Mendez v Westminster

0:04 Hi, everyone. This is Carmen and Christina and this is the Estodias Unknown AW podcaster. We talk about Latin American history. Sometimes it's horrible and deals with having topics like racism, corruption, and genocide. But more than that, it's also about resistance, power and community today. I think it's a little bit of everything. Oooo. Yeah, this is actually something that I've been wanting to talk about for a while and I kind of forgot that it was like on a giant topic list. And so I'm gonna be talking about Westminster v. A. Mendez. Okay, I always want to say Westminister. That's what I was going to say, something like that. I was just gonna say it very wrong. But yeah, I mean, let's just jump right into it. So while in school, I think something that is actually taught for once in the United States middle school and high school systems is that everything will say graded. That's not a secret, right, right, because you know, then we talk about the civil rights movement, and you know, one thing that we learn about is the nineteen fifty four Brown via the Board of Education, the landmark case where the Supreme Court ruled that US state laws which established racial segregations in public schools was unconstitutional even if the schools were equal in quality, which surprise, they never were, right, separate but equal, like please, no, that was a lie, and none of that is new information.

1:30 I do think the fact that the change was so slow has not really taught in schools. It's like they make it seem like bam and then everything and everything was fine, yeah, and then and then no more racism. Racism disappeared when the schools were pre or integrade, integraded. Yeah, oh yeah, that was That's what I was trying to remember the word. So that part I think is not really taught because you know, we talked about in are Uvaldi school episode where the schools were still segregated there and that happened in what was it the nineteen seventies the school Wow, I believe. So like again, it was very slow, very slow desegregation, and some places were slower than others. Yes. So something else that also wasn't really taught is that black kids were not the only ones subjected to segregated schools all poc you know, black kids, Asian kids, Indigenous kids. Obviously we know now about the horrifying residential schools, you know, and Spanish speaking kids because it wasn't just Mexicans, although everybody assumed they were all Mexicans back then, Yeah, everyone was Mexican. So they were also subject to segregation in schools. And you know, it wasn't just schools, which is something that if you're a longtime listener you also already know this by now in episode eighty one if we still as a known, but

3:01 Mexicans were segregated in like California, Texas where they had separate pools. You could see signs like no Mexicans, no dogs like you know, things like that. So it was everywhere and for Mexicans also, and for Mexicans it wasn't. There were several reasons for the segregation. And this is something again we've already talked about a bunch on eastoidas unknown, so if you're not even the listenery, this is not new, but if you are, then prepared to be angry, because you know, we talked about this more in our episodes on sterilizations in California. But Mexicans were believed to be dirtier, not as smart, not to mention they spoke another language.

3:42 So if they attended the same schools like no one would learn supposedly this is what they how they justified the segregation of schools. And then also on top of that, Mexicans sometimes they didn't finish school because you know, if we recall Mexican migration to the United States, there wasn't in during the Mexican Revolution, but also the bassetto program brought a lot of Mexicans to the United States, and some people were brassettos. Then they just came and returned with their whole families. Right, That's something that was common and so much of the Mexican population, though not everyone was. They worked as farm workers, and because farm workers work with the seasons, there's a lot of moving, a lot of following the labor like this here, this season is this, Now we have to go drive up here. So it was a lot of driving up and down California and Washington to look for work. And so a lot of times kids would start the school year, but then they'd be pulled out because oh, it's time to go to another farm. The work here is over. So that was another comment thing that happened where the kids just didn't finish the school year, or kids were pulled out to work in the fields because they needed to. And this isn't a problem with Mexicans per se, it's a problem with labor and hey, right, so but for those reasons, white people were like, no, Mexicans are dumber, Mexicans are not smart, and they're dirty and gross, and they cannot be in the same schools as our precious little white children, my children. Yeah, so these things called Mexican schools were created,

5:13 and these schools often only went from kindergarten to fourth grade, no more than that, because Mexicans didn't need to learn anything after that, and they supposedly were separate but equal. Again that's not a thing. But they also didn't have normal curriculums. The Mexican girls were taught about homemaking, sewing, cleaning, cooking, and the boys were taught labor because that's all Mexicans were good for anyway. Right. Also, Spanish was forbidden at the Mexican schools. And you know the role of these schools was for Mexican children to assimilate into their roles in the United States, so you know, into what it meant for them to be American, which is labor. That's it.

5:54 So the boys' agricultural work and the girls' housework. That's just how things were. And like I said earlier, it wasn't just schools that were segregated from Mexicans, but also it wasn't always because something we've also discussed a lot on Estonia as unknown is that Mexicans not always but have been had been in California, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, these states. Mexicans have been there for a long time because it was Spanish territory and they, you know, are Spanish slash you know, indigenous people. So Mexicans worked there before the Anglo settlers, is you know, So schools were not always segregated. Everything was together at some point. And after the US Mexico War of nineteen forty eight, this is when all this new segregation started. This war is where you know, the Treaty of Guada Lupe Algo happened, where California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado were given to the United States. So after this happened, this is when there was an increase in banning Mexicans from swimming pools, parks, restaurants, a practice that went on for one hundred years. But before this, it wasn't common for things to be that segregated.

