Mendez as the "Mexican American Brown"

• In Event: 42.029 - Then and Now: Grappling With Race in Psyche and Society

Abstract

Centered on archival materials and oral history interviews, this paper details how Mendez v. Westminster, a 1940s Mexican American school segregation case, changes to appeal gain entrée into California history standards. To be included into curricula, the Mendez story could not highlight that Mexican Americans gained access to schools because they were legally considered White, or that it upheld language segregation. Mendez is stripped of its racial and historical complexity and reinterpreted as the precursor to Brown v. Board. How state school board officials conceptualize Mendez, and by extension Latina/o contributions, is of great consequence, as it is ultimately these interpretations that will shape students’ understandings about Latinas/os.

Author

• Maribel Santiago, Michigan State University