When we published my cover story last year about the Ramirez family–whose patriarch, Lorenzo (pictured at right, on the left) was a plaintiff in the historic Mendez, et al v. Westminster, et al, and whose children and wife feel snubbed by the woman who has appointed herself keeper of the case's flame–I never imagined it would've led to a complete shunning of me by Sandra Robbie, the woman who travels around the country and tells the tale, but usually focusing on the Mendez family and reducing the others (there were five families, in total) to a one-minute mention, of that. She used to keep me abreast of all Mendez, et al's going-ons in bigger and more prominent locales–not anymore!
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Behold, an invite for a fundraiser tonight at the Museum of Tolerance. Notice Robbie getting pulled kicking and screaming into referring to the case by its full, real name, yet insisting on still focusing on the Mendez clan, as they are the ones who have most aligned themselves with Robbie's vision of a segregation-studies institute/museum at her employer, Chapman University.
I, of course, didn't get an invite, nor did most of the people involved with documenting Orange County's Latino history, all of whom have their own shunning tale with Robbie–but those are chismes for another time…