7:11 Of course, you know, there are areas that just by nature and by where people ended up, they were naturally like segregated. And then you know, obviously not mentioning, but all the indigenous people were also segregated and things like that. So before these schools were often mixed, it wasn't separate. This all changed after the Mexican American War because the state legislator legislature sorry yeah, say yes, thank you changed a few laws, so it said school boards could not use public funds to educate non white students. That was passed in eighteen fifty five. Eighteen fifty five, okay, yeah, eighteen fifty five, and then by the year nineteen forty more than eighty percent of Mexican American children attended segregated schools.

7:57 But this was done all over the US Southwest. So again Texas, like we talked about Valdi, the elementary school that was in Texas, similar things in Colorado. Like this is all over the Southwest, and the way they decided who would go to the Mexican schools and who went to the white schools was based on last names without even seeing if children already knew English or already capassed or in like literacy tests, right, it didn't matter to them. They did it by looking at last names, and all the Latino Hispanic signing last names were limped together as Mexican. And again there was more than just Mexicans and skin tone. They looked at skin tone and last names. That's how they decided who was going to the Mexican schools. So it was everywhere, but also not at the same time.

8:43 In some cities schools were together. Oh okay, this is why the mendes family was shocked when they tried to enroll their daughter at the Seventeenth Street School in Westminster in nineteen forty three. The Mendesk family had just moved from Santa Ana and this is where they owned. Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, the you know, married couple though the parents. They owned a cafe there and they were successful. Gonzalo was a immigrant. His family was from Chihuahua, Mexico, and they arrived in this area where his parents were farm workers. So was he, but he learned English. He became naturalized at some point. They owned this cafe together Felicita's family they were from Puerto Rico and they moved to the same area, which was Westminster. That's where Gonzala grew up.

9:32 They got married in nineteen thirty five. At some point they left Westminster together and that's when they were in Santa Ana. How white people say sant Anna sounds gross okay as well because the accent were using, yeah, because it's not like real, right. So they got the pair got a call from their bank person or mortgage person someone that they mortgaged with, I don't know, because they owned house in Westminster's or not Westminster, Santa Anna, Okay. And so they got a call from their bank person who had a deal for them for they seeing an asparagus farm in Westminster. And so that's why they were moving to Westminster, because they had a chance to rent this lucrative farm, like it was forty acres of successful business asparagus. The reason the layers upon layers in this episode.

10:24 So the reason that they were able to lease this asparagus farm is because the Japanese family, the Munnemitsu family that owned it had to leave because they were being sent to an internment camp in constant Arizona. Wow. Because yes, this is the nineteen forties, this is World War two, and I'm sure we all know this, but Japanese people in the United States were sent to prison camps. Although they don't like to call them prison camps, inter or concentration camps, they liked to go. Essentially they were concentration camps. Yeah, essentially they were. So this happened, and that is why the mend This family was able to release this farm because if the Mune Meetsu family just left without leasing the farm, they would lose the property. They how were they going to keep paying for this if they were being sent away. So that's why they were leasing the farm, because they were sent away to an interment camp during World War two. So that's why they went to Westminster, the mend This family, I mean, so Gonzalo sister then her husband went with them also because her husband had experienced runing a farm already. So the whole family left Santa Anna and then went to Westminster together. And so in September nineteen forty drics. You know, they're in a new place. Now, they got to enroll their kids in school.

11:49 Felicitas Mendes and her sister in law, Sylvia not Silvia. Sorry, her sister in law, Sola, I really saved her name and I forgot it. They took their kids to enroll them in the school that their kids are supposed to based on where they live. This was the seventeenth Street school in Westminster, so they went and Solidad was like first in line or whatever. So she enrolled her kids just fine. But once Felicitas tried to do the same, she was told she wasn't allowed to enroll her kids there because her kids had to attend the Mexican school because unlike Solidads kids, Felicitas kids, the Mendes kids, they were not white skinned, they were darker. They were brown, and their last name was Mendes. What were other kids' last names? They had a French last name because married a french Man, French American man. They were white. Yeah, they were half white, half Mexican, but also the white Mexicans. Yeah, within a Mexican family, you know, there's so many shades, even within siblings. One is lighter when it's darker. So Gonzalo was darker than his sister's Soldan. And then on top of that, Sola dad married a white man French. Yeah, white man. So her kids were white Mexicans but also half white. So and their last name was French, not Mendus.

