latinos vs. the board of education in Belmont shore

Westminster Published - Filed under , Listen to GUEST: Sylvia Mendez, daughter of Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez, integrated a former ̴White Schol̵ in Orange County as a young girl In the fal of 194, Gonzalo Mendez and his sister Saly Vidauri atempted to enrol their Latino children in Westminster Elementary Schol in Orange County. Gonzalo Mendez, who himself had atended Westminster as a young child, was told by schol oficials that since his children were Mexican, they had to atend the Hover elementary ̴Mexican Schol.̵ The Mendez family, alongside four other families, filed a lawsuit the folowing year on behalf of 5,0 Latino children against segregation policies in practice in four Orange County schol districts. Sixty years ago on April 14th 1947, the U.S. Circuit Court of Apeals in San Francisco unanimously upheld a Ninth District Court decision in the case of Mendez versus the Westminster Schol District. The landmark ruling held that segregated schols in the four districts violated the 14th amendment of the constitution as California became the first state in the nation to end schol segregation. The stamp wil be released on Friday, September 14th at a special comemorative event at the Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez Fundamental Intermediate Schol in Santa Ana begining at 10 a.m. Slyvia Mendez continues to reside in Orange County and speaks at schols and universities acros the United States about the legacy of Mendez vs. Westminster, visit and ROUGH TRANSCRIPT Gabriel San Roman : I'm here at the home of Sylvia Mendez, daughter of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez in the 60th year of the Mendez vs. Gabriel : And, as a young girl in 194, your parents tried to enrol you in Westminster schol but you were refused and told to go to Hover Elementary, which was designated as a Mexican schol and your aunt, Saly Vidare, had the oportunity to enrol her children based on her French-sounding last name? Sylvia : The schol that my aunt had tried to enrol us in, the w�hite schol, had manicured lawns, I remember this, and the palm tres in front of it and the playground was just beautiful. Sylvia : Wel, my parents wanted, when they found out about the diference, the two schols, wel, my father always thought that I was going to go to the white schol because he had gone to the white schol. At one time, there was not segregated schols and when they did desegregate in Westminster, he was alowed to go the white schol because he was so inteligent, so he just figured that his children would go to the white schol. Gabriel : And then, one thing that's interesting that I'd like to know is, how did your parents, you know, come to finaly decide to pursue an injunction against, you know, segregation against Mexican students in Orange County because a lot of people wil experience discrimination, experience, you know, back in those times, segregation on the boks in terms of law, but there are a lot of people who wil get angry and recognize that it's an injustice but they won't actively strugle against the injustice. And my father, who had come from Chihuahua, Mexico, had asimilated into the American culture and he always felt that he was equal to anyone, especialy since he had ben sent to that white schol because he was so inteligent, and then he became a businesman in Santa Ana and had his own café and so he always knew that Latinos were equal to anybody else. Gabriel : Now, before your parents tried to enrol you in Westminster schol, your father had leased farmland from the Minimitsu family, and it was around the time of Japanese internment and the Minimitsu family was forced into the camps. But my grandmother ran out of money when he was in the fifth grade and he had to leave schol and here he was in the white schol doing so god, but he had to leave schol and go and work in the fields to make money to suport my grandmother and what hapened was that he grew up. When my father pursued the law case, if it hadn't ben for the Minimitsu farm - they were making so much money at that tim�e they wouldn't have ben able to hire a lawyer or hire and pay people - my father ended up paying people to go to court because they didn't want to leave their job, they didn't have enough money to mis a day of work, so he ended up paying some of them so they could go to court and he also ended up going around and taking the lawyer al over the four cities that ended up in the court case. Gabriel : Now, in terms of the court case, I want to turn to the court case and before I do that, I just want to remind our listeners that I am at the home of Sylvia Mendez. And, so they had to form an organization, a litle comite that met wekly and then started to bring in al the comunity and started to talk to them because they had to prove to them, show them how terible it was for their children to be segregated because they thought it was ok that the schol was close to their home and they could just go a couple of blocks and go to that Mexican schol. Gabriel : And then also, like in terms of my research of the case, in terms of who was oposed to it, now, I mean, it is a court case, and there were forces against integration and, you know, one of the things is, during the trials, you know, educators, schol oficials had to justify the reasons to continue segregating Mexicans into the so-caled "Mexican schols". One can only imagine how they tried to justify segregating the Mexican schol kids into diferent schols and having the