27 Jun Discovering Forgotten Stories

This week’s research and work has made me realize that the Latino narrative has been consistently erased in a nation that values its past. From the Civil Rights movement, to the desegregation of education, to reproductive rights, there are perspectives that effect the Latino community that are not represented in the bigger picture. As I continue my work on Mendez v. Westminster, I am repeatedly reminded of the hardships and successes that my community has made. For example, everybody know Brown v. Board of Education so we must make a conscious effort to include the struggle of Latino Americans when they fought for desegregation in schools years before Brown v. Board. The answer doesn’t lie in making a completely new narrative just about Mendez; instead, we should include both perspectives when talking about school desegregation. Giving equal representation to all perspectives is the only way to ensure that none of these stories disappear. To bring awareness to other narratives that often forget about the Latino narrative, the Brown v. Board NHS is hosting two film screenings. The films, No más bebés and Precious Knowledge, focus on the battles for reproductive rights and ethnic studies, respectively. In addition to promoting the films on the site, I have reached out to the Tonantzin Society in Topeka to spread the word to the art and culture audiences of the city. We are gonna have the producer of No más bebés, Virginia Espino, for a small Q&A after the screening and a professor from Kansas University in the Spanish and Portuguese department will lead a discussion on Precious Knowledge. Please visit our event’s website to learn more about the documentaries and the events themselves.