Family Values
Why we cannot go back
These are my amazing grandparents, Cruz and Refugio (Ruth) Barrios.
They were hardworking entrepreneurs who built a business in Santa Ana, California, the Barrios Market. It was a successful and popular gathering place for residents from all over the area, particularly the Latino community, which was experiencing horrible racism and segregation.
The Barrios’ were known for providing credit to other Mexican families when no one else would. They rented projectors and showed movies on the side of their building for the community to enjoy when theaters (like what is now the Sonlight Christian Church in Orange) discriminated against Mexicans, either denying them entry or requiring them to sit in the balcony, away from white patrons. When they took the occasional day off, the Barrios’ would picnic in Hart Park, where the city’s public pool, The Plunge, was also segregated. Mexicans were only allowed to swim one day a week - the day before its weekly draining and cleaning.
In the 1950s, when a local family came to my grandfather about their children being forced to attend a segregated “Mexican” school, my grandparents did not hesitate to take action. The Barrios Market quickly became ground zero for urgent community meetings and late-night strategy sessions. My aunt recalls emptying endless ashtrays and fetching drinks for those in attendance as they set a plan into action. My grandparents hosted neighborhood music nights, pancake breakfasts, and community BBQs to raise money and help fund the legal talent required to fight this dark, dehumanizing practice in Orange County.
My grandfather helped found Santa Ana LULAC, the first chapter in California, to build a bigger support network. He tirelessly attended city council meetings and school board sessions to speak out against the injustices perpetrated against others in his community. He didn't have to do it; he was a successful business owner with the ability to send his children to private school. He did it because it was 100% the right thing to do.
One family brought another, and together they became a force. Pulling together plaintiffs who had previously fought alone, multiple lawsuits became a class action that changed public education nationwide. The fundraising enabled the hiring of a dynamo Jewish lawyer from Los Angeles to file in state court. Coming from Westminster, Garden Grove, El Modena (Orange), and Santa Ana, these brave families fought back in what became known as Mendez vs. Westminster, et. al., the groundbreaking school desegregation civil rights case that set the precedent for Brown vs. Board of Education almost a decade later.
In the aftermath of their victory, segregated schools in OC and throughout the state closed down for good. Thurgood Marshall came to the Golden State to confer with the LA legal team and learn how they had done this momentous thing. Earl J. Warren, California’s Governor during the Mendez case, was later nominated to the US Supreme Court and became its leader. And my grandparents? They returned to being humble storeowners with, I like to think, a quiet pride in their step and the beginning of a family legacy that sadly my grandfather would never live to see.
These humble, amazing people would pave the way for the next generation, which would be filled with artists, musicians, entrepreneurs, educators, public servants, scientists, and more. Years later, my father would become the first Latino elected to the Orange Unified School Board. In due time, I would be only the second Latina to ever serve on the Rancho Santiago Community College Board and the first Latina ever elected to the Orange City Council.
So, when people ask why I am so passionate about what’s happening now in America, why I raise my voice, why I get so involved? Because it’s personal. Deeply, deeply personal and 100% the right thing to do. We are NEVER, EVER going back.