By Bradley Zint

City of Westminster officials have officially broken ground on a new park and monument dedicated to the memory of the Mendez family, whose landmark case ended segregation in California public schools and paved the way for school desegregation throughout America.

Due to COVID-19 safety concerns, the groundbreaking ceremony for the Mendez Tribute Monument Park was pre-recorded and posted online on Tuesday, Oct. 13. Officials expect that the park, located across from the fire station at Westminster Boulevard and Olive Street in what’s now an empty lot, will be completed by Fall 2021.

In the 17-minute video, Councilman Sergio Contreras said the park will “solidify Westminster’s role in civil rights history” and serve as a reminder that all people deserve the right to a quality education.

“Because it is through knowledge of our history that we can avoid repeating the mistakes of the past,” he added.

Mendez v. Westminster, which preceded the more well-known 1954 Brown v. Board of Education U.S. Supreme Court decision, started in the 1940s when Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez wanted to send their children to 17th Street School, which was designated for white children. But the Mendez family, who were Westminster residents and U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent, were denied and instructed to send their kids to the nearby “Mexican school,” Hoover Elementary.

The denial led the Mendezes and other Mexican American families to challenge the segregation in court. By 1947, a U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision ruled in favor of the families, which helped end segregation of California schools.

The case helped pave the way for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, but then went largely unnoticed until more recently thanks to the civil-rights activism of Sylvia Mendez, one of the Mendez children. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

The Mendez Tribute Monument Park will feature statues of students holding books. They symbolize the 5,000 children represented in the Mendez class-action lawsuit.

Statues of Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez are also planned. Sculptor Ignacio Gomez was commissioned for the project, which was awarded a $1.29 million state grant earlier this year.

A wall running along the side of the park will contain interpretive panels, some of which can be experienced using augmented reality software on smartphones. Audio presentations will also be available in English, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Dr. Jeff Hittenberger, chief academic officer of the Orange County Department of Education, which partnered with the city on the park, noted that the space will be just one opportunity to explore the history of Mendez v. Westminster. Visitors will also be able to see the sites where the 17th Street and Hoover schools were located.

“It will be just the beginning of their exploration of Orange County history and of the Mendez case,” HIttenberger said.

He added that the shovel used for the groundbreaking was used on the Munemitsu family farm, where the Mendez family lived in the 1940s.

Adolfo Ozaeta, Westminster’s transportation manager and interim assistant to the city manager, said the park has a personal significance to him. He credited the “courageous struggle” of Mendez v. Westminster toward helping give him educational opportunities.

“Particularly for the City of Westminster, I think the park is going to be a source of community pride,” Ozaeta said. “The idea that someone from Westminster changed the world is a very powerful reality.”

Dr. Al Mijares, Orange County superintendent of schools, echoed Ozaeta’s sentiment.

“It is profound in the sense that all of us today live more equal lives and have better opportunities,” he said, adding that the Mendez park’s principles will weave themselves “right into the classroom at the fore of the instructional program.”

Westminster Mayor Tri Ta and his City Council colleagues called the park a story about “all of us.”

“The Mendez v. Westminster decision changed life in Orange County,” Ta said. “It profoundly changed the United States.”

Sylvia Mendez said she is particularly happy that the park will honor the work of her father, Gonzalo, who died in 1964 and went unrecognized for his contributions even decades after his death.

“It’s going to be a lesson for whoever goes and sees it,” Mendez said. “The monument is going to stand for justice and education.”