Non-Fiction Books:

Center, Colorado

Su Voto Cuenta!
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Hardback
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Description

Decades of economic subjugation. Overt voter suppression. A history of Ku Klux Klan harassment going back to the early 20th Century. Education denied based on skin color or ethnicity. Governing boards in the grip of white businesses. A culture relegated to second-class citizenship by government-sanctioned decree. Yet a people so resilient, so committed to family and to community that they have claimed their place at the decision-making tables of their town. Thinking Mississippi? Georgia? South Carolina? Think again. Meet the mejicano people of Center, Colorado. THi is out story, specifically the story of fifteen intense years of action (1970-1985) in which mejicanos claimed their right to forge their own destiny. The Colorado town of Center was founded early in the 1900s as an "Anglo town" focused on farming for profit. Shortly thereafter mejicanos, villagers from northern New Mexico, came to the town willing to work to sustain their families. The very land on which Center was built had already been stolen from other mejicano land grantees by Congressional action while similarly sanctioned land grabbing had displaced the mejicanos who moved to Center. Native-born U.S. citizens, yet consistently denied the full rights of U.S. citizenship, their roots went back more than ten generations in the geographic area. Through community action, the ballot box, and legal action, they made their voices heard. Together they faced down the racial prejudice of an Anglo establishment - their employers - who believed the Town was theirs. Our story, told from the inside by two citizen-activists who helped to shape Center's history, details intense actions mejicanos courageously and passionately took to meet the injustice. It tells of the frustrations and disappointments as well as the progress and victories of a people who did not initially have political power but who nonetheless found a way to dismantle the unjust structures that perpetuated racism.

Author Biography:

Shelley Wittevrongel, formerly Sr. Michelle of the Catholic Sisters of Divine Providence, was part of a small community of sisters who lived in Center from 1970 to 1988. She worked with Saguache County Community Council as an activist throughout those years. In 1986, she moved away from Center after leaving the order and graduated from Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, MN (1991). She returned to Colorado and established an immigration law practice in Boulder but has remained deeply involved with Center's mejicano community. Jennie M. Sanchez, from a family that moved to Center from northern New Mexico in the early twentieth century, has lived in the community all her life, with the exception of one year. As a small child, she learned dignity and equality from her elders. She learned clarity about injustice from her grandfather and the resolaneros who reflected together to understand what was happening to their people in a town where they were second class citizens. Jennie and her husband Ulysses were among the first mejicanos to demand equal treatment in the 1950s and 60s, and she continued to play a leading role in all the civil rights work described in this book.
Release date Australia
September 9th, 2017
Audience
  • General (US: Trade)
Illustrations
46 illustrations
Pages
398
Dimensions
152x229x22
ISBN-13
9780997680928
Product ID
27239810

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