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6WDEOH85/http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163422 .
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OAH Magazine of History.
http://www.jstor.org
Vicki L. Ruiz
South
Americans
Mexican
her ruralCalifornia girlhood, Mar?a Arredondo
Recalling
"I remember
simply,
all over
signs
read
'no Mexicans
contends
that at the dawning of the Great Depression
of the school districts in southern California
Mexican
in segregated
Americans
for
struggles
educational
schools."
v. Board
for Brown
the way
Mexican
While
remain
v.Westminster
of Education
largely
nearly
later.
of the court)
(friend
follows
of Americanization"
Latino
on
parents
Between
tion
into
and
and
lured
by
as two
their
children.
over
1930,
chaos
in U.S.
jobs
and
lived
their
colonias
transformation
the
Southwest.
were
Americans
became
even
and
the
by
the
a short
heritage
resided
has
the
twentieth
in the city's
so persuasively
enclaves.
century
has
expanding
argued,
had
profound
in
twentieth
they
offered
Los
dramatic.
twenty
two to one,
some
In
and
of
and
this
areas,
for
Angeles,
barrios.
As
immigration
consequences
historian
for Mexican
about
in
be
work
organizations,
San
Through
can
of generations
in the
Bernardino
illustration:
following
new.
is not
detected
Ruth
1940s,
is a street...on
"There
and
sites,
which
three families live side by side. The head of one family is a naturalized
who
who
people
arrived
She
1843."
laborers;
of
varied
curriculum
in
generally
Frequently,
to
children
scale
revolved
segregated
is an
second
of
with
them,
their
settlement
around
schools
as
and
schools;
practices."
group
of unassimilated
into
swung
Religious
at the Mexican
action
and
century.
aimed
the Southwest
from
the
'Mexican'
Americanization
projects
throughout
of
is the descendant
"All of
continued,
of the twentieth
Americanization
third
earn approximately $150 amonth
their
proponents
proliferated
the
of discriminatory
as amonolithic
residents
the early decades
organized
of
sort
all barrio
immigrants,
efforts
same
the
Viewing
during
send
the head
ago;
the head
1905;
came...in
who
years
eighteen
came...in
encounter
civics.
David
from Mexico
the
County.
Diego
community
Writing
neighborhoods.
unskilled
as 500,000
space
of generations
layering
community
a layering
century,
churches,
schools,
Tuck
Mexican
families, live in poor housing;
settled
Southwest
at least
by
Revolu
example, had aMexican population ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 in
1900. By 1930 approximately 150,000 persons of Mexican birth or
Guti?rrez
the
San
of northern
canyons
a heterogeneous
Such
alien
Pushed
industry,
in
outnumbered
more
that
(one-eighth
to perhaps as many
Within
immigrant
appeared
in the
out
Indeed,
challenges
the Mexican
by
agribusiness
new
ones
In 1900 from 375,000
years, Mexican
migrated
northward.
recent
can
citizen,
Mexicans
created
Mexicans
legal
a unique
Indeed,
are?
they
to more
hidden
"for
segregation
significant
generated
Midwest.
in
of
who
comparison
culturally?in
Mexico."
about
decisions
"daily
Ameri
narrative
The
one million
population)
political
barrios
existing
nature
institutional
as well
of
of Mexico's
economic
and
behalf
1910
to one-tenth
the
the
delineates
briefly
cause
case.
in the M?ndez
brief
and
socially,
from
of
has occurred inwhich ethnic/racial identities takemany forms?from
the Hispanos of New Mexico and Colorado, whose roots go back to
the eighteenth century, to the recently arrived who live as best they
(1946) helped pave
a decade
terms
in
Americans
immigrants
Thurgood Marshall himself was a co-author of the NAACP's Amicus
curiae
1900-1950
politically,
"more than 80 percent
enrolled Mexicans and
desegregation
from history, the case of M?ndez
stated
Balderrama
that
Francisco
Historian
..allowed.'"