13:18 So that is why the Mendes kids were supposed to go to the Mexican school because they were darker and they had that last name. So the Mexican school was ten blocks down, that's where they were supposed to go. And both and Felicitas were appalled. They're like, what that what do you mean my kids can go here? And Soda Dad yell like, well if I can't, or if my I will not enroll my kids here, if my brother's kids can't attend either, But the school didn't care. They were like okay, They're like, oh fine, that's fine, that's fine with us. That actually for us. Yeah, that's actually better. So when they told gon what happened, he couldn't believe it. He thought it was a mistake. How could his own kids not attend the same school he attended as a child, because she is b he was from Westminster and when he was attending the schools were not segregated. Wow, not yet apparently. Yeah. And so, like I said earlier, Gonzalo's family had moved from Chihuahua Mexico to Westminster where they worked in farms as farm labors, and he went to Westminster. He did eventually drop out of school to work in the fields as well, but yeah, I mean he went to that same school. He was an American citizen. He was naturalized several years before all this is happening, and Felicitas is from Puerto Rico, so automatical, sorry, not automatically, but like they're considered citizens as well. So

14:51 they're like, how could we citizens of this country not not enroll our kids in a school? Like, by all purposes, we are Americans too. Yeah, but of course, like in this country, if you're not a certain type of person, you're othered, and you're not you're not American. So it doesn't matter if you're born here. No, it doesn't, it doesn't. So he went to the school to talk to them because again he's like, I went to this school, What do you mean my kids can't come here? Like this is crazy. So he went and the principal told them we don't have Mexicans here, and he said there is two schools for these four cities, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, Orange and Westminster. They are Hoover Elementary and Seventeenth Street School.

15:42 Mexicans go to Hoover and white kids go to Seventeenth Street School. And as a principal, he can't do anything about that. It's like a city problem or something, not his problem. He just a princesses just how things are. Yeah, he's just a principle. He doesn't know. And so Hoover Elementary, the Mexican school had no playground. Textbooks were all out of day hand me down so that the white school didn't use anymore. There was no cafeteria, and it was next to a cow pasture, and there was an electrical fence between the school and the cow pasture. As kids are trying to eat their lunch, there's flies everywhere because of the cow pasture, and it smells the cow manure mirda literal literal. It was clearly inferior. The it's two wooden shacks. Is the building? Can you even call that a building? I don't know. It's falling apart. The desks inside those two wooden shacks also falling apart, all dilipitated or whatever the word is. Yes, And as American citizens, Gonzalo and Felicitas refused felicitas. How do you say that name? Felicitas, felicitas felicitas. I think it's felicitas felicitas, I think. So, Okay, I'm living that, and because I feel like I've been going back and forth between the two. Yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't hear the name often, so, but I want to say it's felicitas felicitas. You're probably right. So they

17:13 the pair refused to have their children not be awarded the same opportunities as the white children and the better school, and they were gonna fight this. So they found David Marcus, a Jewish American civil rights attorney, to help them. And David Marcus had just won a desegregation case in Riverside. Okay, that case was about segregated pools, and so he won that case. In this case, desegregated pools in Riverside only, but I mean, it's better than nothing. Yeah, let me tell you how. It was really quick. One the other week was for the Mexican kids only. Other days of the week they could not use these pools. And then after it was like Mexican days done, they would drain the pool and refilled it so that it would be clean for the away kits. Ok. Wow, Yeah, and he won that case where they were like, that's not a thing anymore. No more desegregating or no more segregating pools, no more desegregating what not. My bad, that's getting cut.

18:15 So David Marcus told Gonzalo and felicitas they should take this one step further instead of fighting this fight for just their children, that they should do it for all the children. Yes. Yeah, And so Gonzalo and Marcus drove around all of Orange County looking for others to join the class action suit. And it was difficult, as these things usually are, because these are working people and there's so much trouble that can be had for fighting a system, right, something we also encountered when we talked about the sterilization episodes with the mothers that were looking for people to join the lawsuit against the hospital that was sterilizing them, where it's just it's a difficult thing to do, such a brave and difficult thing to do, send up to the system, because you're at this point you're sending up to the system of the United States. Yeah, and it took a while, but they did find four families to join the lawsuit. They were the families of Lorenzo Ramirez, Frank Palomino, William Gusman, and Thomas Estrada, all from either Orange County School District, Garden Grove and Santa Anna. And I don't know how many because I couldn't find specific information on each one of them, but some of them.

