To Hon. L. A. Woods, From Alonso S. Perales, Attorney for Hondo Council 1 No. 37 of The League of United Latin American Citizens, Feb. 18, 1938.
Item
Dublin Core
Title
To Hon. L. A. Woods, From Alonso S. Perales, Attorney for Hondo Council 1 No. 37 of The League of United Latin American Citizens, Feb. 18, 1938.
Subject
DISCRIMINATION in education
DISCRIMINATION against Latin Americans
WORLD politics
PERALES, Alonso S., 1898-1960
LETTERS
LEAGUE of United Latin American Citizens
Description
Letter from Alonso S. Perales to L.A.Woods. The letter is in regard to the Honda School Boards demotion of Latin American school children demoted from the fifth grade to the fourth grade to prevent the childrens eligibility into the main school.
Creator
Perales, Alonso S.
Source
Date
1938-02-18
Rights
Content compilation of The Latino/Hispanic American Experience Leaders, Writers and Thinkers copyright 2012 by Arte Publico Historical Collections. All rights reserved.
Format
JPEG
Language
English
Type
Text
Identifier
pera0041
Coverage
HONDO (Tex.)
Scripto
Transcription
Feb. 18, 1938.
Hon. L.A. Woods,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Austin, Texas
My dear Dr. Woods:
On June 25, 1937 I wrote you for the first time with reference to the desire of the Latin American citizens of Hondo, Texas to secure adequate school facilities for the children of Mexican extraction of that District. You answered this and other letters with reference to the same subject and send me a copy of a letter addressed by you to Dr. H.J. Meyers, President of the Hondo School Board, under date of September 1st 1937, for all of which courtesies we thank you sincerely.
Since that time your Representatives Mr. John Olsen and Mrs. P.E. Dickinson have conferred and communicated with the said School Board and their Superintendent Mr. J. Gordon Barry, and all we have gotten in the way of school facilities for said children has been the placing of eleven children from the Latin American school in grades five, six and seven in the main school; not, however, without the Hondo School Board making the Latin American citizenry of Hondo pay a rather dear price for this concession, as several Latin American children were demoted from the fifth to the fourth grade in order to prevent their being eligible for admission to the main school. The School Board is at liberty, of course, to adduce all the pedagogical arguments they may care to in support of their action, but to us Latin Americans it was just smart strategy on their part to have as few Latin American children as possible attend the main school. The next and only other thing we have gotten has been the repeated promise of the Hondo School Board to erect a modern and well-equipped primary building for the Latin American children, a promise which, by the way, is over a year old; this, nothwithstanding that in your letter of September 1st 1937 to Dr. J. H. Meyer you stated to him:
"You and your Board are under obligations to give all the children
within the confines of your school district equal educational
opportunities, and I shall expect a letter from you immediately stating
that the relief for the Mexican children is being given -- not next year,
but for the scholastic year."
I am enclosing copies of letters exchanged by the writer with your Representative Mrs. P.E. Dickinson, which are self-explanatory. From in the "Promise Stage", and it seems that the Hondo School Board just simply will not do any more.
Hon. L.A. Woods,
State Superintendent of Public Instruction,
Austin, Texas
My dear Dr. Woods:
On June 25, 1937 I wrote you for the first time with reference to the desire of the Latin American citizens of Hondo, Texas to secure adequate school facilities for the children of Mexican extraction of that District. You answered this and other letters with reference to the same subject and send me a copy of a letter addressed by you to Dr. H.J. Meyers, President of the Hondo School Board, under date of September 1st 1937, for all of which courtesies we thank you sincerely.
Since that time your Representatives Mr. John Olsen and Mrs. P.E. Dickinson have conferred and communicated with the said School Board and their Superintendent Mr. J. Gordon Barry, and all we have gotten in the way of school facilities for said children has been the placing of eleven children from the Latin American school in grades five, six and seven in the main school; not, however, without the Hondo School Board making the Latin American citizenry of Hondo pay a rather dear price for this concession, as several Latin American children were demoted from the fifth to the fourth grade in order to prevent their being eligible for admission to the main school. The School Board is at liberty, of course, to adduce all the pedagogical arguments they may care to in support of their action, but to us Latin Americans it was just smart strategy on their part to have as few Latin American children as possible attend the main school. The next and only other thing we have gotten has been the repeated promise of the Hondo School Board to erect a modern and well-equipped primary building for the Latin American children, a promise which, by the way, is over a year old; this, nothwithstanding that in your letter of September 1st 1937 to Dr. J. H. Meyer you stated to him:
"You and your Board are under obligations to give all the children
within the confines of your school district equal educational
opportunities, and I shall expect a letter from you immediately stating
that the relief for the Mexican children is being given -- not next year,
but for the scholastic year."
I am enclosing copies of letters exchanged by the writer with your Representative Mrs. P.E. Dickinson, which are self-explanatory. From in the "Promise Stage", and it seems that the Hondo School Board just simply will not do any more.
Collection
Citation
Perales, Alonso S., “To Hon. L. A. Woods, From Alonso S. Perales, Attorney for Hondo Council 1 No. 37 of The League of United Latin American Citizens, Feb. 18, 1938.,” Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Digital Collections, accessed April 27, 2024, http://usldhrecovery.uh.edu/items/show/253.