and
Schooling,
Segregated
can
Southwest:
by
population
and Midwest. While
houses
to
state
night
these
classes,
and
cooking,
hygiene,
English,
were
as tools of Ameri
touted
canization. In 1899 the Arizona territorial legislature penned Title
XIX, a bill stipulating English as the language of instruction in the
OAH Magazine
of History
Winter
2001
23
By Southwest
Ruiz/South
public schools. Tide XIX would later be used as the legislative
foundation for local school districts to segregate Spanish-speaking
the
not
who,
pupils,
coincidentally,
school-age
territory's
"usually
50
lesson plan, Arizona
of
percent
as Laura
However,
population.
points out in the following
over
represented
rural schools were
some school districts did not segregate Mexican youth,
While
residential and educational segregation frequendy went hand in
hand. Historian Albert Camarillo has demonstrated that in Los
restrictive
real
estate
increased dramatically between
of Fort
Stockton,
community
"Mexican"
the
Great
Texas,
the Mexican
school,
was
apdy
and
segregated
1920 and 1950.
the street
from
Depression,
covenants
or
sink
separating
barrio,
named
Phoenix,
the white
Division
Arizona,
represented
On
an
such
an American
"Mexican"
now...,"
as
not
for
punished
"Don't
speak
only
reflected
collective
children had
environment.
English-only
schools
segregated
or
self-esteem
either
on
Even
in
conversing
that ugly
the
Spanish.
are
language,
you
belief
in Anglo
a strong
conformity but denigrated the self-esteem of Mexican
children. As Mary Luna remembered:
the eve
It was
wouldn't
American
school from
Street.
to
were
students
playground,
past,
the Southwest, Spanish-speaking
in
swim
pupils
conducive
American
schools
In the tiny hamlet
the European
of
necessarily
Admonishments,
integrated."
Angeles
not
identity. Throughout
to
Mu?oz
the memories
In
were
the
of
a western
apogee of segregation with George Washington Carver High School
for blacks, the Phoenix Indian School, and several "Mexican"
elementary schools sprinkled across the valley. The Tempe Eighth
Street School was "restricted to 'Spanish American' or 'Mexican
American'" youth and staffed primarily by student teachers from the
neighboring normal school (now Arizona State University).
you
rough because I didn't know English. The teacher
let us talk Spanish. How can you talk to anybody? If
talk Spanish
can't
and
can't
you
talk English?...It
wasn't
until maybe the fourth or fifth grade that I started catching up.
And all that time I just felt Iwas stupid.
Yet, Luna credited her love of reading to a European American
educator
who
had
center
community
converted
and
library.
of Americanization?education
into
love going
libraries...there
a small
Her
and
a makeshift
into
house
barrio
words
the dual
underscore
consumerism.
"To
are two places
I can
that
thrust
I just
this day
in and
go
get
a real warm, happy feeling; that is,
the library and Bullock's in the per
fume
and make-up
But
what
department."
of
type
was
training
associated with Americanization? As
in other
can"
was
in na
vocational
teachers
Many
and
believed
administrators
students
in "Mexi
the curriculum
schools
ture.
across
facilities
segregated
the nation,
few
possessed
that their
aspirations
and fewer abilities beyond farm and
domestic
Luis
work.
remem
Flores
bered the principal at his segregated
"offer
as aman
school
grammar
or
help
who
didn't
encouragement."
a few days of
him point
told
school, the principal
to
"If
have
you
go and pick
blank,
Flores missed
When
i^?..
cotton,
HP-%^
and
you
get out
just quit
a home
economics
Americans,
and
school."
class
Focusing
are
on
for Mexican
one Americanization
ticle typified this mindset.
girls
cotton
pick
very
enthusiastic
ar
"These
and
are
learning in this class, things which
will make it possible for them to be
efficient domestic
go
Children
History,
24
a
segregated school inSan Angelo,
attending
The University of Texas at Austin; CN10706,
OAH Magazine
of History
\ Winter
2001
Texas, 1949. (Courtesy of TheCenterfor
Russell LeeCollection,VN14233-27
American
in 3 Y184.)
into American
help, when
homes
they
to work."