19:33 Among them, there was a World War two veterans, And it's like, how are you gonna tell me who I had to go or chose to go fight for this quote unquote, because you know, we know what the military really Are you really fighting for the freedoms of this country? I'm not sure anymore. As at one point in my life I did believe that when I was young and delusional. Yeah yeah, But now I'm thirty two and a cynic and if you're not there yet, hopefully you'll be there one day. Maybe we'll see in reality. So they believed, you know, we fought for this country for the freedom of blah blah blah blah, freedom right eagles, And now you're telling me we returned from fighting for this country an our kids can't attend certain schools because we're Mexican, right, what do you mean? So? Yeah, and so in total, five plaintiffs on the behalf of five thousand children in this school system, and they filed with the US Federal District Court in La Los Angeles and doesn't necessary, arguing that segregation based on nationality violated the eco protection Clause under the fourtieth Amendment of the US Constitution. The class action lawsuit was filed on March second, nineteen forty five, seeking an injunction that would order California schools to integrate, and the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advestment Advanced then a double C and a I

21:04 can't even say that, yes, thank you advestment. Oh my god, Jesus advancement, advancement. I kept forgetting the end there, Yeah, of color people, the National Lawyer's Guild, the American Jewish Congress, and the Japanese Japanese American City I'm sorry, go on, I can't read today, and the Japanese American Citizens League all filed emic is briefs And I was like, what the hell is anamic is brief? So, oh, you don't know from listening to five four do you not listen to five four. No I do, but I think you do know what it meant? Okay, go on. So from what I gathered, it's when a person or group which is not part of the lawsuit offers additional relevant information or arguments that the court may want to consider before making the ruling. Yeah. Yeah, like filing in support of something. Yes.

22:00 In other words, And the school district tried to compromise and say abandon the lawsuit and the Mendest children can attend seventeenth Street School, but they still refuse to let all Mexican children. That's not good enough because it's not about the Mendest children. This is about all the children, all the Latino children. They're like, guess what, we don't want to go there anymore exactly. Yeah. Yeah, so yeah, no bad deal. And they refused, and they the lawsuit continued. This is like the last episode of when they tried to offer thirty five jobs to all of them to leave the island. And it's like, you know there's more than thirty five Coulibans on this island, right, Yeah, Like take your shit deal and show it up your ass. Yes.

22:47 So the trial started on July fifth, nineteen forty five. And while all this is going on, the trial, Felicita, Felicitas and and other mothers continue to apply pressure to the school districts. They organize LA Associates Las Mexicanos Americanos Association of Parents of Mexican American Children to show support during the trial, to pressure the district to protest, to rally, and finding witnesses was difficult because again, it's a scary thing to do to testify on a case like this, and and something that I think is common among not just like Mexican Mexican groups or parents you know, involved in this kind of thing. But people have to work.

23:37 They're like, look, I'm just working. I don't know what's going on with this. It doesn't matter. I just need to feed my family. M M. That's like a very common sentiment. And that's what they kept coming across when trying to find people to testify, like, oh, we don't we don't need to be involved with that. We just need to like we're just here to work. We just need to survive, like we don't have time for this. And because of that, Gonzaloneas paid the wage of any person that missed work to testify out of their own money. Wow, that's good. Like if you're you know, have moved up the economic ladder, help out your fellow people by doing this kind of stuff. Yeah, and that is just it shows how important this was to everyone, Like, all right, you don't you can't testify because you can't miss work.

24:24 We'll pay that. We'll pay you because it's it's important and it's just beautiful. And testimony included evidence of segregation, how the segregated schools were very inferior to the white schools, testimony from children. They even had UCLA anthropologists doctor Ralph Diels argue that segregation made it so that white children believe they were superior and that it's like it cemented this belief that yes, white children are superior, Mexican children are inferior. And he drew parallels to how this compares to Nazi Germany. Yeah, and in the midst of like World War two and all that, it was a bad look, Like you want to be compared to Nazis. That's what you're doing right now, You're being Nazis. Yeah, because of all the segregation and the arguments by the defense, and probably not surprised they're no surprised to longtime listeners or you know now that you've made it this far into the episode, because these so they'll be surprising to know. One. Yeah, this defense is like what the fuck is wrong with you?

25:30 What the fuck? Like, oh my god, they're infuriating even if it's not surprising. So the defense argued that Mexicans are inferior, that they had poor hygiene, they had lower ability levels and lower outlooks on life, and they came from families with loose morals and they could not mix with white children for this reason. Okay, so their defense was just being loud about it, like their defense was more of the same racism. Yeah, okay, Okay, they're like, no, no, we're not We're not racist. Mexicans are inferior. Yeah we're racist. Mexicans are just dirtier, like that's it. But no, where I we're not racist. Okay, coming from the people who famously don't shower, like who has to be taught hygiene, like oh my god, no for real, and who still to this day will defend their on their little podcasts.

26:24 Get a tart record, edit this clip and say why don't they don't wash their hands? How they don't shower. How I don't wash them, just like white feet. That's a big one. I don't wash my legs. I just let the water run down. Yeah, because that's enough. This comedian went on him and his wife of a podcast and they were saying, how washrags are dirty? Hello, you get a new wash rag every fucking time. I've never seen people re use the same rag, Like what do you mean? Never? And I prefer washags because they're cleaner, they're easy, the same little whatever. Yes they can remember the word for lufah And I was like spongey thing.

