The year 1969 was a year full of extreme racial tension. Race riots had already started, protests were in full swing, and racism was very front and center. Set around this time, in the play “No Saco Nada De La Escuela” by Luis Valdez, there are a group of six kids named Francisco, Moctezuma (Monty), Malcolm, Florence, Abraham, and Esperanza (Hopi), who go to school together, and each experience racism in their own way. Luis Valdez’s “No Saco Nada De La Escuela” highlights different aspects of racism through experiences in the lives of several students as they progress through elementary school, high school, and college. In the first part of the play, we are introduced to five children, all of whom would have been in elementary school. White …show more content…
Francisco is a Chicano teen who when in elementary school, did not speak a word of English, and would get failed because of it, and made fun of by his teacher. There was a point where the teacher got “fed up” with Francisco speaking in Spanish in class that she burst out: TEACHER: (Blows up.) Get out!! FRANCISCO: Why? I was only speaking my language. I'm a Chicano, ¿que no? TEACHER: Because I don't understand you, and the rest of the class doesn't understand you. FRANCISCO: So what? When I was small, I didn't understand English, and you kept flunking me and flunking me instead of teaching me (Valdez, 78). The message behind Francisco’s statement is disappointing in that white people have the power to teach immigrants their ways if they want to learn, and help them understand without hostility, but more times than not, they will choose to just yell and be rude instead. Now in college, Moctezuma and Florence, a white woman, are in an interracial relationship and live together. There was a situation in “No Saco Nada De La Escuela” where Florence used a stereotype of Latinxs when talking to Monty, saying: FLORENCE: Do you love me, Monty? MONTY: Oh, you know I