About this item
Almost ten years before Brown vs. Board of Education, Sylvia Mendez and her parents helped end school segregation in California. An American citizen of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage who spoke and wrote perfect English, Mendez was denied enrollment to a Whites only school. Her parents took action by organizing the Hispanic community and filing a lawsuit in federal district court. Their success eventually brought an end to the era of segregated education in California.
About the Author
I was born in Mexico City and grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. I received my BFA from Parsons School of Design and my BA from Eugene Lang College, both of them divisions of the New School University in New York City. My first picture book "Dear Primo, a letter to my cousin" is published by H N Abrams and will be in stores March 1st, 2010. My illustrations of the AH1N1 in Mexico were selected to be a part of CONACULTA's catalog of Mexican illustrators for children and young adults. They also appeared in the BBC when the pandemic broke out. My short graphic novel Journey of a Mixteco was awarded the prize for the best thesis in the Integrated Design Curriculum department at Parsons. It appeared serially in the webcomix site topshelfcomix 2.0I'm currently working on two new picture books. And I regularly upload new illustrations about current events to my blog.