and
Historians Gilbert Gonz?lez
Mario Garcia demonstrated that the
By Southwest
Ruiz/South
in "Mexican"
curricula
which
schools,
educa
vocational
emphasized
tion, served to funnel youth into the factories and building trades. In
the
abstract
Mexican
had
proponents
enterprise,
as noted
to Educate
a Mexican?"
their
in some
raise
did
instances,
jobs. Perhaps
low-paying
own doubts
their
about
to the article,
title
by the provocative
it trained
in practice
but
hope,
for low-status,
students
some Americanization
Schools,
out
held
education
American
assumes
with
Imbued
expectations.
v. Westminster
M?ndez
it Pay
"Does
national
the American Dream, young people believed that hard work would
rewards
material
bring
and
social
In fact, one California
acceptance.
because itwould give them
grower disdained education forMexicans
for
"tastes
to college
others
or be
science
can't
they
things
while
a
planned
acquire."
careers
Some
related
one
stenographer,"
women
teenage
as secretaries.
aspired
"I want
to study
"I
adolescent.
Colorado
thinned beets this spring, but Ibelieve it is the last time. The girls who
don't
to school
go
I contend
that
the
one
was
become
would
felt most
professional
young
able
of
segmentation.
as Americans,
The
foreigners.
articles
tell the
economic
and
segregation,
at
keenly
of Mexican
perceived
than
desir
ran a series
The
immigration.
and Other
"Wet
Invasion,"
less
for example,
Post,
Evening
they
as
them
comit? hired attorneys on behalf of the eighty-five children affected
titles
and
Mexicans,"
estimated
Depression,
into
exploded
the
border,
able
barrios
focus
their
native
for
targeted
action.
influenced
efforts
removal.
or persuaded
agencies
by immigration
tous social workers
who
gready
either
to depart
Los Angeles,
voluntarily
deported
awaiting
them south of the border. Policies of segregation in public facilities
the climate
compounded
Even
under
these
surrounding
and
deportations
circumstances
Mexican
repatriations.
parents
tional equity for their children. Before 1931 Mexican American
European
sleepy
American
agricultural
youngsters
in Lemon
north
community
Grove,
San
of
a
California,
attended
Diego,
the
same school. In January 1931 the local school board built a separate
facility
for Mexican
pupils
across
the
tracks
in the barrio.
The
two-room facility resembled a barn hastily furnished with
hand
Vecinos
equipment,
de Lemon
supplies,
Grove,
and
local
books.
parents
Forming
voted
"new"
second
el Comit?
to boycott
the
argument,
children
trict,
Judge
and
won.
Comadres
for
grassroots
over,
had
it was
de
school
and to seek legal redress. Except for one household, every family kept
the children home. With the assistance of theMexican Consul, the
shaping
per
segregation
logical
compadres
the
assistance
case
this
of
school
an
may
the Mexican
for
"the
represent
in
their
born
children.
first
successful
in the United
desegregation
had
together
more
Consul
U.S.
their
they
parents,
immigrant
mus
had
and
States."
victory.
early
a legal
strategy
se, NAACP
to challenge
lawyers
to demonstrate
arguments
reinstate
banded
had
(godparents)
of
To
their
a reign of
immigrants
These
was
School Dis
"immediate
in education,
opportunities
equal
the
segregation
action.
important,
Equally
court
in favor
action
v. Lemon Grove
Mexican
political
sought
to provide
to prove
stand
to their old school. During
repatriations,
and
facility
children.
the
ordered
to protest
the courage
"took
In Alvarez
of English."
a separate
of non-English-speaking
students
members
board
banner,
that
grounds
the needs
ment" of Mexican
In
and
the
Chambers
Certainly
educa
sought
on
Claude
effort
by duplici
the opportunities
exaggerated
knowledge
tered
to
officials
summarily
this
deportations
identifi
easily
welfare
From
people.
the
the Mexican
and
social
and
were
Mexicans
Indiana,
to
Proximity
to meet
counter
the Americanization
Using
actions
their
necessary
(an
were
Mexicans
of mestizos,
immigration
on the Mexican
solely
the majority
though
citizens.
