Incivility and the Right to Latina/o Studies: The Case of Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College, The City University of New York

From 1973 to 1978 faculty, staff, and students of Eugenio María de Hostos Community College, along with members of South Bronx neighborhoods mobilized to demand the preservation and amelioration of facilities of the first... [ view full abstract ]

From 1973 to 1978 faculty, staff, and students of Eugenio María de Hostos Community College, along with members of South Bronx neighborhoods mobilized to demand the preservation and amelioration of facilities of the first public college founded to serve Latino/a youth in the Northeastern United Sates. At stake were the endurance of an ethos and a history of coalition-building among minority groups in New York City and the survival of ideals such as cultural nationalism and self- governance, which had guided the civil rights mobilizations of the 1960s. Central to students’ and community demands was the implementation of a Puerto Rican Studies and Latina/o Studies curriculum, deployed as a right of Caribbean and Latin American-descended youth.
This paper inquires into the tensions and negotiations emerging in the political landscape of 1970s New York City as the ‘Save Hostos’ movement developed. It particularly examines the tactics and ideologies guiding the Community Coalition to Save Hostos (CCSH), which engaged in acts of civil disobedience in the tradition established locally and translocally by the Young Lords and other revolutionary groups. It ultimately draws conclusions as to the extent to which a complex Latina/o education rights discourse unfolded integrating elements such as, a local legacy of cultural nationalism and trans-local, anticolonial curricular visions for Puerto Rican and Latina/o Studies.
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