View source for Maestas vs. George H. Shone

{{short description|1914 U.S. lawsuit against educational segregation}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2020}}
{{Italic title}}
{{Infobox court case
|name               = ''Francisco Maestas et al. v. George H. Shone et al.''
|court              = Alamosa Case No. 6
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|date decided       =  {{start date|1914|04|17|df=}}
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'''''Francisco Maestas et al. vs. George H. Shone et al.''''' was a school desegregation case in Colorado involving Latino children in the early 20th Century.<ref name="lobato">{{cite news |title=School lawsuit from 1914 remembered |url= https://www.alamosanews.com/article/school-lawsuit-from-1914-remembered |work=Alamosa News |publisher=News Media Corporation |date=2018-05-12 | first = Sylvia | last = Lobato |access-date=2018-09-09}}</ref> Filed in the [[Colorado district courts|Colorado district court]], 12th district, in 1912 by Francisco Maestas against the Alamosa School District Superintendent and Board of Education in 1913, the case precedes ''[[Del Rio ISD v. Salvatierra]]'' by sixteen years, ''Alvarez v. Lemon Grove'' by seventeen years and ''[[Mendez v. Westminster]]'' by thirty-three years. The court ruled in favor of Maestas and the other Latino families.
Though quickly forgotten afterward, it is considered one of the earliest known court victories involving Latinos against [[School segregation in the United States|educational segregation]].<ref name="Donato"/>
==Background==
[[File:Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Alamosa, Alamosa County, Colorado. LOC sanborn00947 007-9.jpg |thumb|1912 map of Alamosa; the "Mexican Public School" is visible at left (west), on the corner of 9th and Ross. To the east of the school are "Mexican Dwellings" with dirt roofs. The Maestas children had to approach the school from the north, crossing the railway lines visible at the top (north) of the map.]]
Francisco Maestas, his wife Margaret, and their children Miguel and Josie, lived at 117 Ross Avenue in [[Alamosa, Colorado]].<ref>[[1910 United States Census]]</ref> Maestas worked as a [[Railroad track foreman|foreman]] for the [[Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad|Denver & Rio Grande Railroad]].<ref name="lobato"/> This required the younger Maestas to cross active [[Track (rail transport)|railroad tracks]], to attend the "Mexican Preparatory School," located at Ninth Street and Ross Avenue,<ref>Now the site of Zapata Park</ref> something his railroad worker father thought was dangerous.<ref name="lobato"/> In September 1913, Maestas tried to enroll his son at the school closer to his home, the North Side School, located at Bell Avenue and Main Street.<ref>Now the site of [[Trinidad State Junior College (Alamosa)|Trinidad State Junior College]]</ref><ref name="lobato"/><ref name="mckinney">{{cite journal | url = https://www.sangreheritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/McKinneys-Directory-notation-re-Meixcan-School.pdf | journal = McKinney's Directory | title = Alamosa and Conejos County Directory, 1913-1914 | quote = Notation regarding Mexican Preparatory School  |access-date = 2020-02-29 }}</ref> The request was refused and he was told that ten-year-old Miguel had to attend the "Mexican School."<ref name="chalkbeat"/>
In 1909, the Alamosa district built the Mexican Preparatory School (aka Mexican School) to serve the large number of [[Mexican American]] families that had moved to the Alamosa and the [[San Luis Valley]] because of work on the railroad.<ref name="chalkbeat">{{cite news |title= Mexican Americans in southern Colorado fought one of the nation's early school desegregation battles |url= https://chalkbeat.org/posts/co/2020/02/24/maestas-case-mexican-americans-fight-early-school-desegregation-battle |work= [[Chalkbeat]] |publisher=News Media Corporation |date=2020-02-24 | first = Sylvia | last = Meltzer  |access-date=2020-04-08 }}</ref> In 1912, the school district mandated that all Mexican American children attend the school to prepare them to join the high school as English speakers. Many of the families were "[[Hispanos of New Mexico|Hispanos]]," descended of families that had lived in the area from the time of the initial Spanish settlements.<ref>{{cite book|last=Nostrand|first=Richard L. |title=The Hispano Homeland|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zlvElL6-WK4C&pg=PA135|year=1996|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=0-8061-2889-5 | quote=[[Hispano Homeland]]}}</ref> They were [[United States citizens]] and could speak English.<ref name="alamosa20190510">{{cite news |title=Landmark desegregation case on education commemorated during Cinco de Mayo |url= https://alamosanews.com/article/landmark-desegregation-case-on-education-commemorated-during-cinco-de-mayo | work= Alamosa News |publisher=News Media Corporation |date=2019-05-10  |access-date=2020-04-08}}</ref>
