Separate is never equal is about Sylvia and her family moving to a new area in 1944. When they went to enroll in public school, they were turned away and told that they must go to "Mexican School". Sylvia's family pushes to have schools desegregated arguing that they should be able to go to other schools, they were being deprived, and the rationale behind the segregation was not legit. Eventually, the judge sided with the Mendez family. There was a lot of push back but they won the case, even after it was appealed.
I was not a fan of the illustrations in this book but they display a powerful meaning. In one of the pictures, there is a sign at a park that says "NO DOGS OR MEXICANS ALLOWED-PUBLIC POOL" and in the picture, you can see the Hispanic kids watching the white kids play on the park from behind a fence. The author is suggesting that Hispanics were in comparison to dogs, as they were both restricted from the park.
In the author's note, the author compares the Mendez case to the popular Brown v. Board case. Many have heard of the Brown v. Board case but not many have heard of the Mendez case. The author continues to discuss how black and Hispanic kids are more likely to live in an impoverished location, therefore, their education is still being deprived due to lack of funding and inexperienced teachers. The accuracy of that is debatable, considering schools with poverty usually get more funding, due to the percentage of free and reduced lunches (at least in North Carolina).
I enjoyed the historical aspect of this book. This was a case that I was unfamiliar with when it was such a drastic change in the school systems. In the author's note, the author explains the court case and shows real pictures of the Mendez Family.
The author and illustrator, Duncan Tonatuih was born in Mexico City and grew up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He writes from his own perspective, as a Mexican- American.
Can I Touch Your Hair? is a series of poems written about certain things, one written from a white perspective and the other from black. Irene Latham is white and Charles Waters in black. They are able to write together and express each point of view for the reader. The side-by-side comparison makes it easy for the reader to see many differences between the two races. The two worlds are so different, yet the same in so many ways. This book is really a refreshing twist on how certain circumstances shape one's life.
Latham, I., & Waters, C. (2018). Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship. S.l.: Oneworld Publications.
Marshall, Elizabeth. “Counter-Storytelling through Graphic Life Writing.” Language Arts , vol. 94, no. 2, Nov. 2016, pp. 79–93.
Tonatiuh, D. (2014). Separate is never equal: Sylvia Mendez & her familys fight for desegregation. New York: Abrams Books for Young Readers.
Smith-Buster, E. (2016) Social Justice Literature and Writing: The Case for Widening Our Mentor Texts. Language Arts. Volume 94, Number 2. 108-111.