27:05 But yeah, because you get any wash rag every time, like what do you mean? And famously, when I was in the army, you know who I saw using washwags and who didn't. Yeah? Yeah, white people use the same one, the same scrubby thing, right, everyone else us washrags that got well, they haven't replaced like in five months, yeah or longer. Mm hmmmmm. So it's still dirty. But no, they're out here arguing back then that Mexicans were just inferior and poor hygiene everything I just said. And so they also argued that education was the state matter and federal courts had no jurisdictions. So it's like in the federal government can't tail us state. I always want to say that shit just so that they can discriminate and oppress further. We want the right to continue to be racist, please, And the federal government has no saying our racism. Yeah yep.

28:04 They also said that Mexican students had to be segregated so they could receive English lessons that would ready them for immersion with the already fluent English students. That's what you saw us for, right, you know, one class a day where you went and you learned, but also like how many students it was. So when you start from a young age like four or five kindergarten, the immersion is fast. You don't need to segregate children, please, Like you start them and like within less than a year. Yeah, and then you continue in that same system like please. And it's also so funny to me now actually that people are finding to get their children into Spanish immersion schools and into these other language schools, people of non Spanish speaking backgrounds. And it's also funny to me not to go not to go more off topic, but just the the existence and the judgments so that the children get oh yeah, when you know people that have been families that had go back to these times couldn't they couldn't speak Spanish in school, and you lose it, you lose it. And now you see all these you know, white parents trying to get their children into these Spanish emersions, Chinese emersion like, you know, because now now they see the value when speaking other languages. But back then, oh,

29:36 no English only you will get hit if you speak Spanish, like no, no Spanish, alab yeah, and that's why people didn't teach their children Spanish. Yeah, it was. It was a shameful thing. You had to become American. But now everyone wants to make fun of theids. You know what. All love TOIDs, all love yeah, yeah, just I felt that we used to mention that because of their argument with all this, all this, but back to the topic at hand, right, wait, wait right. On March eighteen, nineteen forty six, Judge Paul J. McCormick ruled that segregation that the segregation prevalent in the defendant school districts fosters antagonism in the children and suggests inferiority among them where none exists.

30:24 Damn straight yeah, and that the ego protection clause of the fourteenth Amendment had been violated here here, and so bam, desegregation is what needs to happen now because this was unconstitutional all along. And guess what what the school districts were like, no, no, no, no, we don't like this. When they got an appeal, of course they didn't. Yeah, of course they did. It went to the Ninth Circuit District Court of Appeals in San Francisco, and they upheld the ruling, of course, of course, like dad, And this was on yeah, fucking d This was on April fourteen, ninety forty seven. But between the winning the corps psition until the appeal and they appeal, yes, the districts were in charge of what they were going to do, how they were going to desegregate, and so what they did was maintain segregation.

31:18 Oh so what they did was nothing. They just kept everything to say, okay. Their solution was to integrate grades one through four and then Mexican kids went five through eight. Went to continue that hoover anything to try and continue, but finally they elected not to appeal again and follow the ruling. And I feel like maybe that's why this case is a little less known because it stayed within California, but it didn't go to the Supreme Court. Yeah, yeah, or something. I don't know. So two months after the appeal, California Governor Earl Warren signed a bill ending all school segregate in California, making it the first state to do so.

32:04 California always ahead of the well sometimes, I mean, of course they have the right. This is all. Never mind, I just did a take before I finish my sentence. I'm just gonna just end it here an drink water at that moment, like spinning my water out. Yeah, so silly, so silly. Corman and Governor Earl Warren would go on to become a Chief Justice Supreme of the Supreme Court. I was gonna say, this is like Chief Justice Warren, right, Okay, I thought so. Yeah, Anie presided over for Brown versus the Board of Education. I think I did know that, But like just hearing it, I'm just like, okay, okay, okay, Warren.

32:48 I'm sure if you were very familiar with it and you heard the name, you're like, that sounds familiar, and yeah, that's why. Yeah. Also, if you listen to five four, I know that's why it felt sounded familiar to me. Yeah, and of course the change was an immediate Many schools continue to segregate, using IQ testing to justify separating Mexican students. We talk a lot about OURU testing and our sterilization episodes. What do we do two or three? I don't remember. I want to say too. I think you're right. So the Mendes family ended up moving back to Santa Anna once the interment camp was over for the Japanese in the United States. You all the family went back to their asparagus farm and the men this family returned to Santana and here Gonzalo Mendez told the superintendent, I don't care what you think. I'm taking my kids to the white school because they were trying to argue still, and so Silvia Mendez was enrolled in the white school. But it wasn't easy. Sylvia remembers her first day of school and a white boy went up to her and told her, you're Mexican. What are you doing here? Don't you know Mexicans don't belong. What grade was she in? Was she she was nine? Is not well? The whole thing went on for two years, Okay, so probably sixth seventh grade by now, by this time, when kids are just even yeah, and so she went home that day crying and crying, Oh my god, she probably just wanted to go back to the Mexican school right where you're safe with all

