(crowd chattering) (upbeat band music) - When I think about historically, who has gone to college, it's been white men with privilege, right?

Underrepresented students, students of color, Indigenous students, haven't even experienced first-generation in college.

- By 1970, the Latino population in Oregon had grown to about 32,000.

However, it's highly unlikely that more than just a few hundred students of Mexican American heritage were enrolled in Oregon's colleges and universities.

So there was definitely a lack of educational support and a need for the Chicano community to have access to higher education.

- Farm workers had no education.

They had no political power.

They had no economic power.

But you know what?

They had (grit), right?

And they had a vision.

Colegio César Chávez was a catalyst for Latinos to get into higher education.

It was kind of like a Historically Black College, but for Latinos, it was a place we could go.

We felt welcome.

(upbeat music) During that 10 year span, more Chicano Latino students attended and graduated from that one college in Mt.

Angel than all four year colleges and universities, public or private in Oregon.

- Colegio's mission was to provide educational opportunities for those who had been traditionally denied access to higher education.

And that included Oregon's migrant farm worker population, Mexican Americans, the Chicano community, endured a great deal of discrimination and racism.

One of the key causes of the Chicano movement was education reform, and Chicano students across the United States organized and they wanted more Chicano representation in faculty and staff.

(easy mood music) They wanted Chicano history taught in the curriculum.

They wanted major reform to occur.

So in places like California, Texas, Colorado, Chicano community colleges and universities were created.

And here in the Pacific Northwest, we have Colegio César Chávez in Mount Angel, Oregon.

In the early 1970s, Mount Angel began recruiting more minority students, and they specifically began recruiting within the Chicano, Chicana community.

The board of trustees decided that this was the new mission and direction for the school.

They wanted to continue recruiting more Chicano, Chicana students, as well as hire more Chicano, Chicanas into the administration and the staff.

And then it was shortly after that they decided that they needed a name change to match their new purpose.

And that was when in December of 1973, they officially changed the name to Colegio César Chávez.

[The Founders] - [Jose] We were proponents of multicultural Latino Chicano studies, bilingual education, external degree credits for life experiences.

- People need to understand (upbeat music) it was a very hard, difficult situation that we undertook, and it didn't happen by accident.

- We've never had a president of a four year institution.

But then when I think about it, you mentioned the co-presidency of Colegio.

You and I were probably the first Chicano Latino presidents of a college in the Northwest.

- The only reason we took it is because nobody else wanted to do the job.

- When I first arrived to Mount Angel in the fall of 1970, I was hired on as a director of Chicano Studies.

By the end of the year, I was not only that, but I was also in charge of the College Without Walls program - the external degree program, admission, registrar, adjunct faculty recruitment and placement, credit for prior learning for new students and transferring students.

And among other things, (upbeat music continues) turning the boiler on on cold mornings at 5:00 AM in the morning, so it could warm up the place a little bit.

- My position at Colegio César Chávez was Director of Administrative Affairs.

The sacrifices that we had to endure were very difficult, but what was so great was that there was a lot of things that we were learning and picking up throughout this whole process.

We learned about the importance of loving what we do, of having the passion to do what we started to do.

We learned a lot about community organizing.

I think that was one of our strengths that helped us throughout the process, and throughout the years that we spent at Colegio César Chávez.

We knew what the issues were.

We would sit down as a group and discuss strategies.

What did we wanna accomplish at the Colegio?

- [Jose] Our community always stepped up.

They were beautiful people.

They knew what it was all about.

And without that community, I know it would've been much more difficult than it was.

- Colegio César Chávez faced two really big challenges, Federal debt and the need for accreditation.

And these two challenges were interconnected.

Prior to the establishment of the Colegio, in the 1960s, Mount Angel College secured a Federal loan, but for many reasons the payments were delayed or not paid.

And by the time that Colegio was established, there was a debt of about a million dollars.

And then in 1975, (easy mood guitar music) the Northwest Association of Schools and Colleges granted Colegio candidacy status for accreditation.

However, the next year, the association withdrew that candidacy status due to the financial challenges that Colegio was facing, which was related to the debt.

So after years of failed negotiation, legal suits, Colegio - even though it won - that definitely took a toll on the administrators, the staff, the students, the community.

And a few years later, in 1983, the Colegio closed.

These legal battles were hard fought.

They were really challenging, and they took up a lot of time and resources that were then not devoted to the care and development of Colegio.

And that had a lasting impact.

- The reason we failed was because we didn't have a strong financial base, period.

And a lot of it had to do with discrimination, racism, and the lack of programs to work with our communities.

We were facing some obstacles with state police, FBI, that normal organizations or institutions of higher education never experience.

(marchers chanting) - [Narrator] The Brown Berets evolved out of the movement in the Chicano community for social justice.

The Brown Berets are a community organization that give new pride to Chicano youth, and that educate all the people in the barrio on their social and political rights.

(marchers chanting) - Similar to the FBI surveillance of the Black Panthers in the 1960s and 1970s, the FBI also began to surveil the Brown Berets.

The FBI during that time was monitoring civil rights advocates, and leaders, and community members.

And they actually began a file on Sonny Montes before Colegio César Chávez was established.

Considering that the Colegio César Chávez was a university campus, was dedicated to supporting the Chicano community and causes, (rhythmic drum beating) it's not surprising that the FBI was surveilling the Colegio's activities and it's leadership.

Many students were involved in the Save the Colegio campaign, fundraising activities, many students viewed their social advocacy and activism as part of their educational experience.

