An all-star lineup of Cal State Los Angeles Chicano alumni showed up Saturday morning to check out the school’s growing pro-Palestinian encampment . But curiosity wasn’t the main reason they came to the tents. The six, all in their late 70s or early 80s, also came to remember.
Fifty-five years ago this June, they were part of a weeklong campout — officially called “ el encampamento ” (the encampment) — at that exact location, next to the gym. Today, the protesters are demanding that Cal State L.A.
drop all investments with Israel, boycott organizations with ties to the country and call for a permanent cease-fire in the Gaza Strip. Back then, activists wanted a Chicano Studies program, a community center and more Chicano students at the then-overwhelmingly white campus. They also asked administrators to fight a plan by then-California Gov.
Ronald Reagan to gut the school’s Educational Opportunity Program, which helped first-generation college students. “I was really happy when I heard about this encampamento ,” said Phillip Castruita, a co-founder of Cal State L.A.
’s first Latino activist group, United Mexican American Students. “The spirit of students is still around, and it’s important that they know about what’s happening in the world.” He sat on a bench a stone’s throw away from the current encampment, which was in its third week, joining similar pro-Palestinian protests at universities around the country.
Young men and women in graduation gow.
