Sylvia Mendez (SM) and Sandra Mendez Duran (SD)

SM: I remember being in court every day. They would dress us up really nice (giggles) and we’d be there sitting very quietly, not really understanding what was going on. And it wasn’t ‘til I was ten years old that I really discovered what they were fighting. And I remember this so vividly. I go to school and the school bell rings and we go out to play and this little white boy comes up and he says, ”What are you doing here? You don’t belong in this school. They shouldn’t have Mexicans here.” And I started crying cause I’ve always been that way (chuckle).

So I go home and tell my mother, “I don’t want to be in that school.” And she says, ”Don’t you realize that this is what we fought for? Of course you’re going to stay in that school and prove that you’re just as good as he is.”

When did you first learn of the suit?

SD: I was in college and I happened to be assigned a book called North from Mexico. Studying, I just opened the book and I saw “Mendez.” And when I read my dad’s name, Gonzalo Mendez, I knew it couldn’t be a coincidence. And then I start reading the story and I’m awed by it. And I called my mother and I said, ”I’m reading this book and it’s talking about this case and it’s got Sylvia’s name in it.” And my mom said, ”Oh yeah, that was us. We did that.” When I asked, ”Why didn’t you tell me?”

She said that nobody wanted to hear about it. Some people would accuse them of bragging, so they decided not to talk about it. And I took the book to the professor and I said, ”This is my mom and dad.”

And I so wanted him to be excited and he looked at me and said, ”Oh, really?”

That was it. Here he was a Chicanos Studies professor and he didn’t care about it. But, to me it was something amazing. Here I was a piece of history and just discovering this story, it was like discovering gold.