Escuela Tlatelolco

"Freedom is the indispensible condition for the quest of human completion."

Paolo Freire

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During Aztec Times:

The sister city to the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán, Tlatelolco was a center of education and fine arts for the Aztec Empire and later the site was used for Spanish education by the Spanish colonist.

During Modern Times:

On October 2, 1968 in Mexico City at the Plaza de Las Tres Culturas, also called the Tlatelolco, over 1500 workers, students and children who were protesting the political and social conditions in Mexico were massacred by the Mexican government and military.

The name TLATELOLCO honors our Indigenous ancestors' commitment to education and commemorates those who, committed to serving their people, lost their lives.

In 1969, the Crusade for Justice, a Chicano/Mexicano civil rights organization, began a summer freedom school for disempowered Chicano/Mexicano youth who found little meaning or value in school or their present personal circumstances. The program was designed to increase interest and participation in the educational process through the study of Chicano/Mexicano history and through fostering a sense of pride in themselves and their culture.

On returning to public schools in the fall, the freedom School students, already alienated by traditional teaching methods, felt frustrated by the public schools' inability to instill the same sense of identity, level of motivation and self esteem that they had experienced in the Freedom School. As a result Escuela Tlatelolco was created in 1970 based on the concept that providing them with a foundation of cultural pride and self-esteem, these young people could obtain an education that would help them go on to become successful adults who would benefit the community in return.