Commenting on the success of the anti-war protests of the late sixties, Noam Chomsky said:

Protests came only after years and years of war. By then, hundreds of thousands of people had been killed and much of Vietnam had been destroyed. But all of that is erased from history, because it tells too much of the truth, which is that it took years and years of hard work by plenty of people, mostly young, to build a protest movement. ... The actual history can’t be acknowledged. You aren’t supposed to learn that dedicated, committed effort can bring about significant changes of consciousness and understanding. That’s a very dangerous idea, and therefore it’s been wiped out of history.

Why is it that we don’t believe social change is possible? That is, why don’t people get involved? I think it’s because most people believe that they are too small to make a difference. I remember when DC and I talked about starting a newsletter that would address some of the concerns we shared over the deterioration of social programs, both internationally and domestically. I was really excited about the possibility of informing people about issues facing the Hispanic population that would soon become everyone’s problem. We decided that since making the world a better place was an uphill battle, DC tossed out the name “Turning the Tide,” a throwback to Noam Chomsky’s blog. Looking at him, I thought it was a great name because it communicates a gradual, sustained effort for change.

But after a few weeks of thinking about it, I became disheartened. I asked myself, what would a small publication really do to make society a more egalitarian space in the face of corporate propaganda efforts and state influence? After reading Chomsky’s views on successful social movements, and reflecting on the recent establishment of Texas A&M – Corpus Christi’s (TAMUCC) first Center for Mexican American Studies, I realized that patient, consistent, sustained effort is the key to success in any campaign for change. And this was seen though the efforts of several of my peers at TAMUCC as we formed No Le Hace, a student organization that addresses social inequality through civic engagement projects.

No Le Hace formed in the fall of 2003 when I began to think about the low-income high school that I attended in La Feria, Texas. The public school funding issue in Texas was about to be brought before the State Legislature in the spring of 2004, and I wanted to focus on putting pressure on the State Legislature to vote for equity and not adequacy in regards to school funding.

I went to several professors at the University, and all of them seemed to offer a bleak outlook on my chances of success. I was disappointed by their pessimism, but one good thing came out of it. I realized that I needed to start an organization that would fight for a center for Mexican American studies. A center could be a hub for sharing information and create the leverage we needed to get people to take us seriously. We didn’t get what we went in there for, but we listened to the professors we spoke with and realized we needed to institutionalize our efforts to take advantage of the power of the university.

When I realized that we needed to create a center, I formed No Le Hace and held a couple of meetings with like-minded students. We soon came up with two main areas of focus.

First, we needed to start a campaign to raise awareness about the fact that TAMUCC did not have a Center for Mexican American Studies. 

Second, we needed to start a peer mentoring program that could assist local Hispanic students in making the jump to college at TAMUCC.  We were concerned with the fact that only about 30 percent of the students enrolled at TAMUCC are Hispanic. We had what some faculty called a “Baywatch University” reputation, which discouraged enrollment among Hispanics.

We also felt that raising awareness about a degree in Mexican American Studies at local high schools could allow us to create the demand for a center for MXAS as well as build the capacity needed to establish Bachelor of Arts program in MXAS by having several students we mentored request such a major, if they desired it.

We were unsuccessful at establishing the peer mentoring program we envisioned. There are many legal issues, and time constraints on students that became deal breakers for this project, but we have not given up. We are planning to join another mentoring program in the fall.  If we hadn’t tried, we never would have come in contact with this new organization that we are partnering with in the fall.  Also, our failures provided valuable lessons on organizing that we don’t get in our classes at the university.

Although we have not achieved our goals with the peer mentoring program yet, our campaign for the establishment of a Center for Mexican American Studies was successful. After many meetings, discussions with professors, and handing out flyers on campus, I believe we made the difference when the Momentum 2015 initiative announced that a Center for Mexican American Studies would be established at TAMUCC. The Momentum 2015 Initiative is a strategic growth plan for TAMUCC over the next few years. After interviewing the President of TAMUCC, Dr. Flavius Killebrew, I discovered that the desire for a center came from professors all across the campus.

When the center opens in the fall of 2006 it will have been three years since No Le Hace began its campaign to create a center, and persistence has paid off. It wasn’t an overnight success, which most people expect. The truth is, I was only one person in a long history of struggle since 1986 that fought to get a center at TAMUCC. Twenty years is a long time for change to happen, but it did happen. And if no one believed it were possible, TAMUCC and Corpus Christi still would not have a center.

Looking for quick fixes and immediate victories is a sure recipe for failure in a social movement.  We must be patient, consistent, and sustain our efforts through goals that build on one another instead of expecting to achieve total victory overnight.

Chris Lockamy is a poet, writer, and activist living in Corpus Christi, TX.

Editorial note:

For the uninitiated, Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is sometimes called “Baywatch University,” “Surfer U,” and variants thereof by people on campus, usually because it brings to mind affluent white students who spend more time on the beach than in class. (Whether this is true is another matter.) The university is also located on Ward Island, separated from most of the local Hispanic population by a lengthy drive.

For these reasons, many Hispanics in Corpus Christi view the university as foreign and uninviting. The fact that it is located on Ocean Drive, a local street known for its wealth, also gives residents a feeling that the university is an extension of that wealth and that they are unwelcome there. It is little wonder that some of the high school students Chris has spoken with were not even aware that the university existed.