And those who were involved with Colegio César Chávez were incredibly dedicated and passionate toward the cause.

And I'm sure that while it was challenging, it was also incredibly rewarding to be involved with Colegio and it's activities.

(easy mood guitar music) [The Graduates] - I never thought in my life that I would say, "Oh, I wanna go to college, or I wanna go to school."

We never thought that we would get the opportunity.

- Dual migrants, we used to travel all over.

My schooling was real low.

The Colegio opened up the doors, a whole new door of learning about education, learning about what it is and what do you need, and all these little things that we needed to move on.

To the next step higher.

Once we start getting educated in education and open up our ears, our eyes, now we started focusing in our kids to go to school.

I used to tell 'em, "Well, there's more than high school, there's college."

- Colegio opened our minds.

It taught us that what you can accomplish by getting an education, I mean, our lives completely changed.

We went to a lot of demonstrations and we would help with whatever we could.

So we were involved with the labor movement, we were involved with the Colegio, I think that's why Anthony is involved in a lot of stuff because we were involved in a lot of stuff.

- I really feel that the people that I've been around, like Jose Romero, Sonny Montes, my parents, I think that they were living their destiny and their purpose.

And it showed.

Those folks that started that college, they really had no business starting a college.

I mean, none of them had ever been a college president.

None of them have ever ran a college.

They just did it.

(upbeat guitar music) It was one of the greatest accomplishments for any Oregonian in history, especially farm workers, right?

There was no billionaire, millionaire donating money.

It had to be a spiritual movement.

And it was.

And that's again, that spirit of that ("Yes, you can") that we all live by.

A lot of our community is still first generation.

Their parents have never ever stepped on a college campus.

They don't even know what college is.

You could talk to them and explain it to 'em, but they still wouldn't know until they actually go and they see and experience it.

And so we're still on that journey.

The Colegio opened up the first door and then we wanna open up the next several doors for our community.

There's a lot of places and spaces where Latinos have never really been, and there's still so many places for us to still be and make our mark, to make Oregon a better, more inclusive place.

(upbeat guitar music continues) We need another Colegio, because there are no Latino, four year accredited public or private college universities in the United States.

Being the largest minority group in the United States, it's been a long time coming.

I mean, if you look at the percentage of Latinos in leadership roles that are in STEM and STEAM, it's so low, right?

And why is that?

So I think we have a lot of work to do.

What better place to springboard off that than the Colegio César Chávez.

- We really experienced a lot of hardship throughout my childhood as migrant farm workers.

My parents didn't speak English.

They didn't get a chance to go to school.

My mom only went up to fourth grade, and my dad never really got a chance to go to school because he started working as a 7-year-old.

My sister and I got to pick strawberries alongside my parents until we were able to find regular jobs, I guess.

(people chattering) This building was really important to me because it represented the growth of my family and our community.

A lot of the shops here are amazing, and a lot of restaurants.

I remember I would tell my aunties and uncles, I'm gonna go to college, this is what I'm gonna do.

And because nobody in my family had gone to college, it was a dream that was not gonna be achieved.

And they just like, "Sure."

Patted me on the shoulder or would laugh and say, "Okay, Teresa."

Hi.

Hola.

(upbeat music) I met Sonny when I was in eighth grade.

He was so easy to talk to.

When I talked to Sonny about this idea that I really wanted to go to college, he was like, "Well, of course, yes."

He made it sound like everything was possible and everything was doable.

As a representative for Oregon's most diverse and only district that is home to a majority people of Color.

This concept about going to college became a passion of mine, precisely because I knew that a lot of kids like me didn't understand how to navigate the higher ed system.

The parents didn't know how to navigate the higher ed system.

I wanna figure out how can we get more talented Latinos and immigrant and students of color to go to college knowing that there's a lot of barriers.

This idea, having a César Chávez university, it would mean that it would be the first institution that's culturally competent, having bilingual faculty or have faculty of Color as a prioritization.

(speaking Spanish) [Towards The Future] - The playing field is not level yet.

Our reason for pushing the legacy further ahead is because a lot was done with so little, and in the future, a lot more can be done with more because what is now compared to what was then is a whole different scenario.

People that I speak to, they say, "Colegio has come.

Colegio has gone.

Your history, you tried, you did succeed.

But it's over."

We still have the same issues that Colegio was trying to address, the underlying socioeconomic equality and justice issues, inclusion, equity, bilingual education, Chicano Latino studies, everywhere from preschool to graduate school.

- Latinx students are still fighting for more representation, more curriculum that matches their needs and their experiences.

I think it's incredibly inspiring to see Colegio's story and know that we are part of a legacy and continuum of social justice advocacy for the Latino, Latina community.

(easy mood guitar music continues) The community is so vibrant and so critical to the United States, and we need to make sure that the needs are met.

And one of the most important places to do that is through the educational system.

- I don't know if you've heard of the Woodbridge Community Center?

Colegio César Chávez 2.0 will always have the farm worker movement in it's core curriculum and whatever we do, because that's where it was founded.

A lot of us are no longer farm workers, but I think it's gonna be just a larger, more inclusive institution.

- I always get emotional.

There's another little girl like me who has dreams and aspirations.

As a immigrant farm worker, somebody who was formerly undocumented, sometimes we don't see the future and our own potential.

When I was a little girl thinking I'm gonna become a state representative, that was never something that I thought I could achieve or even dream about.

And so now I tell young people, if you can dream that dream, dream even beyond it, work towards it.

Because the universe has a way of helping you achieve what it is that you wanna achieve.