34:20 of Mexicans, and they're like, you know, this isn't about you. Yeah, yeah, Oh my god, I can't. I can't imagine. No, I know, I know. So she told her mom she didn't want to go to the white school because they were mean, and it was just so like she was so sad and her by what they were telling her, and her mom told her, Sylvia, you were in court every day, don't you know what. We were fighting. We weren't fighting so you could go to that beautiful white school. We were fighting because you're equal to that white boy. So you're gonna keep going to that school, damn. And she did, of course she did. Was there more Mexican kids at this point too? She was the only one at the fine okay, and time, and eventually there was, eventually there was, but at this point when she started at this school, she was the only one. And then and then her siblings were able to join her, and then you know, on and on. But to be the first one. It's so scary. It's like jumping You're a little fish jumping into Yeah. I mean just remember reading testimonies of Ruby Bridges and her first day in school and the sea of white people angry and shit like. And these people go on to continue having these same beliefs and they passing on these beliefs. And yes, I was just gonna say that, Yeah, it's like that thing where people say, like, please, your grandparents were yelling at Ruby Bridges on her first day of school, like yeah, on from canceled her grandpa

35:50 he was yelling at Ruby Bridges and he was there's no denying that. Yeah, no legends here because come out no. So she was scared, but she went on, she kept going to school. And I also want to mention that the N DOUBLEACP, this was like a test run for them for Brown versus the Board of Education. The brief that the N double ACP, which was authored by Robert Carter, Thirgood Marshall and Lauren Miller, filed for Mendes Westminster, was the forerunner to the organization's legal arguments in Brown versus the Board of Education. When the Supreme Court overturned the separate but equal doctrine. And this was nineteen fifty four when that case happened, and n double ACP did consider this a dry run for the future, and they used a lot of the same legal reasoning in the Mendes case in the nineteen fifty four Brown versus the Board of Education. And so I mean, for that alone, I feel that Mendes or Westminster v. Mendez should be more known. Yeah, Like it's not even in the curriculum in California. Yeah, which is insane, Like why why if we obviously we need to learn about you know, Brown versus a Bird of Education, but can we not also set a little thirty minutes for Mendez versus Westminster, like the case that

37:21 said like the path for Yeah, you would think, but no. So once the case was over, the Mendez family's life returned to normal. Silvia A. Mendez remembers her father saying that he felt like they should have been thanked a little bit more. Her mom felt the same way too that and they were both more disappointed or they were. They were both disappointed that no one said gracias for the fight that they fought, but still they felt like their children was to thank you in the end anyway, Yeah, and it was. Sylvia went on to graduate high school, she went to college, she got her bachelor's and she worked as an nurse for thirty three years. It's a long career and a hard job. Yeah. And her mother always told her that their family, their fight was part of US history and part of California history, and that she should go out and talk about it. And for Sylvia it was like she didn't think about it. She's like, well, sure, whatever, I guess, but she didn't really She's like, tell her every want to talk about it. Yeah, her mom was like tell everyone to sleep. It was like, I don't know, I don't really tell people things like I don't really talk in front of people like this. And it wasn't until first her father, Gonzalo mean this, He died in nineteen sixty four, and then her mom got sick and she didn't die, you know, right after her father, but she did pass away in nineteen ninety eight. And this

38:51 is just as the case started becoming more recognized. Two years after Felicita's death, the city of Santa Ana opened the Gonzales and Felicita's Mendez intermediate school. Oh wow. And then there was a documentary called Mendes v. Westminster for all the children that came out into two thousand and two and to a thirty minute documentary. And it was around this time that Celia had retired from nursing, so you know where she spent thirty three years. And she finally thought about it and listened to her mom and she's like, I'm going to start talking about it. So she began to travel and lecture and educate about Mendez v. Westminster. She went all over California schools mainly, but also nationwide talking about the case and her experience. She was invited to the White House in two thousand and four during Hispanic Heritage Month. In two thousand and seven, there was a stamp that was unveiled to celebrate the case on the sixtieth anniversary of the case. It's a beautiful stamp.

