The Mendez Family. History.com
The Mendez Family
The Mendez family moved to Westminster from Santa Ana in the summer of 1944. They moved because they had just leased land from the Munemitsu family, who were sent away to a Japanese internment camp during World War II, and didn't want to lose their land. Gonzalo Mendez was a hard-working field worker before moving out to Westminster to become his own boss. Gonzalo, along with his wife Felicitas, ran the farm and raised their three kids Sylvia, Jerome, and Gonzalo Jr.
How it all Began
Sylvia’s Aunt, Soledad, drove her brothers and cousins, Alice and Virginia, to the public school to register for the new school year. Sylvia and her two brothers were denied admittance because of the color of their skin, while her cousins were allowed to go because of their Italian-sounding last name and lighter toned skin. If the Mendez children weren’t allowed to attend the “white” school, then Soledad wasn’t sending her children there either. The children had to attend Hoover Elementary, which was the segregated, non-white school in the Westminster School District.
Hoover Elementary School. Calisphere.org
Sandra Robbie's, Mendez v. Westminster; For All the Children