Maestas Case: 1914 Educational Desegregation

11/26/2025

9News in Denver interviews Dr. Antonio Esquibel about the SPMDTU, the organizations historic building restoration and its connection to the Maestas Case. Started in 1900, the SPMDTU is the oldest, still active, Hispanic civil rights organization in the United States. The Maestas Case of 1912-1914 is believed to be the first successful educational desegregation lawsuit brought forth by Mexican-Americans in the US.
Watch the interview https://youtu.be/tiKGZKhFO4E?si=bs6R1S8Bi3sZ8wxE

04/02/2025

PLEASE note changes to the 24th Annual Marcha & Celebration, “Workers, Children and Families:
A March for Solidarity” event on Saturday, April 5, 2025, DENVER, COLORADO.

Due to the weather forecast, we will not be marching this year and have changed location from the Cesar Chavez Park to Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center.

8:30 AM - Mass/Misa
Regis University, Saint John Francis Chapel
3333 Regis Boulevard, Denver, CO 80221

10:30 AM - Event Opening and Program
Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center,
721 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204

***UPDATE***

PLEASE note changes to the 24th Annual Marcha & Celebration, “Workers, Children and Families:
A March for Solidarity” event on Saturday, April 5, 2025, DENVER, COLORADO.

Due to the weather forecast, we will not be marching this year and have changed location from the Cesar Chavez Park to Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center.

8:30 AM - Mass/Misa
Regis University, Saint John Francis Chapel
3333 Regis Boulevard, Denver, CO 80221

10:30 AM - Event Opening and Program
Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center,
721 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204

***

Maestas Case Committee Chair and retired 12th district judge Martín Gonzalez will be presented with the 2025 César Chávez Peace and Justice Anciano Award. The SPMDTU will be presented the 2025 César Chávez Peace and Justice Organization Award.

On April 5th the 24th Annual Marcha and Celebration will start with Mass at 8:30am at Regis University Saint John Francis Chapel followed by a march to César Chávez Park with presentations starting at 10:30 a.m.

https://www.alamosanews.com/stories/award-to-retired-judge-martn-gonzales,79238

03/31/2025

Gonzalo Guzmán will present Thursday April 3rd in Chicago at the 2025 Organization of American Historians Conference.

“This panel examines recent collaborations between academic scholars and community members to memorialize Mexican American educational history. This public recognition, which began about seven years ago, has taken place amidst a concerted effort to omit, distort, and censor the K-12 curriculum, or what Jonna Perrillo calls “a racially focused censorship campaign” that seeks to silence the complexities of our shared past. These changes to the K-12 curriculum have devastating effects for public knowledge about people of color’s contributions to U.S. history, as they locate the origins of democracy with that of white supremacy. It is within these circumstances that these three panelists and a discussant propose to address the ways their distinct archival recoveries have been taken up by local communities and transformed into public commemorations, creating a counternarrative spearheaded by academic research and pushed forward by local communities.”

03/31/2025

***UPDATE***

PLEASE note changes to the 24th Annual Marcha & Celebration, “Workers, Children and Families:
A March for Solidarity” event on Saturday, April 5, 2025, DENVER, COLORADO.

Due to the weather forecast, we will not be marching this year and have changed location from the Cesar Chavez Park to Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center.

8:30 AM - Mass/Misa
Regis University, Saint John Francis Chapel
3333 Regis Boulevard, Denver, CO 80221

10:30 AM - Event Opening and Program
Su Teatro Cultural & Performing Arts Center,
721 Santa Fe Drive, Denver, CO 80204

***

Maestas Case Committee Chair and retired 12th district judge Martín Gonzalez will be presented with the 2025 César Chávez Peace and Justice Anciano Award. The SPMDTU will be presented the 2025 César Chávez Peace and Justice Organization Award.

