Then he would go on to explain that up through my grandfather’s generation, the Mexicans and Mexican-Americans had been able to live to themselves and get along fairly well. “That has to change,” he would say. “My future and yours will be in a different kind of world. We will not give up our heritage, but we won’t let it hold us back either. We will be judged by the way we act and by the respect we earn in the community.”
