Tuesday, September 25, 2007

U.S.P.S. releases stamp to honor Hispanic Heritage month

By Marisa Treviño of Latina Lista

Hispanic Heritage stamp

It’s fitting that during this week while the nation celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Little Rock 9, when nine black students integrated into Little Rock Central High School under armed guard, the U.S. Postal Service released a new stamp for Hispanic Heritage Month honoring a historic court decision that forced four Southern California school districts to admit Latino students.

It was 1943 when Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez tried to send their three children to an elementary school in the California farming community of Westminster. The children, all born in the United States, were barred from entering the school.

Though segregated public schools were common at the time in California and throughout the Southwest, it was common for children of Mexican descent to attend “Mexican schools.” Gonzalo and Felicitas and several other Hispanic parents had had enough of being treated like second-class citizens.

On behalf of 5,000 children, the Mendez couple and other parents sued four California school districts in what became known as the Mendez v. Westminster court case.

Lawyers for the families argued that the separate schools designated for Mexican students were not of equal quality and that the “separate but equal” concept that the school districts operated under made the children feel inferior and prevented them from entering mainstream American culture.

A judge agreed and ruled that schools could not segregate based on national origin or because of Mexican descent.

Thanks to the Mendez v Westminster case, an indirect legal precedent was set that impacted the now famous Brown v. Board of Education ruling in 1954 that ruled segregation, practiced throughout the country’s public schools, was illegal.

The stamp honoring the 60th anniversary of this momentous milestone for Latino civil rights was created by Mexican artist Rafael Lopez. Lopez adapted the famous Mexican style of mural painting to depict an image that mixes the past with one striving for the future. It’s an ideal that hasn’t gone out of style.

The stamps are available online or at your local post office.

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