The Kids Who Got 'The Mexican Repatriation' of the 1930s Into California Textbooks


In the 1930s, about one million Mexican and Mexican-Americans, who were born in the U.S., were forcibly removed from the U.S. under the presidency of Herbert Hoover. Its called the “Mexican Repatriation.” A class in Bell Gardens elementary learned about it almost by accident. They wanted a formal federal apology and applied to the California “ought to be a law” contest. They testified in front of the California assembly. The governor of California signed a law that encourages courses in history books to include the Mexican repatriation.

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