Amy's Historical Fiction Blog

The book I chose for Historical Fiction called Separate is Never Equal. It is written and illustrated by Duncan Tonatiuh. This story is about little girl, Sylvia didn't like her school because everybody tease her for being Mexican. Sylvia explained her experiences about seeing her family fought for their children to be in same school with whites. In 1944, Sylvia and her family moved to Santa Ana, California. She tried to enroll for the public school on 17th Street. The school refused to let them enroll because they are Mexican. They told her to enroll in Mexican School. So they enroll in Hoover Elementary which is known as Mexican school. the building was a dirty shack and students had to eat outside with flies around. They also don't have playground. Her parent got upset because the school is not teaching them anything so they decided to fight. They tried to ask for help but nobody would because they are in fear for their job/life. Later on, They finally hired a lawyer, David Marcus. on March 2, 1945 they finally filed a lawsuit against that school. they went to the court and won the case. However the school decided to appeal again. Sylvia and her family won the case again. Now, Sylvia can go to that school. Sylvia felt that she should be proud of what her parent did for her and that she should ignore those who tease her. In the end, she made a new friends from different background. 

I recognized the book genre as an historical fiction because of the setting was set in about 1800-1900s. It is based on segregation which is famously known as in history. 

I think this book include all of the six elements of social justice. As for self-love and knowledge, it is important for us to learn to embrace our culture, our race and to love ourself for it. For respecting others, it showed how we can respect for their diversity and how to show our kindness and empathy for their experiences of being segregation. This is a great example of social injustice, they discriminate Mexicans and refused to allow them in school with whites. That showed the history of racism and oppression. And the fourth element, is social movement and social change. The book show how they address to the racism. Sylvia's family gather other families to unite and fight for their own justice. As for the Awareness Raising, the book raise awareness about Mexicans' experiences of being segregation also, it is not just blacks that is only going through those kind of oppression. Lastly, Social Action, Sylvia's family did something about it, they fought for their children's rights and they won and that helped change the segregation. 

This is a great book to use in classroom to discuss about segregation. Especially when it is about Mexicans and whites because not often of this will be talked about in school. It will help black students to recognized that they are not alone in this situation. The activities can be children drawing about what they know or learn about segregation and do the gallery walk.