WEBVTT - How Have Hispanic Americans Helped Shape the U.S.? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.360 Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:10.200 brain Stuff, Lauren Boglebaum. Here here in the United States, 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.480 it's Hispanic Heritage Month, but which officially began as Hispanic 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:17.960 Heritage Week in ninety eight. Unlike many other campaigns that 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.279 observe and honor the contributions of a particular group of Americans, 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.280 Hispanic Heritage Month doesn't run throughout September, but rather starts 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:29.680 on September fift and continues through mid October. So why 0:00:29.680 --> 0:00:31.880 does it start in the middle of the month. Well 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.960 of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua all 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:40.280 celebrate their Independence Day on September. Mexico's is on September, 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:45.199 Chile's September eight, and belize Independence Day is September twenty one, 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:49.800 and by stretching into October, the holiday also includes Dia 0:00:49.840 --> 0:00:52.800 de la Razza on October twelve, which is a kind 0:00:52.840 --> 0:00:56.040 of rejection of Columbus Day because of Christopher Columbus's many 0:00:56.120 --> 0:00:59.320 crimes against humanity and see our episode on Columbus Day 0:00:59.320 --> 0:01:03.080 for more about that. Dia de Larrazza instead celebrates the 0:01:03.120 --> 0:01:08.840 melding of Hispanic races or raza and cultures. In honor 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:11.640 of Hispanic Heritage Month, Let's talk about three times that 0:01:11.720 --> 0:01:14.720 Hispanic Americans have changed the course of U s history. 0:01:17.240 --> 0:01:20.360 Some three hundred years after Spanish conquerors became the first 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.399 non native Americans to view the Mississippi River and later 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:27.440 the Grand Canyon, when Josef Marian Hernandez helped smooth the 0:01:27.440 --> 0:01:31.480 transfer of the territory of Florida into US rule. Florida 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:34.000 was still part of Spain when Hernandez was born in St. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:37.280 Augustine in seventeen eighty four, but that changed when he 0:01:37.360 --> 0:01:39.560 was selected to serve in the House of Representatives and 0:01:39.680 --> 0:01:42.200 was sworn into duty in eighteen twenty three, as the 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:47.039 first Hispanic person to serve in Congress. In historical context, 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:51.400 Hernandez being a slave owner is a controversial figure. Still, 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:53.840 he remains the first of a hundred and twenty eight 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:57.320 Hispanic people to serve in the US Congress. Maybe of 0:01:57.360 --> 0:02:00.040 more relevance today is the first Hispanic senator elected to 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:06.200 a full terming Congress, New Mexico's Denis Chavez. In but 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:09.120 we spoke with Paul Orretz, a historian at the University 0:02:09.160 --> 0:02:12.800 of Florida. He said in addition to being the first 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.840 American born Hispanic senator, He's critical for the time we 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.239 live in because he fought on behalf of all working 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:22.480 class equally. He fought for higher wages legislation. He fought 0:02:22.520 --> 0:02:24.520 for people to have the right to organize a union. 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.280 He fought for more progress in US foreign policy for 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:30.400 Latin America. He organized with n double A c P 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:34.560 leaders against Jim Crow's aggregation. Dennis Chavez is one of 0:02:34.600 --> 0:02:37.120 those people. We can use Hispanic Heritage Month to talk 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:42.440 about our connection to other people's democratic struggles. Today's Congress, 0:02:42.520 --> 0:02:45.919 the U sixt has forty seven members of Hispanic heritage. 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:51.160 Hispanic Americans also helped turn the tide of the Civil War. 0:02:51.880 --> 0:02:55.120 Some twenty thousand were involved in the conflict. While some 0:02:55.280 --> 0:02:58.480 in the Southeast sided with the Confederacy, especially those who 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:01.600 came from wealthy families with plantations or other businesses. In 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:06.880 Louisiana and Alabama, more supported the Union, or it's said 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:09.880 a lot of Mexican American soldiers fought on the side 0:03:09.880 --> 0:03:12.679 of the Union Army in the Southwest and actually helped 0:03:12.720 --> 0:03:16.720 defeat the Confederacy in the Southwest. Hispanic people in the 0:03:16.800 --> 0:03:20.360 West backed the Mexican government too, and celebrated the country's 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:22.560 defeat of the French at the Battle of Puebla on 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.880 May five of eighteen sixty two, single Demio in a 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:28.680 victory that may have helped prevent the French from siding 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:32.200 with the Confederacy and thus ultimately helping the Union win. 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.400 A bit more modernly, about eight years before the U. S. 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:40.320 Supreme Court ruled in Brown versus the Board of Education 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:44.600 that segregation in public schools is unconstitutional, a Hispanic school 0:03:44.640 --> 0:03:48.360 girl showed the way. Sylvia Mendez, a Puerto Rican and 0:03:48.440 --> 0:03:51.160 Mexican heritage, was just eight years old when she and 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:54.160 her brothers were denied enrollment into the white only Westminster 0:03:54.280 --> 0:03:58.600 School District in Orange County in ninety three. At the time, 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:03.320 about eight of cow Alifornia school districts were segregated. Her parents, 0:04:03.440 --> 0:04:07.520 Gonzalo and Felicita Mendez, enlisted other parents to fight the decision, 0:04:07.880 --> 0:04:11.240 and they took the school board to court. After appeals 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:13.440 that were abandoned short of the U. S. Supreme Court, 0:04:13.840 --> 0:04:18.400 Mendez versus Westminster became the first successful federal school desegregation 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:22.920 case in the nation. That was in ninety seven. The 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:26.160 case was important in arguing that segregation itself, even if 0:04:26.200 --> 0:04:30.240 schools were separate but equal, was harmful and unconstitutional under 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.800 the Fourteenth Amendment, specifically the clause that calls for equal 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:38.200 protection of the laws for all citizens in appeals. Sylvia's 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:40.760 case was argued by third Good Marshall, who went on 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:42.960 to argue for the plaintiff in the Brown versus Board 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.240 of Education case too, and later would become a Supreme 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:52.360 Court justice. Felicitas died in but Sylvia has continued to 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.840 tell her family story. In two thousand seven, a U. S. 0:04:55.880 --> 0:04:59.080 Postage stamp marked the sixtieth anniversary of the case, and 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:03.840 on February, then President Barack Obama presented Sylvia with the 0:05:03.880 --> 0:05:11.840 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Today's episode was written by John 0:05:11.880 --> 0:05:14.400 Donovan and produced by Tyler clang Or. More on this 0:05:14.480 --> 0:05:16.760 and lots of other historic topics, visit how Stuff works 0:05:16.800 --> 0:05:19.400 dot com. Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:21.840 or more podcasts. My Heart Radio visit the I Heart 0:05:21.880 --> 0:05:24.480 Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:25.159 favorite shows.