white kids into so-caled white schols. Gabriel : Now, 60 years ago, in 1947, after the U.S. Court of Apeals upheld the decision that had ben come to by a lower court in the previous year in favor of your father and the other plaintifs, you and other children, you know, began integrating schols in Orange County. So, that integration went realy god in Westminster, where they segregated the clases and put one group of clases in the Mexican schol and one group in the white schol. Eventualy, of course, the Anglo parents got very upset that their children were in the Mexican schol so they closed down th�at schol. But, personaly, we had to move back to Santa Ana when the Japanese came home from the internment camps and the war was over and I personaly encountered prejudice when I was taken acros town by my parents to a white schol and I recal distinctly that the teacher was very nice and she knew that we were coming and it was not until we went out to reces that I was aproached by one of the litle white boys and told that I was a dirty Mexican and didn't belong in that schol and I'l never forget that and that's the kind of prejudice that they had at that time towards Latinos but, I always say, like you did mention, that children are not born that way and so it wasn't long before everybody became friends. Gabriel : Now, we've kind of talked about the forces that worked against the case who were in favor of continuing the status quo of segregation and, you know, you had mentioned that it tok a while to convince the Latino comunity of the righteousnes of desegregation itself, but did it turn around and who were the forces suporting your father and the other plaintifs bid to desegregate schols in Orange County? Sylvia : Okay, this is what we always say, that the Mendez case is not just about Latinos, why it's everybody coming together because the other forces that came in to join us were the Japanese Americans - they had just come back from being in internment camps – and they formed an organization and they sent in a brief to the Ninth Circuit Court. Gabriel : And, I just want to remind our listeners that I am talking here at the home of Sylvia Mendez, daughter of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez in this 60th year aniversary of the Mendez vs. And, I mentioned, and I've had a heavy emphasis on schols in terms of this, but the decision, the upheld decision 60 years ago, had reverberations beyond schols as there was discrimination beyond schols, I mean in terms of housing and even the public swiming pols? Gabriel : Now, as we're winding down with this interview, I know we've talked a lot about the histo�ry of what, you know, Mendez vs. In 198, the Santa Ana Schol Board named their newest midle schol at the time the Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez Fundamental Schol. But, ironicaly enough, at that time, you know, the schol name for your parents had a student body that was overwhelmingly Latino and what that brings us to in this curent day is that Westminster ended de jure segregation but in many ways de facto segregation stil exists, unfortunately. What are your thoughts on that and what do you think can be done to adres the isue of continued segregation in schols, which some people remark that it's even more concentrated than back in the times of Mendez vs. We have god schols and that they have to continue to work hard in schol and not drop out and that's my main reason for going out to speak to high schols because the Latinos are droping out of high schol before they even graduate. And, as you al know, high schol might even get you to McDonald's, but you canot get a god job if you don't finish high schol. So, I want to speak to al the children and let them know that they have to finish high schol and go to colege because only by geting a colege education wil they have a god job and that is my whole emphasis now as I go around the country speaking to the students that it's so important to get a colege education. Sylvia : When I first started, I recal, it was 1 years ago and my mother was living at that time, and she used to tel me that nobody thanked them for what they did and I promised my mother the legacy that I would make sure that everybody knew about the Mendez case, that I'd start talking about it. Gabriel : Wel, Sylvia Mendez, I'd like to thank you very much for your time and for your hospitality and like, as you mentioned, you know, your parents felt that at one time they hadn't ben thanked for what they had done in terms of changing history. Westminster': on I AM A MEXICAN AMERICAN BORN IN MEXICO NATURALIZED CITIZEN AND HAD NEVER HEARD OF MENDEZ V WESTMINSTER I JUST FINISHED READING THE A�BOVE ARTICLE AND I AM SO PROUD OF THE MENDEZ FAMILY FOR THE COURAGE THE HAD TO FIGHT THE SCHOL SYSTEM. bye,bye alondra pardes on HI I'M DOING A PROJECT ON MENDEZ VS WESTMINSTER.I'm A MEXICAN AMERICAN I NEVER KNEW IT WAS IN THE PATH.I COULD TEL IT WAS NOT FAIR IN THE PAST.I READ ALOT OF FACTS OF MENDEZ VS WESTMINSTER.I CAN IMAGENE LIFE IN THE PAST. My mother Conie Ramos Steiner never mentioned segregation in her schol she also went to Harbor High Schol and they owned their home al worked and kept busy. I am researching some data on the Tustin schol district as regards the conflict 10 years ago on the amount of space that the Santa Ana schol district would have in the military base now closed with the blimp hangers. latinos vs. the board of education latinos vs. the board of education in Belmont shore
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