U.S.
distinctiveness
physical
to Gary,
California,
were
percent)
immigrants
only
even
to Mexico,
repatriated
60
suit.
filed
justified
rhetoric
1931 and 1934, an estimated one-third of the Mexican
population in the United States (over 500,000 people) was either
deported
Education.
faced prejudice,
Between
or
of
remem
on Relief."
Great
the
to
lives."
people,"
Though
perceived
restriction
"The Mexican
and "The Alien
With
others
Saturday
the
urging
story:
tangible
v. Board
Brown
woman.
Braced with such idealism, Mexican Americans
themselves
their
"We felt that ifwe worked hard,
aspiration.
we
ourselves,
proved
rest of
the
of Americanization
impact
the level of personal
bered
to top beets
continue
will
its
through
connections
significance
of
constitutionality
inherent
socio
with
experimenting
began
the
the
of
inequality
racial
segregation. At this time, League of United Latin American Citizens
(LULAC) lawyerswere implementing such a strategy in a challenge to
school segregation in California filed by Mexican American parents
inOrange County, California. NAACP lawyers, including Thurgood
Marshall, followed M?ndez v.Westminster
closely, and they filed an
Amicus
curiae
Gonzalo
prosperous
brief.
M?ndez,
tenant
a naturalized
farmer,
and
OAH Magazine
his
U.S.
Puerto
citizen
Rico
of History
a
and
born
wife
Winter
relatively
Felicitas
2001
25
By Southwest
Ruiz/South
In
outlook."
ifil?M^
to
addition
"dirty" Mexican
of
the
image
another
children,
school district chief noted that these
needed
youngsters
schools
separate
given their lackof English proficiency,
that they "were handicapped in 'inter
preting English words because their
cultural background* prevented them
from
learning Mother
Marcus
Goose
rhymes."
a two-fold
strat
devised
the constitution
egy; he questioned
ality of educational
in
called
scientists
expert
who
as
these
challenged
Mexican
about
sumptions
segregation and
witnesses?social
Ameri
can children and the supposed need
for separate schools. Like Robert
Alvarez fourteen years before her
in
the
Lemon
Grove
case,
eight
took the
year-old Sylvia M?ndez
stand.
"I had to testify because
[school authorities] said we didn't
speak English."
and Felicitas M?ndez.
(Courtesy
family and the University
ofthe M?ndez
attempted to send their three children, Sylvia, Gonzalo Jr., and
Ger?nimo to the 17th Street School, the elementary Gonzalo himself
had attended as a child. But times had changed; theWestminster
school district, like its counterparts throughout Orange County, had
drawn
facto
on
boundaries
segregation.
Spanish
surnames
tator on California
school authorities
Mexican
into
Mexican
around
mother
and
was
furthermore,
As
phenotypes.
de
ensuring
neighborhoods,
of children,
Placement
also
based
commen
the preeminent
name
whose
be O'Shaughnessy
may
will
not
slip
school."
the wrong
After their children were turned away, Gonzalo and Felicitas
M?ndez organized other parents, including World War II veterans,
and they "persuaded the school board to propose a bond issue for
construction
of a new,
integrated
school."
the measure
When
failed,
the school board refused to take further action. M?ndez then enlisted
the help of LULAC and hired attorney David Marcus. On behalf of
their children and five thousand others, Gonzalo and Felicitas
M?ndez with four other families filed suit against theWestminster,
Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and El Modena school districts inOrange
County in 1945.