The school district divided the city's children as "Mexican" and "American", in spite of their language ability. Because of this, Maestas and other members of the Mexican-American community filed a discrimination lawsuit, aided by the [[Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Denver]] and the Sociedad Protectiva de Trabajadores Unidos (SPMDTU).<ref name="Donato">{{cite journal | title = Francisco Maestas et al. v. George H. Shone et al: Mexican American Resistance to School Segregation in the Hispano Homeland, 1912–1914 | last1 = Donato | first1 = Ruben | last2 = Guzmán | first2 = Gonzalo | last3 = Hanson | first3 = Jarrod | journal =  Journal of Latinos and Education | volume = 16 | issue = 1 | pages = 3–17 | year = 2017| doi = 10.1080/15348431.2016.1179190 | s2cid = 151545402 }}</ref> To protest the disparate treatment, Mexican-American parents pulled their children out of school.<ref name="alamosa20190510"/>
==District court decision==
District Court judge Charles C. Holbrook presided over the case. In March 1914, a ruling of unlawful race prejudice was delivered. Holbrook ordered the school board and superintendent "to admit the children to the public school most convenient to their homes." Holbrook further ruled that "in the opinion of the court... the only way to destroy this feeling of discontent and bitterness which has recently grown up, is to allow all children so prepared, to attend the school nearest them."<ref name="alamosa20190510"/>
==See also==
* [[Del Rio ISD v. Salvatierra]]
* [[Clark v. Board of School Directors]]
* [[Lemon Grove Incident]]
* [[Mendez v. Westminster]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
==Further reading==
* {{cite news | url = https://www.sangreheritage.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Alamosa-Independent-Journal-Feb.-9-1912.pdf |  title = A case has been filed ... | work = Alamosa Independent | date = 1912-02-09 |access-date = 2020-02-29 }}
*{{cite book | work = Critical Readings on Latinos and Education | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=TvODDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA123 |   editor1-first = Enrique G | editor1-last = Murillo | publisher = Routledge | date = 2019-01-14 | isbn = 9780429021206 | doi =  10.4324/9780429021206-9 | page = 123 | title = Francisco Maestas et al. v. George H. Shone et al: Mexican American Resistance to School Segregation in the Hispano Homeland, 1912–1914 | last1 = Donato | first1 = Ruben | last2 = Guzmán | first2 = Gonzalo | last3 = Hanson | first3 = Jarrod |s2cid = 223598176}}
* {{cite web | url = http://leg.colorado.gov/bills/sjr20-016 | access-date = 2020-04-08 | title = Maestas Desegregation Case | work = Colorado General Assembly | quote= SJR20-016 | author = Senator Julie Gonzales | author2 = Senator Robert Rodriguez | author3 = Representative Donald Valdez}}
==External links==
* {{cite news |title=Colorado A.G. addresses Democratic Maestas dinner |url= https://alamosanews.com/article/colorado-ag-addresses-democratic-maestas-dinner |work=Alamosa News |publisher=News Media Corporation |date=2019-07-31  |access-date=2019-08-03}}
* {{cite web| url = https://www.google.com/maps/place/117+Ross+Ave,+Alamosa,+CO+81101/@37.4718119,-105.8726185,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x87167c0bf489a9cb:0xa3e7a5d15ce6fe7c!8m2!3d37.4718119!4d-105.8704298 | title = Map of 117 Ross Ave, Alamosa, CO 81101| work = Google Maps}}
* {{cite web | url = https://www.sangreheritage.org/historic-peoples-and-places | title = The Maestas Case | work = Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area  |access-date = 2020-04-18}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Maestas V. Shone}}
[[Category:1914 in education]]
[[Category:1914 in Colorado]]
[[Category:20th-century American trials]]
[[Category:Civil rights movement case law]]
[[Category:Legal history of Colorado]]
[[Category:Public education in Colorado]]
[[Category:School segregation in the United States]]
[[Category:United States school desegregation case law]]
[[Category:Trials in Colorado]]