The Visit in Orange County

A short story about Maria. A Mexican girl living in Orange County California in 1947

 NOTE: Since Spanish is my main character’s native language, her thoughts, dreams, and most of her conversations would be in Spanish. Every bold line of dialogue is meant to be written in Spanish, however, I kept everything mostly in English for people to easily understand what was going on. For reference, “Mija” is an endearing term for a daughter, it’s used frequently in the story.

 Here is a link to the story
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1cqPzMQSCsvGNXcIA6KiWEBOvwKJth-NeBJpMKTgwbFg/edit?usp=sharing

Comments

  1. Ethan AshbrookMay 15, 2020 at 12:55 PM

    This is a really cool idea! Given how widespread and universally acclaimed Brown v. Board is, I never imagined that there was a precursor to it like this. Especially with all of the details you have running throughout the story hinting at the court cases to come, it really sets up that preface for historic progress. It makes me want to keep reading about what would have happened if your story continued on. Anyway, this was a cool take on history that I didn't know about as a White™ person. I really enjoyed reading it!

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  2. Pomona Carrington HoekstraMay 15, 2020 at 6:52 PM

    This is a great story! I didn't pick up on the foreshadowing until quite a ways through the story, but when I did, I'll admit I was confused because I couldn't figure out what impact any of these events would have on Brown v Board... It's striking, like Ethan said, that there was this whole other case that paved the road to Brown v Board but isn't taught in schools like Brown v Board is.

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  3. Zachary's History as Fiction BlogMay 21, 2020 at 6:46 PM

    Super interesting how 99.5% of schools do not teach Mendez v Westminster. Its all Brown v Board, where the "right" decisions is made that gets marked down in the history we speak. In most history classes you get the "America is Great" "We changed to become better" narrative, not the "7 years before we were messed up" narrative.

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  4. Grace JuhnMay 22, 2020 at 12:56 PM

    WOAHHH the ending is so cool, I'm so happy to finally see the entire storyline! I was surprised to hear about a court case that impacted a lot of people, yet we never learn it here. I wonder why they don't even mention the case in our education systems. It was nice to see Maria's thought process and how she understood specific interactions.

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  5. Nil PatelMay 24, 2020 at 4:20 PM

    It's crazy how I'm a junior in high school and still noone has ever even mentioned Mendez vs Westminster. I also really loved all the little details and descriptions when talking about Maria's home and school life. Overall, I really liked this story and thought it was really engaging.

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