California State University, at Northridge, had admitted a small number of ethnic population students, who impacted the origins of a local Ethnic Studies Movement.Prior to the CSD’s foundation, Chicana/o students made up less than one percent of the student body in the California State University (CSU) system.This was due to class and education segregation, which would force the ethnic working-class population to attend underprivileged schools, and be placed into segregated classrooms and excluded from attending a higher education institution.In response, the Ethnic Studies and Chicana/o Studies social movements materialized in the CSU system to struggle for political autonomy and educational rights.By 1968, ethnic population students began addressing major concerns to SFVSC’s administration by holding campus-wide gatherings, popular protests, and teach-ins. This new environmental landscape matured and intensified student radicalism and activism, thus motivating the appearance of CSUN’s Chicana/o Studies Movement.

This paper contextualizes political activism and the making of a massive Chicana/o Studies Movement on the campus of California State University, at Northridge in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In it I argue that popular resistance and social radicalism would force the administration to accede to the formation of a Chicana/o Studies Department. Section one investigates the origins of campus activism and mass action by focusing on the local Ethnic Studies Movement and CSM. The second section examines the first stage of CSD’s political and academic organizational development between 1970 and 1975. Finally, I interpret how CSD became the largest Ethnic Studies Department in the United States.