A new national Latino book club is launching at select Borders bookstores in several states. It is a joint effort by Las Comadres Para Las Americas. [bizjournals.com]

 Idaho student says teacher tossed his Mexican flag in trash

A high school student says he may file a lawsuit against a physical education teacher who took a Mexican flag he had brought for Cinco de Mayo and put it in the garbage.

Clint Straatman denies Froylan Camelo’s version of events but said he took the flag Monday because “white kids” might have hurt the 16-year-old. He said he put it in a garbage can because he had no place else to keep it.

Camelo said he was changing into gym clothes at Minico High School in Rupert when Straatman told him, “Give me the flag.”

“I said, ‘What’s the problem?’” Camelo, speaking in Spanish, told The Times-News of Twin Falls. “He said, ‘The problem is that we are in the United States and not in Mexico.’ He grabbed it from me. He threw the flag in the garbage can.”

At the end of May 1971, more than 600 Chicanas met in Houston, Texas, to hold the first national conference of Raza women. For those of us who were there it was clear that this conference was not just another national gathering of the Chicano movement.

Chicanas came from all parts of the country inspired by the prospect of discussing issues that have long been on their minds and which they now see not as individual problems but as an important and integral part of a movement for liberation.

The resolutions coming out of the two largest workshops, “Sex and the Chicana” and “Marriage - Chicana Style,” called for “free, legal abortions and birth control for the Chicano community, controlled by Chicanas.” As Chicanas, the resolution stated, “we have a right to control our own bodies.” The resolutions also called for “24-hour child-care centers in Chicano communities” and explained that there is a critical need for these since “Chicana motherhood should not preclude educational, political, social and economic advancement.”

While these resolutions articulated the most pressing needs of Chicanas today, the conference as a whole reflected a rising consciousness of the Chicana about her special oppression in this society.

With their growing involvement in the struggle for Chicano liberation and the emergence of the feminist movement, Chicanas are beginning to challenge every social institution which contributes to and is responsible for their oppression, from inequality on the job to their role in the home. They are questioning “machismo,” discrimination in education, the double standard, the role of the Catholic Church, and all the backward ideology designed to keep women subjugated.

This growing awareness was illustrated by a survey taken at the Houston conference. Reporting on this survey, an article in the Los Angeles magazine Regeneracion stated: “84% felt that they were not encouraged to seek professional careers and that higher education is not considered important for Mexican women . . . 84% agreed that women do not receive equal pay for equal work.” The article continued: “On one question they were unanimous. When asked: Are married women and mothers who attend school expected to also do the housework, be responsible for child-care, cook and do the laundry while going to school, 100% said yes. 88% agreed that a social double standard exists.”1 The women were also asked if they felt that there was discrimination toward them within La Raza: 72% said yes, none said no and 28% voiced no opinion.