David-James Gonzales is a professor of history at Brigham Young University, a native Southern Californian, and the author of Breaking Down the Walls of Segregation: Mexican American Grassroots Politics and Civil Rights in Orange County, California (Oxford University Press, 2025).
Breaking Down the Walls of Segregation tells the story of how ethnic Mexicans in Orange County, CA built the unprecedented movement that led to the Mendez, et al. v. Westminster School District of Orange County, et al. (1946) decision. Beginning in the 1880s, Dr. Gonzales details the social and economic history of Orange County, explaining how citrus capitalists established the walls of segregation to manage ethnic Mexican family labor. By the early 1930s, ethnic Mexicans were segregated into over fifty underserved colonias and barrios. Without training or support from national civil rights organizations, they mobilized against segregation and inequality beginning in the late 1920s. This movement, comprised of immigrants, citizens, parents, children, emerging activists, and their non-Mexican allies, paved the way for the growth of the larger Chicano/Latino Civil Rights Movement. As an essential part of the "long civil rights movement," the ethnic Mexican struggle against segregation in Orange County illustrates how minoritized groups have historically pushed US social, economic, and political institutions to live up to the nation's founding ideals.
Dr. Gonzales will share experiences and lessons learned while researching and writing the book and why the history of ethnic Mexicans and Latinos in Orange County matter to the rest of the nation. He will also engage with the audience through Q&A. Copies of the book will be available for purchase and signature
