SYLVIA HAD ON HER BLACK SHOES They were shiny new Her hair was perfectly parted in two long trenzas It was her first day at the Westminster school The halls were crowded with students She was looking for her locker when a young white boy pointed at her and yelled Go back to the Mexican school You don't belong
For the rest of the day Sylvia did not speak or introduce herself in her classes She kept her head down when walking in the halls When she got home that afternoon she told her mom Felicitas what had happened I don t want to go to that school anymore The kids are mean Sylvia said her mother iNo sabes que por eso luchamos Don t you know that is why we fought C UNO
OO OO
Three years earlier in the summer of 1944 Sylvia and her brothers Jerome and Gonzalo Jr and their parents had moved from the crowded city of Santa Ana California to a farm in nearby Westminster Her father Gonzalo Mendez had labored for years as a field worker picking grapes and oranges Now he was leasing a farm He was going to be the boss On their new farm they were going to grow asparagus chilies and
