SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL: SYLVIA MENDEZ & HER FAMILY’S FIGHT FOR DESEGREGATION, by Duncan Tonatiuh



Tonatiuh, D. (2014). SEPARATE IS NEVER EQUAL: THE STORY OF SYLVIA MENDEZ &

HER FAMILY’S FIGHT FOR DESEGREGATION. Abrams Books for Young Readers.

 

Almost 10 years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Sylvia was denied enrollment to a "Whites only" school. She and her brothers had to go to the “Mexican School.”  This school was in a cow pasture. It had dirty halls and no playground. It was obviously inferior to the other local schools. Her parents acted by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.

 

I am disappointed to say that I am a social studies teacher and taught it for 15 years. Reading this book is the first time I have heard of Sylvia Mendez and the desegregation of California schools. I taught about Brown vs. the Board of Education every year, but nothing in the textbooks or the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) ever mentioned that California schools were the first to be de-segregated.

 

There are many cultural markers in the book. The story contains some Spanish words. The names of the characters are Latino. The fact that there were schools that were considered “white schools” and schools that were considered “Mexican schools” is a cultural marker that shows how Mexican Americans in California were looked down upon. The artwork, which is wonderful, also shows cultural markers. He distinctly shows the different skin and hair colors of the characters. The book contains an author’s note about the actual people and includes photos of Sylvia, her parents, and the two schools. It also contains a glossary, bibliography, and index.

 

 2015 Tomás Rivera Mexican-American Children's Book Award winner

Pura Belpré Award honorable mention

Sibert Award honorable mention

Orbis Pictus Award 

 

Publisher’s Weekly: “Readers will share Sylvia’s outrage as she listens to a district superintendent denigrate Mexicans (Tonatiuh drew his words and other testimony from court transcripts). Visually, the book is in keeping with Tonatiuh’s previous work, his simplified and stylized shapes drawn from Mexican artwork. He again portrays his characters’ faces in profile, with collaged elements of hair, fabric, and fibrous paper lending an understated texture. An extensive author’s note provides historical context (including that Sylvia Mendez received a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011) and urges readers to make their own voices heard. Ages 6–9.” (May)

 

School Library Journal: “And why did it take me 36 years before someone mentioned the name of Sylvia Mendez to me? Here we have a girl with a story practically tailor-made for a work of children’s nonfiction. Her tale has everything. Villains and heroes (her own heroic parents, no less). Huge historical significance (there’d be no Brown v. Board of Education without Sylvia). And it stars Latino-Americans. With the possible exception of Cesar Chavez, my education was pretty much lacking in any and all experience with Latino heroes in America. I’m therefore pleased as punch that we’ve something quite as amazing as Separate is Never Equal to fill in not just my gaps but the gaps of kids all over our nation.”  July 15, 2014, by Elizabeth Bird

An educator’s guide to the book:

https://laii.unm.edu/info/k-12-educators/assets/documents/literature-guides/separate-is-never-equal-educators-guide.pdf


 

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