'Mexicans Had the Same Privileges and Rights as Dogs'

John Raul Gutiérrez
Gillette, Wyoming

As a first-generation, Mexican American kid in Wyoming during the 1950s and 1960s, I lived in a small town where Mexicans had the same privileges and rights as dogs. Growing up, I frequently encountered signs posted on the local businesses that read, "No Mexicans or Dogs Allowed." Posted signs of this nature made me feel that being of Mexican descent wasn't any better than being a mongrel that nobody wanted.

During my most impressionable years, I had a sixth-grade teacher who made no effort to hide her dislike of Mexican kids. She fostered an environment within her classroom that was not healthy or safe for Mexican American children. To her, educating a Mexican American consisted of promoting him or her whether they learned anything or not. During my final years of high school, there were local businesses where the custom of not serving Mexicans was done discreetly. I experienced not being served at restaurants, being refused entry into a barbershop, being taken in and searched by the police without cause, being frowned upon by business employees for not sitting in the customary locations or for coming into their establishments, and being called names by students and other local citizens.

"There were local businesses where the custom of not serving Mexicans was done discretely."

On several occasions, I heard racial remarks made about my parents and family members. In regard to housing, I was refused an apartment because, as a white man explained to me, Mexicans smelled differently, and once they lived there it was impossible to clean and rent the apartment to a white person.

Rather than leave his home state, John Raul Gutiérrez stayed in small-town Wyoming, became a high school teacher, and taught his students not to accept the racial prejudices passed down to them. Recently, Gutiérrez, 60, retired from teaching after 31 years. He has been awarded a writer's grant to collect Mexican legends and folk stories.