"Little Known Facts"

What many people don’t know about Betita Martinez is that she was raised my a Mexican father and an Scotch-Irish mother. During this time there was a lot of racism going on, which was followed by the civil rights movement. Although Betita wasn’t considered black nor white she still experienced some segregation. She says ‘…the schools I went to were all- white, starting in kindergarten, and through high school, and even through college. And people would sort of look at me. I remember in elementary school: Are you Hawaiian or something? “No, I’m Mexican.” Well, what’s that? “Well —” So it was like being a zero. And the little girl next door whose family was white, she was not allowed to play with me because my father was Mexican.’(Voices of Feminism Oral History Project, p.2). I believe the fact that Betita grew up in an environment like this has actually shaped her way of thinking about her society. I think think in a way it has inspired her to be a part of the many activist organizations and movements.