We moved into a town in the early 1900’s where the people, the adults and kids my age had a bad word for anyone who was not them. There was a bad word for every one in the melting pot I knew as Oxnard. Prejudice, bigotry and discrimination glowed without embarrassment or shame in every face of the Anglo people. I am not sure about why it is like that. It goes on still, it hasn’t stopped through the years.
This was the land of the Chumash. They were here, in the One World generations before any European set foot on this great continent.
The Spanish speaking people were here in California generations before the English speaking people even knew we were here.
My family and I were given no respect. They refused to sell or rent homes except in the area from 6th. Street to Wooley Road and on B street south of 6th. Street and east to the railroad tracks. This area was called Shantytown. The Mexicanos lived on the other side of the tracks in the neighborhood called La Colonia.