East Los Angeles Walk Outs

The year 1968 was bombarded with momentous events that undoubtedly changed the course of history. The film Walkout managed to recapture and revitalize some of the events such as the East Los Angeles Walk Outs or also known as the Chicano Blowouts. Director Edward James Olmos, did a superb job when portraying the events that occurred in March 1968 in addition to the ways Chicano and Chicana students were being taken advantage of by the Los Angeles Unified School District in order to save money. In this review, however, I will be elaborating on how the school district demonstrated institutional inequality towards its students and how it resulted in some characters to undergo a transformation. At the same time, I will be describing how the film

form utilized various film aspects to convey important messages to the viewer.
To begin with, I detected a massive transformation in Paula’s character.

She started out as a very shy, soft-spoken girl and later on became more outspoken and not afraid to take chances for what was right. The amount of institutional inequality high school Mexican-Americans were having to endure was immoral and demeaning and Paula had enough of it. After not being allowed to use the restrooms at lunch, Paula created a survey for her peers asking questions about inequality at the school. At this point in time she took on more of a leadership role and was highly respected by her classmates. As the film went on, Paula was seen as the most influential character especially after being the first one to stand up in class and actually “walk out”. Paula was even responsible for gathering the protest outside the city hall in order to get all twelve of the people arrested because of the protests freed which included her teacher, Sal Castro. After experiencing inequality such as not being able to speak other languages, not being able to use the restrooms at lunch, being ignored by the school district, and brutally beaten by police for protesting peacefully, Paula reached deep down inside and transformed into a successful and courageous

leader.
The other character that experienced a transformation was Paula’s Dad, Panfilo. Throughout the film, Panfilo was the typical father figure, not allowing to Paula to attend an extracurricular event with her peers and instead, told her to stay home and help her brother with homework. However, Paula disobeyed him time after time and Panfilo became disappointed and angered by Paula’s actions. He saw the movement as careless and meaningless and demanded that Paula stay out of it and focus on going to college. I feel that Panfilo was aware of how bad his daughter was being treated but was too afraid for her future to entice her to continue. However, at the end of the movie he participated in protesting with the crowd of adult supporters and this was when his transformation was recognized.
One of the things that I liked most about the film was how the five aspects of film were brilliantly manipulated to keep the viewer’s attention or dramatize certain events.

For example, in the beginning of the film, the director used editing to include a scene from later on the movie to add confusion. The scene was when Paula was standing alone in the hallways of her school, when suddenly a herd of students come rushing down the halls being beaten by police officers. This scene was an example of foreshadowing and appeared later in the film. However, it immediately caught my attention and I began asking myself questions concerning what was occurring. The film’s cinematography was also unique and stood out to me. As Paula and the other leaders of the movement were protesting outside the school, I noticed that the scenes were filmed from a variety of perspectives. For example, when Paula was standing on top of a car shouting, the camera shot the scene at a low angle which made Paula seem larger and suggested a feeling of

power.
All else aside, I thought the movie was interesting and a great representation of the Chicano Blowouts. The film captured the unity of the Chicano people and shined light on the heroic acts of Paula and others. Due to the bravery of the Chicano students to protest even in times of extreme danger, the East LA Schools finally put an end to the institutional inequality. As a result, the number of Mexican-Americans in college sky-rocketed and some of the leaders of the movement were given jobs within the school district. I would like to say that I am appalled that I was never informed about the Chicano Blowouts in any of my previous history classes