The
nineteenth
superintendents
century
and
tion. The Garden Grove
cans
are
26
OAH Magazine
inferior
reiterated both the tired stereotypes of the
the rhetoric
of twentieth-century
superintendent
in personal
hygiene,
of History
Americaniza
baldly asserted that "Mexi
ability
Winter
and
2001
in their
economic
to formulate
his decision, Judge Paul McCormick
"ruled that segregation of Mexican
youngsters found no justification in
the laws of California and furthermore was a clear denial of the 'equal
Irvine.)
of
clause
protection'
demned
the
Fourteenth
Amendment"
for Americanization
separation
by stating
He
con
further
that "evidence
clearly
shows that Spanish-speaking children are retarded in learning English by
lack of exposure
to its use by segregation...."
graders at the El Modena
scores
test
life Carey McWilliams
stated, "Occasionally the
so
the
children
that the offspring of a
inspect
of California,
a year
almost
Taking
Portrait of Gonzalo
than
their
that children were
their
Spanish
that
Noting
since
seventh
"Mexican" school had higher standardized
peers
at the white
school,
McCormick
segregated not on pedagogical
surmised
rationale but on
surnames.
The school district appealed the decision, partly on a states' rights
argument that the federal court had no jurisdiction in thematter. The
importance of JudgeMcCormick's
ruling was not lost on civil rights
activists. Amicus curiae briefs were filed by the American Jewish
Congress, theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), theNational
Lawyers Guild, the Japanese American Citizens League, and the
NAACP. California Attorney General Robert W. Kenney even com
posed his own supporting brief. Nationally, hopes were high that this
would be the test case before theU.S. Supreme Court InMcWilliams's
words, "the decision may sound the death knell of Jim Crow in
education." When
the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court in 1947 upheld
McCormick's ruling, the Orange County school districts decided to
desegregate and drop the case, dashing the heightened expectations.
M?ndez
tangible
v. Westminster
connections
assumes
to Brown
national
v.
Board
significance
of
Education
through
in
its
three
interrelated areas in addition to the direct involvement of NAACP
By Southwest
Ruiz/South
attorney
Marshall.
Thurgood
ing his decision,
science
and
As
Charles
"much of the social and educational
McCormick
case."
Earl Warren's
anticipated
the U.S.
Indeed,
historic
Court
Supreme
by Judge
-.
studies
academic
in public
a violation
was
schools
and
process
law"
unconstitu
and
because of the denial of due
case
This
protection.
equal
state
of
tional under the Fourteenth Amendment
a federal
posed
school
law by then Governor
over
the Brown
preside
v. Westminster
M?ndez
school
cracking
American
overturned
successfully
the
case.
as
used
be
and Arizona.
segregationist
a precedent
with
Again,
of
policies
local
in
the aid
by Minerva
led
parents,
David.
Guti?rrez,
and Mirrors:
Walls
1880
of El Paso,
Press, 1981.
&
Ideology,
Mexican
Frank Christopher,
Paul, producer.
Espinosa,
58 min.
1930
Identity,
Mexican
Americans,
Cinema
Documentary.
Lemon
The
director.
1910
Grove
1985. Vid?ocassette.
Guild,
National Park Service. "Racial Desegregation in Public Education
Theme Study." Unpublished
report, 2000. Text authored by
L
Waldo Martin, Vicki
Ruiz, Harvard Sitkoff, and Patricia Sullivan.
in
L.
From
Out
of the Shadows: Mexican Women
Ruiz, Vicki
America.
Twentieth-Century
In
Leadership,
to
1929
Immigrants, and the Politics of Ethnicity in the Southwest,
1986. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995.
Franco,
schools.
The Mexicans
Immigrants:
Americans:
Incident
seven
who
T. Desert
Mexican
segregation
mandating
Earl Warren,
also
would
in Texas
segregation
Mexican
LULAC,
codes
into
signed
later would
years
of
all California
repealed
and was
Los Angeles
The
1960. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989.
Gonz?lez, Gilbert G. Chicano Education in the Era of Segregation.
Philadelphia: Balch Institute Press, 1990.
challenge,
though limited in scope, to Plessy v. Ferguson. Third, theAnderson
bill, passed in 1947, was the direct result of the M?ndez case. This
measure
of La Raza:
1920. New Haven: Yale University
in its landmark 1954 ruling. Second, "it was the first time that a
federal court had concluded that the segregation of Mexican Ameri
cans
Mario
Garcia,
in the Brown
opinion
seven
cited
In Defense
E.
