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CAP 200 Bronx Beautiful - Casari ed. - Textbook

Unit 2. Education and Activism in the Bronx

Professor Magda Vasillov photographed several early student demonstrations and protests. These early demonstrations laid the groundwork for the mass demonstrations of the “Save Hostos,” campaign in the immediate years that followed. Magda J. Vasillov Collection, Magda Vasillov photographer. Hostos Community College Archives and Special Collections/The City University of New York.

Professor Magda Vasillov photographed several early student demonstrations and protests. These early demonstrations laid the groundwork for the mass demonstrations of the “Save Hostos,” campaign in the immediate years that followed. Magda J. Vasillov Collection, Magda Vasillov photographer. Hostos Community College Archives and Special Collections/The City University of New York.

Professor Magda Vasillov photographed several early student demonstrations and protests. These early demonstrations laid the groundwork for the mass demonstrations of the “Save Hostos,” campaign in the immediate years that followed. Magda J. Vasillov Collection, Magda Vasillov photographer. Hostos Community College Archives and Special Collections/The City University of New York.

Professor Magda Vasillov photographed several early student demonstrations and protests. These early demonstrations laid the groundwork for the mass demonstrations of the “Save Hostos,” campaign in the immediate years that followed. Magda J. Vasillov Collection, Magda Vasillov photographer. Hostos Community College Archives and Special Collections/The City University of New York.

Professor Magda Vasillov photographed several early student demonstrations and protests. These early demonstrations laid the groundwork for the mass demonstrations of the “Save Hostos,” campaign in the immediate years that followed. Magda J. Vasillov Collection, Magda Vasillov photographer. Hostos Community College Archives and Special Collections/The City University of New York.

Professor Magda Vasillov photographed several early student demonstrations and protests. These early demonstrations laid the groundwork for the mass demonstrations of the “Save Hostos,” campaign in the immediate years that followed. Magda J. Vasillov Collection, Magda Vasillov photographer. Hostos Community College Archives and Special Collections/The City University of New York.

Professor Magda Vasillov photographed several early student demonstrations and protests. These early demonstrations laid the groundwork for the mass demonstrations of the “Save Hostos,” campaign in the immediate years that followed. Magda J. Vasillov Collection, Magda Vasillov photographer. Hostos Community College Archives and Special Collections/The City University of New York.

Unit 2 Goals

Unit 2. Education and Activism in the Bronx Goals

  • To understand the importance of education, and master the basic research tools to find statistical data relating to education issues, and to understand the “Save Hostos” movement in relation to access to higher education. We will focus on the life of Evelina Antonetty to center a Bronx-based discussion regarding access to bilingual education and the creation of Hostos Community College.

"Save Hostos" and the 1973-1978 Movement

In the fall of 1975, New York City had run out of money and was on the verge of defaulting on its debts. Many measures were taken to control spending, including increasing subway fares and cutting the budget of the City University of New York (CUNY). One proposal to reduce spending at CUNY was to merge several smaller campuses with larger ones: John Jay with Baruch and Hostos with Bronx Community College. Hostos was the newest campus in the system, founded only seven years earlier to meet the workforce and educational needs of the economically struggling, largely Puerto Rican population of the South Bronx. In this short time Hostos had become, and remains to this day, a symbol of the vitality and potential of the community. In response to the proposed merger, the South Bronx and campus community launched an ultimately successful campaign to save Hostos as an independent campus within the City University system. The newsletters, images, reports, and articles from the press describe and document the Save Hostos movement. They attest to the determination and dedication of various groups from campus administration to students and community organizations—as they successfully worked in the winter of 1975 through the spring of 1976 to keep Hostos alive.

Licenses & Attributions

  1. Casari, W. & Myer, G. (2022).  La Lucha: The Struggle to Save Hostos in the South Bronx in C. Jones, C. Guevara,  E. Porter, & E. Flemister (Eds.), Touchstone (vol. 11.1). https://guides.hostos.cuny.edu/ld.php?content_id=71790476
  2. Jimenez, R. J. (2003). Hostos Community College: Battle of the Seventies. Centro Journal15(1), 98. 
  3. Meyer, G. (2003). Save Hostos: Politics and Community Mobilization to Save a College in the Bronx, 1973-1978. Centro Journal, 15(1), 73–97.
  4. Phillips-Fein, K. (2017). Fear city : New York’s fiscal crisis and the rise of austerity politics (First edition.). Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company.