Chicanos student had to face daily insults, directly and indirectly for a long time. The Chicanos have been treated unfairly in this country for a long time. Since the Acquisition of California from Mexico on June 14, 1846, there has been a struggle for equal treatment for the Chicano. This unfair treatment of Chicanos infected the minds of many white Americans, and many became schoolteachers. The Roosevelt High school in the eastern section of Los Angeles was just one of the places the students had to deal with the unfairness displayed by such people. A student from Roosevelt recalls a story when the teacher asked him a question. Only picked him because of his Hispanic background and spoke with a heavy Spanish accent. The teacher called the child to the front of the class and put a dunce style hat on his head, wrote "Spanish" on the hat and told him to wear the hat and could not take if off until he learned how to speak English. (Chicano, Taking Back the Schools). Some children would tease others for bringing traditional Mexican meals to school for lunch. This made those students ashamed for bringing tacos and enchiladas, foods that were a direct correlation to the Hispanic community. Roosevelt teachers would steer the Hispanic children away from the more academic based classes. They would lead them to take home economic, or auto mechanic classes that were based in labor. One student stated that a teacher told her in home economics class, that "they (Hispanic students) needed to pay extra attention because one day you will be working in other peoples homes". (Chicano, Taking back the schools). There were signs posted in some classrooms that instructed the students to speak English only. These were daily occurrences for the Chicano students of Roosevelt High.
Therefore, there were many issues the students at Roosevelt were attempting to address. These times were hard for the Mexican-American.