Mexican Consulate
and the Mexican Community,
1936. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1982.
noted,
Wollenberg
theory expressed
Francisco
Balderrama,
just on legal precedent but on social
research.
education
in deliberat
Judge McCormick,
First,
relied not
New
York:
Oxford
University
1998.
Press,
Franco v. Bastrop Independent School District (1947),
federal district judge Ben Rice cited theM?ndez case in crafting his
own path-breaking decision. Moving beyond the California ruling,
"
San Miguel, Guadalupe, Jr. Let All of Them Take Heed": Mexican
Americans and theCampaign for Educational Equality in Texas,
1910-1981. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1987.
Rice
S?nchez,
Minerva
declared
"specifically
can Americans
For monolingual
tions
could
The
On
acknowledged.
County
and
a resolution
in honor
a reporter
only
City.
been
recently
the Orange
that he knew
activity.
of Education
Board
County
M?ndez.
passed
the Santa
Furthermore,
and
Felicitas
Ana
of
of
of a time
student
of
courage
quiet
for
Latino
educational
a crucial
case
gation,
one
Brown
v. Board
that
youngsters
body.
Although
over
equity.
the
have
of color
New
York:
Harcourt
Brace
Westminster."
1946.
Fiftieth
commemorative
anniversary
program
for
been
represent
that
recognizing
Vicki
of Chicana and Chicano Studies atArizona State University. In July
2001 she will become a professor of history and Chicano/Latino
rising
in our
nativism
reminding
place." We
remember
parents,
like
M?ndez
v. Westminster
rationale
struggles
of
the M?ndezes,
for
school
the Warren
who
was
desegre
Court
L. Ruiz
studies
cer
in
of Education.
Bibliography
Alvarez, Robert R., Jr.Familia: Migration and Adaptation in Baja and
Alta California, 1800-1975. Berkeley: University of California
1987.
and Company,
book (1998).
Charles. All Deliberate Speed: Segregation and Exclu
Wollenberg,
sion in California Schools, 1855-1975. Berkeley: University o{
California Press, 1976.
is a professor
a tUniversity
of history
of California,
and
Irvine.
the chair
Her
of the Department
recen
t book
From
Out
of the Shadows was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Book
of 1998. Ruiz and co-editor Ellen DuBois have recently completed
the third edition of Unequal Sisters: A Multicultural Reader inU.S.
Women's
History (2000). Recipients of a Ford Foundation grant,
are co-editors of Latinas in the
she and Virginia S?nchez Korrol
Press,
Culture,
Ethnicity,
over
in the multiple
forecast
1990s
American:
the last half century, Felicitas
told us to stay
whites
the
with
concern
expressed
"when
of
schools
integration"
the
a battleground
Once
M?ndez.
Mexican
J. Becoming
University o{ California Irvine, Division of Student Services, Office
of the Vice Chancellor. "A Family Changes History: M?ndez v.
of
nothing
any commemorative
planned
the Westminster
in 1996
M?ndez
tainly
had
life had changed
American
fought
not
Gonzalo
of Gonzalo
two-thirds
the
later
honoring
desegregation,
as "a model
touted
her
instruction
classes.
grade
has
excep
grade,
School District broke ground for a new junior high named
Unified
ing
however,
informed
the district
a year
However,
second
case,
first
specialized
the fiftieth anniversary of the ruling, the Orange
superintendent
the case
integrated
the M?ndez
of
legacy
to
the
the
George
and Identity in Chicano Los Angeles, 1900-1945. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1993.
in a Southwest
Tuck, Ruth D. Not With the Fist: Mexican-Americans
schools."
'integrated'
entering
receive
could
of Mexi
segregation
within
speakers
so they
to transition
necessary
classrooms
Spanish
be made
the
unconstitutional
in separate
United
Indiana
of
States:
Historical
Press.
University
the American
Executive
A
Board
Historical
of
under
Encyclopedia,
Ruiz
is currently
Association
the Organization
O AH Magazine
a member
and
a past
of American
of History
contract
of
with
the Council
member
of
the
Historians.
Winter
2001
27