39:48 She's look it up. I didn't save the picture, but it's very colorful. And believe Cynthia is the person like drawn on it. I'm looking it up right now. Oh wow, very colorful. I love it. Yeah, And it reads toured equality in our schools. Mendis v. Westminster. Nineteen forty seven, and it has like students. You know, wow, I did just wish say this to on share it on Instagram and yeah, that was in two thousand and seven. Yeah, so that was two thousand and seven when the stamp came out. In two thousand and nine, a second school named after Felicy Does and Gonzalo men This opened. It was called the Felic Does and Gonsalomn This Learning Center in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of California. Okay, Boyle Heights, Boyle Heights, And we know this is a historically like yeah, Hispanic neighborhood. We talked about it a lot in various episodes sprinkled throughout really yeah, which Saturdy is facing gentrification as many historically non white neighborhoods are. Yeah, everywhere, but especially I want to say California. Like in twenty eleven, Civa Mendez was a ordered the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Okay, queen. Yeah, and if you look at pictures of her winning that emotional I cried because also I cry over everything. Let me do it right now. Yeah, yeah, look it up.

41:13 And I'm also gonna look at them again. Look at her. Oh my god, just and look this one is also the cutest thing ever. Sorry I'm looking at them. I'm not okay, I'm back. Yeah, that's the one that made me terrible. Yeah, you could tell how proud she looks in those pictures. And also she says she says she could not stop crying when she got the medal because she thought of her parents and thought they're finally getting the things they deserve, and she always felt that the medal was theirs, not hers. Man, I preemptively, I knew you were going to say something like that, so I preemptively already was tearing up because I'm like, this is a parent like this, yes, yeah, because how many of us are just like this is for my parents, like everything everything. I can't get behind that. If you know all your parents anything, blah blah blah, Like I'm just you know, I will just never be there. I won't same.

42:14 And I know it's like this very common. I know it's toxically that is important to tell. I know me too, and I know it's important for people to know that. You know, like, yes, your parents, you know, sacrifice so much, especially immigrant parents, right for you to have what you have now and that you don't like all them anything, but I feel like that with them everything, So I mean too, I can't stop and I won't stop, Like I have said this so many times that like I mean, I think if you listen to both this podcast and his Spooky Tells, especially the episode about you know, murdered women in the military, you know my views on the military now, and you know what I went through in the military, and I would do it all over again just for my mom to have her green card again.

42:54 Because if that's what it took, then sadly it's not fair. That's what it took. Yeah, but that's what it is in this country, and for me, everything was worth it just for her to be able to go and hug our grandparents again. Right, I'm not gonna go say more than that. Okay, I'll stop right now. I am stopping. But the point is that I understand when she says this medal is there's not Yes, I do fully, fully, I would have said the same thing. But also her parents, you know, were the ones fighting that she she goes and says. You know, when I was a kid, I didn't understand really the implications, Like I just remember the bus that all kids took the same bus to the schools.

43:35 But the bus stopped at the nice white school that had a very nice playground and then continued on to the Mexican school ten blocks away, and Celia says, I remember stopping and saying, why can't I go to that playground? I want to go to the playground. For her, it was about the playground, yeah, and she didn't understand fully until when she started going around and talking about it what everything was really about, like in more more things about them. So in twenty twelve, the Brooklyn College awarded Silvia Mendez an honorary degree. In twenty eighteen, le Conte Elementary School in I forgot to write down. We're in California. This was the school. It was renamed to the Silvia Mendes Elementary School and it's a dual English Spanish emerging school where people fight to send their kids, just like it must be so crazy to see the changes, like yeah, where you went to school and you were forbidden to speak Spanish and now there's a school named after you where Spanish is taught and people want to go there.

44:38 Like I'm just and it's I can't have no words to like fully express what I would wish I could like, it's just amazing. In twenty twenty two, the Mendes Historic Freedom Training Monument opened. It is on Westminster Boulevard in Westminster, and it's this beautiful monument. It looks like a book. It tells the story of the case. And and yes, it's on the trail and you can see it and it's pretty. And I want to go there and just to go stand in front of it. And to this day, Celia Mendez continues traveling and teaching nationwide. And I do want to say there was a study published by the National Burial Oh my god, bureau bureau Bureau. Are you saying burial. You're saying bureau bureau. Yeah, right, like the better bureau business or whatever. Yes, yes, okay, okay. So there was a study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research and it was done by Francisca Atman and Kalna Cortes. And the study shows that Mexican Americans students who started schooling after the case went into effect stayed in school longer, and there was a nineteen point four percent more likely chance of students to graduate high school than those who went to school before men this and the study. Of course, if you're listening using like official research language, it suggests, but to me, it shows straight up that placing students in the separate Mexican schools was having a major effect on the graduation rates. That Mendes v.

46:12 Westminster made a positive change to education for all Latinos in the US. Well, I think about what it told you about your worth and your own like what you internalized when even you're that little, you're taking messages in from you know, all around you. So imagine what it tells you when you're in the same bus as the other kids and they get dropped off in the nice school with the playground and you get dropped off to a shack with nothing, just dirt and cowshit. Right, and just this case, I mean, because of this case, obviously desegregation was super important, but also it just like you said, it showed Mexican kids, you can't do this, you should be able to do this. You're not inferior to white children, and you deserve the same schooling, quality education, yeah, equality education.

