Oscar Zeta Acosta - Mexicans Quotes

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When we left El Segundo Barrio across the street from the international border, we didn't expect the Mexicans in California to act like gringos. But they did. We were outsiders because of geography and outcasts because we didn't speak English and wore short pants. And so we had to fight every single day.

Oscar Zeta Acosta

We had to fight the Okies because we were Mexicans! It didn't matter to them that my brother and I were outcasts on our own turf. They'd have laughed if we'd told them that we were easterners. To them we were greasers, spics and niggers. If you lived on the West Side, across from the tracks, and had brown skin, you were a Mexican. Riverbank is divided into three parts, and in my corner of the world there were only three kinds of people: Mexicans, Okies and Americans. Catholics, Holy Rollers and Protestants. Peach pickers, cannery workers and clerks.

Oscar Zeta Acosta