On April 5th the 24th Annual Marcha and Celebration will start with Mass at 8:30am at Regis University Saint John Francis Chapel followed by a march to César Chávez Park with presentations starting at 10:30 a.m.

https://www.alamosanews.com/stories/award-to-retired-judge-martn-gonzales,79238

03/31/2025

Maestas Case Committee Chair and retired 12th district judge Martín Gonzalez will be presented with the 2025 César Chávez Peace and Justice Anciano Award. The SPMDTU will be presented the 2025 César Chávez Peace and Justice Organization Award.

On April 5th the 24th Annual Marcha and Celebration will start with Mass at 8:30am at Regis University Saint John Francis Chapel followed by a march to César Chávez Park with presentations starting at 10:30 a.m.

DENVER — Each year the César Chávez Peace and Justice Committee of Denver selects individuals who embody the values and commitment of César Chávez to social justice to receive awards. Award recipients will be honored at the public celebration on Saturday, April 5, following the Marcha and ...

12/12/2024

10/20/2024

The SPMDTU is featured in this 7 part series by
La Sociadad was a pivotal supporter of the Maestas Case and rights of Hispanos in Colorado, New Mexico and Utah. The organization is Americas oldest still active Latino civil rights organization.

MY LATEST SERIES: Been working on this one for months — a through the American Southwest to tell stories I’ve wanted to tell for YEARS, my way. I’m tired of this-and-that, so I decided to meet Latinos where they are 364 days of the year instead of just in a region where we’ve lived for over 425 years. My takeaway? You’ll have to read the series!

HUGE THANKS to and all the others who spoke with me. Link in bio to the package — I’ll post individual links in my IG stories. Enjoy, pass it on and subscribe already!

09/19/2024

Denver City Council Proclamation No. 24-1183
A Proclamation Honoring La Sociedad Protección Mutua de Trabajadores Unidos Concilio NO. 7 during Hispanic Heritage Month.

This photo was taken outside the Denver City Council Chambers after the presentation on Monday Sept. 16, 2024.
In it are some officers and members of the Denver Concilio #7 and Council Woman Floe who introduced the Proclamation. The fifth “Where As” is in reference to the Maestas Case.

After the reading of the Proclamation and voting, Dr. Antonio Esquibel talked about the Maestas Case and sang two verses of the “Himno Oficial del SPMDTU” and two verses of the “Corrido de Francisco Maestas”.

09/18/2024

Repost from
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You may be familiar with Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, a case about racial segregation in public schools that was decided by the US Supreme Court in 1954. You may not know as much about the Maestas case, a 1914 decision that desegregated schools in Alamosa a full four decades before the landmark Brown decision. One of the nation’s oldest school desegregation cases is celebrated in 2022 with an educational tour through Colorado and New Mexico.

In 1912, Hispano and Latino families living in Alamosa filed suit against the Board of Education to stop the segregation of their bilingual children. The school board claimed the separation was necessary because the students only spoke Spanish and required English language support. The school board’s argument was shown to be false as the children testified at the trial, answering questions in English before the interpreter finished translating. The court ruled in favor of Maestas et al. in a landmark decision that was all but forgotten by the wider world for a century- but not by the people of the San Luis Valley.
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Photo: Miguel Maestas, one of the children at the center of the suit. Courtesy of Tony Sandoval and Dr. Ronald W. Maestas.

09/18/2024

Hispanic Heritage Month is September 15-October 15 and is celebrated nationwide. It traditionally honors the cultures and contributions of both Hispanic and Latino Americans.

Videos by Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8KmY23FzME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJZ7G6xRF30

Events by Northern Rio Grande National Heritage Area, https://riograndenha.org/, and Cache la Poudre National Heritage Area,https://poudreheritage.org/

To learn more, visit: https://www.nps.gov/subjects/npscelebrates/hispanic-heritage-month.htm

We thank Sangre de Cristo National Heritage Area and the Alliance of National Heritage Areas.
for their contributions in sharing our histories.
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