Giving Orange County a Brown Face

by Yolanda Morelos Álvarez
contributor

Note: This is an article from 2002. Since the publishinig of this article Ms.  Álvarez has become the inspiring force behind the founding of the Orange County Mexican American Historical Society (OCMAHS) which has a growing digital collection of historic photographs of Mexicans in Orange County. The collection strength is in twentieth century images. Of which, undoubtedly contains her collection “Fire in the Morning”. Ms. Alvarez has been featured in National Public Radio. Her writing contributions to Orange County Latino in 2002 are republished here as we prepare for our June, 2007 relaunch.

I used to be good at minding my own business, but not anymore.

I have driven all over Orange County in search of historic Mexican neighborhoods with names like La Conga, Alta Vista, La Jolla, Colonia Juarez, Logan, Delhi, La Manzanilla, La Colonia Independencia, Hollywood.  Sometimes I find them and sometimes I am too late; they have disappeared.

What remains of the life of these Mexican-Americans communities plowed under the never-ending Orange County development project are the stories and photographs, intact in the hearts and minds of elderly citizens who have lived through times I can only imagine.

My own attempt at reconstructing this history is assembled in a traveling historical photographic exhibit called “Fire in the Morning.”  A portrayal of the lives of Mexican-Americans raised and—contrary to popular thought—often born in this county, it reveals a way of life that was simultaneously rich and poor, joyous and tragic.  Stories are included that explain briefly the agricultural strike of 1936, the mass deportation of American citizens of Mexican descent during the Depression, trips over the Grapevine to work in Fresno and Bakersfield, riverside dancing and picnics at Sycamore Flats (by Green River) and Jamaicas, some colonias famous for their grand festivities.  These stories add to the historical vision presented.

The photographs, in varying shades of browns and blacks are full of people of all ages, and tell stories waiting to be told.  Beaming faces adorn barefoot children standing tall and proud for a class photograph taken in the 1930s, classmates who attended a “Mexican” school, one of fifteen segregated schools operating in Orange County…Segregation here?  In the Deep South, something we know of course… but here?  In Orange County?

After doing some research on my own, I learned that the immigrants from the Midwest and South brought to Southern California their institutionalized ways of treating the cheap labor force, which included a segregated and unequal education.  If someone takes a Chicano Studies course at college, they might learn of this ignominious history.  Yet ask a typical grade schooler—high schooler, even—and most likely they would have never heard about this.

Why not?  All students learn of the injustices of slavery, the segregated water fountains for example.  But why haven’t students been taught that we “Mexicans” (what all of us of Mexican heritage are called, born here or not) were not allowed to use the pool except the last day of use before it was cleaned?  Or that “we” were permitted to see movies at the theater as long as “we” sat in the balcony?  Or that certain restaurants would not serve us because we were “Mexicans”?

The history of our region becomes so much more interesting when I learned that four school districts were taken to court to end segregation March 2, 1945. The parents of students from the cities of El Modena, Garden Grove, Santa Ana, and Westminster joined forces to end what was an educational system that relegated “Mexican” students to what amounted to a vocational education instead of studies that would have prepared the children for high school.  Gonzalo Méndez, William Guzmán, Frank Palomino, Thomas Estrada and Lorenzo Ramírez filed suit against the exclusion of Mexican children solely because they were of Mexican or Latin descent.

These parents, who were represented by Los Angeles attorney, David C. Marcus were victorious in February 1946 when Judge Paul McCormick ruled that the segregation of Mexican pupils was a violation of California state law and of the Fourteenth Amendment.  McCormick pointed out that in El Modena, seventh graders scored higher than their contemporaries did in the “white” school in standardized achievement tests.  The argument that “Mexicans” would hold back the white students was simply not true.  But predictably the school districts appealed the decision.

Many organizations submitted amicus curiae briefs (Friend of the Court) in support of desegregation: Thurgood Marshall of the NAACP, the American Jewish Congress, the Japanese American Citizens League, National Lawyer’s Guild, and ACLU combined to write a third, and California Attorney General sponsored a fourth.

April 14, 1947 the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld McCormick’s decision.  This was truly a victory for the Mexican Americans in the state of California.  (Although examples exist in California in which school districts did nothing to change the status quo.)  It was also an important precedent to the Brown v Board of Education case in 1954 and deserves national recognition.

And yet this story isn’t told in Orange County, much less the nation.  Intrigued by such gaping omissions in my own education, I am determined that my children will learn a fuller truth about the existence of Mexican-Americans in Orange County.  I do not accept the view of us as docile Mexicans, but it is a stubborn perception that continues to exist among some of the population.  It is important that examples in our history highlight a courageous people who fought the dominant majority for justice and won.

In a sense, the exhibit, “Fire in the Morning,” attempts to present a fuller picture of Mexican Americans and the challenges the communities had to face.  There is something special about having lived in the scattered Mexican neighborhoods or “colonias” of the county that makes people say with fondness and pride that they are from Santa Anita, or La Paloma, Travelers, or Campo Colorado.  In spite of the poverty from very low wages, the richness is in the heritage, the close-knit nature of the people who lived the joys and tragedies life had to offer.

The stories of our elderly can open up an understanding that helps us to appreciate their and our own strength, intelligence and determination.  From the story about the second grader (now in his 70s) who gets kicked in the shins by a teacher for speaking Spanish, to the big wedding at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Santa Ana, there are thousands more stories waiting to be shared.

No book or file exists in any Orange County library history room that named all or most of the Mexican colonias of Orange County.  Because of this, I continue to go about the county to interview Mexican-Americans who have the stories of Orange County to tell from their own viewpoint.

The exhibit has been touring the county for one and a half years and is currently at the Bryant Ranch Museum in Yorba Linda.  It then moves to the Orange Library and will continue on to Irvine City Hall which will host it in September.  A portable exhibit visits schools and special events.
Of the various comments in the guest book, many are revealing.  “I never realized there were Mexicans back in the early years”… “I cried to see the familiar faces …” “it’s about time”…”reminds me of East Los Angeles” and finally from a Vietnamese woman, “nice to see other immigrant stories told, it’s important for us all to stick together.”  And one person wrote, “this is only the ‘tip of the iceberg.’”