Key Words: Discrimination in Claremont, Growing up in Claremont, the East/West Barrios, Mexican-American Culture, Mexican-American Education, Claremont Schools, Intercultural Council
[Part 1] John Dominguez was born in Upland in 1947. His father moved to California from Mexico when he was a child, and his mother was born in Claremont. While his father was working as a field foreman, he built his family a home in Claremont’s East Barrio through the Intercultural Council.
Dominguez went to nursery school at the Sumner house. He attended Oakmont Elementary School, where his father worked as a janitor, and then Sycamore Elementary School.
Dominguez describes the difference between Claremont's two Mexican neighborhoods, the East Barrio and the West Barrio: “If you were going to make some money and move, you would go to the East side, because there was a chance to buy a house there and get out of the packing house housing.” He discusses discrimination against Mexican-Americans in Claremont and describes the Catholic church in the East Barrio, Sacred Heart Chapel, as the center of their community.
[Tape 2] Dominguez attended Claremont Junior High School only a few years after it had been built. He explains which Claremont neighborhoods were sectioned to each of the elementary schools in Claremont during the 1950s, and he remembers spending time with friends in the business district after school. Dominguez mentions several petty crimes that he and his friends were involved with during his teenage years, including a fight that nearly broke out between some Mexican-American boys and some white boys who threatened to cut his Hispanic friend’s long hair. “Even though the hair cutting issue was the incident, it was obvious that there was a larger issue at stake here. It was us against them, and it was never quite the same after that in Claremont going to school.” He adds that this event altered the way that he understood the difference between white Americans and Mexican-Americans in Claremont. “Claremont being Claremont, there was no Oriental students, there was no black students, there was no black people in Claremont . . . It was very well defined: white and brown. And the white kids lived in the community at large, and the brown kids lived in two pockets: the West Barrio and the East Barrio.”
[Part 3] Dominguez explains that most of the Mexican-Americans who lived in Claremont had been born in the United States. There were, however, some immigrants who had been born in Mexico. “Nationals,” as they were called in the Barrios, were usually unmarried migrant workers who would come and go as they found work.
Dominguez remembers the Claremont dump, where he and his friends would go to play. He attended classes in both the old and new high school buildings. He recalled that some students would smoke and drink alcohol on campus in between classes.
[Part 4] Dominguez remembers the pool hall next to the Catholic Church in the East Barrio. He describes having to go to Los Angeles for a physical in the late 1960s, but he was ineligible to be drafted for the war because of his criminal record.
[Part 5] Dominguez remembers using the tunnel under Foothill Boulevard to go to high school. He describes getting in trouble with law enforcement with his friends when he was younger and the racial profiling among law enforcement. He described the gangs in Claremont when he was younger.