Sylvia Mendez Research Paper

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Sylvia Mendez

Sylvia Mendez is a civil rights activist from the United States of Mexican and Puerto Rican parents. The Mendez family’s attempt to enroll Sylvia and her siblings at a “white-only” school led to the Californian desegregation case, Mendez v. Westminster. Sylvia Mendez is not related to actor, Anthony Mendez, on The CW’s hit show Jane, The Virgin.

==Youth and Family==

Sylvia Mendez was born in Santa Ana, California in 1936 to immigrant parents. Her father, Gonzalo Mendez, was a native of Mexico and her mother, Felicita Gómez Mendez, came from Puerto Rico. Santiago, n.d. Felicita Gómez moved to Arizona with her family and they participated in protests against cotton famers paying Puerto Rican immigrants unfair wages during her youth. She attempted to join the American Federation of Labor with her family, but they were denied entry due to their involvement with the radical International Workers of the World union. Gómez moved to California with her family and then met and …show more content…
Westminster==

The Mendez family decided to fight the discrimination. Gonzalo set out to organize other members of the Mexican community in Westminster to bring a case against the city. The Menendez family used the money from their successful farm to hire a civil rights attorney from Los Angeles, David Marcus. The family wanted to just sue the school district of Westminster at first, but the Jewish-American lawyer encouraged them to tackle the pressing issue on a greater scale. On March 2, 1945, Marcus filed the case Mendez v. Westminster against four of the school districts in Orange County, including Santa Ana, Garden Grove, El Modena (known as Eastern Orange today), as well as Westminster. The Mendez family served as plaintiff along with four other Mexican-American families represented by Lorenzo Ramirez, Thomas Estrada, Frank Palomino, and William Guzman. The five families stood in for the 5,000 other children in the districts forced to attend segregated

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