47:05 And they were able to do that, and even to this day, I know it's such a hot topic on like TikTok and shit, but school dropout rates, high school dropout rates for Latino kids, Latino kids is dropping. Yeah, it's not what it used to be, even when we were in high school. And yeah, you know, times, times are changing, and that's why you know, we see so many what's her name, Kelly Osborne when she was like, if you support all the Mexicans, who's going to clean your house? And they're like, oh, no, no, no, but in the sense like but in the sense I know, we do so much more, right, Yeah, And you know what if you want to clean houses, that's fine too, because some ladies were on TikTok during the pandemic showing like their house cleaning like work, and I'm like, man, I wish I could do that, Like it's you can. There's no nothing is less valuable than anything else to me. Yeah, nothing is worth like one thing is not worth more than the other. But you can do moreever, Yeah, and yeah, that is the case Menthis versus Westminster such a powerful, you know case in history that secured rights, you know, for students of color. It just I think there's obviously still ongoing issues, especially with like public schools and you know, being in certain like areas where the money that goes

48:36 to school is based on the tax and the income, you know what I mean. So in the sense there's still some almost segregation or I don't know what you call it, like pseudo segregation where you see these low income schools receiving less funds because of you know, taxation in these areas. And that's like I love to see. And it's not like right for this, like certain school districts have to work way harder to receive something that maybe a rich area is already just receiving, yeah, because of the taxes, right, But I love to see like a quote unquote bad district, Like when you look at the numbers, they're still doing better than the rich district.

49:19 Like even you know, I don't I don't live in a fancy city. I even the quote unquote bad school district where nobody wants to be. This is quote unquote the ghetto. But in the end, when you look at the resources that this school district is receiving versus the other ones, this school district ten times better. This is the school district that has the dual English Spanish schools. This is the school district that has free lunch for all students. Other school districts in my city don't, and and this one does. The school my child is going to is a brand new project learning based school that does not exist in other school districts that people are like finding together their kids into. And you know what, the poor school disc has that school like it's a beautiful thing. And not to go too off the charts here, but there's a reason we see the public school attempts to defund the school. Oh what, okay, good, I was gonna bring that up to say, oh yeah, there's a reason Republicans are finding so hard to take money away from schools to fund private schools, charter schools. And that's because it's this is where kids learn about cases like this.

50:29 It's empowering, and they don't want to see students of color empowered. Yeah, yeah, this is why. I remember I had a coworker and this is pre children, was arguing about how like her school or she gets taxed her property. Textes go to school systems, and I'm like, I'm I'm for it. I don't care me too, Like yeah, I'm yeah, please like use it for this and not for the military. Mm hmmm. And it's so important. Yeah, and this like anti public education, antie intellectual like environment, you know that we're in now super important to talk about this case and what it's done for students of color. Yes, and I want to mention a school, sorry, a kid's book about the case. Hold on, all right, it's called and I love this this this author because it's so many books that are about things we should teach kids. He is the one writing them illustrating them. So separate is never equal. Silvia Mendez and her Family's Fight for Desegregation by Duncan Donatio And I'm sure if you look at it you recognize the author. I think I've seen it. Yeah, I also have other books by him already. But yeah, just I will be getting that book as well. But yeah, I mean just we've already said a bunch already so well, in being of what we talked about today, and I

52:01 mean everything we talk about, I want to recommend a book that I'm not done listening to yet. But I mean, it's like all the topics we talk about, and more so, I'm sure that our listeners will like it. Also, just how I like it. It's You Sound like a White Girl by Julisa Addison. Oh my god, that's been my TVR for so long. I love it. I love it so much, and I want to buy the physical book so that I can reread it because I'm borrowing there from the library. Okay, okay. Also support your local libraries. Yes, see how you are listening through your local library, but you're also gonna support an independent bookstore later when you buy the book. Very demure, very mindful. Oh I got he dined one second? What's it called? To him? You sound like a why girl?

52:52 She has another book that I am going to add also to my TVR. I forgot what it's called, though, I think someone like me, I want to say. It's called Wow. And there's no hole to borrow immediately, all right. I've have borrowed the audiobook and it's an Yeah, it's not long. I'm going to finish it in a day, all right. Well, anything else to add before we go? I don't think so, I guess just yeah. Thank you everyone for listening. If you have enjoyed the podcast so far, feel free to recommend us to your history loving friends, to your Latina loving friends. It's Latino Heritage Month is coming up and right support your fellow latinas. This means you have to send the podcast to wait people on that month and they are obligated to listen because it's Latina Latino Heritage Truth and so they're also obligated. And there was a five star reading. Yeah that's true. They're not allowed to get mad. No, no, they're not not during our month. Okay, we hope that this is one less estoria unknown and we'll catch you next week. Goodbye bye m HM