Look at newspaper articles about the 1968 East Los Angeles Walkouts from two different publications and analyze the perspectives covered and excluded in portraying the Chicano Movement
Student Walkout, Boyle Heights
George Rodriguez
1968
Gelatin silver print
10½ x 6¾ in.
United States
Photograph
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (2024.R.42). © George Rodriguez.
After doing this activity, you will be able to:
Every story includes a point of view. In accounts of historical events—whether from a social media post, newspaper article, or television broadcast—the language, tone, images, and details chosen can highlight certain perspectives while leaving others out. This often reflects the biases of the people writing, editing, and publishing the story, as well as the time period, the intended audience, and the social conditions in which it was created. Media outlets also aim to attract and keep their audience, which can influence how stories are reported. In addition, structural biases can shape reporting, such as the tendency to rely on certain types of sources while overlooking others. Because of all these influences, it is nearly impossible for any new story to be completely neutral. Even carefully created historical resources, such as those on getty.edu, may inadvertently emphasize some details while downplaying others.
In this activity, you will examine coverage of the 1968 East Los Angeles Walkouts from two different news publications to see how the same event can be portrayed in different ways through words and images. The goal is not to research the event itself, but to compare how each source presents and frames the story.
Start by reading Explore Student Walkout, Boyle Heights to learn about one of George Rodriguez’s photographs documenting the East Los Angeles Walkouts in 1968.
Then, write or discuss your responses to the following questions:
Look at the images in a Los Angeles Times article (scroll down to the images below the transcript) and a La Raza article about the same event. You can read the headlines, but don’t read the articles yet! Your objective is to assess what the images specifically communicate. For the images in each article, make notes about:
Using your answers to the questions above and the headlines (only), write a 1–2 sentence summary for each article, imagining what you think each article will say based on only these two pieces of information: headline and images.
Next, read the text of the two articles:
As you read, make notes about the following details:
Read About the East Los Angeles Walkouts to learn more about this important historical movement.
Next, analyze the articles considering several elements such as audience, perspective, and who is included and excluded from the story. Use the Comparison Chart (Google Slides) to take notes and organize your ideas. Print, download, or type directly into the chart by making a copy.
Now that you’ve analyzed both the images and text in each article, and considered who is portrayed, who is left out, and whose perspective is being shared or left out in each instance, it’s time to bring it all together.
Discuss or write your responses to the following questions:
Put everything together into a presentation that answers the following questions. Make sure to use evidence from the images and text in each article to support your claims.
A cultural and political identity that emerged from the Mexican American civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Some Mexican Americans use this term to describe themselves, but not all.
The Chicano Movement was a civil rights movement during the 1960s and 1970s in which Mexican Americans fought for equal rights, better education, fair labor conditions, political representation, and pride in their cultural heritage. The movement sought to end discrimination and expand opportunities for Mexican American communities across the United States.
Pushed to the outside of a group or put in an unimportant or powerless position within it.
Google Slides
Use this chart to organize your notes comparing two news articles. Print, download, or type directly into the chart by making a copy.
Close Looking
Look closely at a photograph documenting a youth movement protesting injustices affecting Mexican American students in 1968 Los Angeles
Reading
Learn about a Mexican American photographer known for his powerful visual record of the Chicano Movement in Los Angeles, California
Reading
Read about an important Mexican American student movement in 1968 Los Angeles
Watch a Video
Tag along with Ollie, Sid, and Alex as they investigate how students spark change in their communities, inspired by Mexican American photographer George Rodriguez
Artmaking
Make a photograph that documents a social justice issue in your community
Researching
Research a youth movement and explain how young people can be powerful in bringing about change in their communities
Researching
Learn about surveys as a tool for change, and then create your own survey addressing an issue in your community that you care about
Write your own news story about the East Los Angeles Walkouts. Use the information you read in this activity to get started. Optionally, you can also do research on the East Los Angeles Walkouts to find out more to help balance your article. Make sure to include a headline; a lead paragraph; and at least three quotations (which you may imagine or research real ones).
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