{"id":425976,"date":"2026-08-07T01:46:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425976\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T01:46:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T01:46:10","slug":"santa-ana-renames-rosita-park-to-honor-late-latino-civil-rights-heroes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/425976\/","title":{"rendered":"Santa Ana renames Rosita Park to honor late Latino civil rights heroes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Before Frank and Irene Palomino Elementary School celebrated its new name<\/a> with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, the Santa Ana City Council voted to rename the adjacent Rosita Park after the couple who fought to desegregate the area\u2019s schools as well.<\/p>\n

The Palominos challenged segregated \u201cMexican\u201d schools when they sued the Garden Grove School District in 1945 as part of the landmark Mendez, et al, v. Westminster School District of Orange County civil rights case<\/a>. (The case was long known as Mendez v. Westminster, but the \u201cet als,\u201d meaning the four other plaintiffs<\/a>, including the Palominos, are now recognized for their previously overlooked contributions.) <\/p>\n

And recognition is growing countywide. On June 16, Garden Grove Unified renamed Rosita Elementary in honor of the Palominos.<\/p>\n

Santa Ana Councilmember Thai Viet Phan led a parallel effort Tuesday, seeking to rechristen the public park the same week as the school\u2019s ceremony.<\/p>\n

Phan, who as a girl attended summer school classes at Rosita Elementary, thanked Garden Grove Unified School District trustees, particularly Walter Mu\u00f1eton, for leading the way. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just really wonderful that in the last six years or so that I\u2019ve been here, we\u2019ve worked really hard to unearth and relearn and remember a lot of the history in Santa Ana,\u201d she said during Tuesday\u2019s council meeting. \u201cIt\u2019s really wonderful that we get to honor parents who said, \u2018My kids deserve better\u2019 than what the school district was giving them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Frank Palomino tried to enroll his two children at Lincoln School, when a district official told him they couldn\u2019t attend on account of their Mexican heritage. <\/p>\n

He instead sent his son Arthur to John C. Fremont Elementary, a predominately Latino school in Santa Ana, which is now named in honor of Virginia and William Guzman, another family in the landmark Mendez, et al, case. His daughter attended Catholic school.<\/p>\n

For Andrew Palomino, who is Arthur\u2019s son and Frank and Irene\u2019s grandson, Rosita Park held many fond memories, as did adjacent Rosita Elementary. The Palominos lived in the surrounding neighborhood and held gatherings at the park to celebrate Easter and other holidays.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A picture of Frank and Irene Palomino held up during a Garden Grove Unified School District meeting last month. <\/p>\n

(James Carbone\/James Carbone)<\/p>\n

Apprised of the renaming, Andrew acknowledged Palomino Park had a nice ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are incredibly honored and grateful to the city of Santa Ana for their commitment to preserving this history in conjunction with the Garden Grove Unified School District\u2019s renaming of the school to Palomino Elementary,\u201d Andrew told TimesOC.<\/p>\n

The unanimous council vote affirmed a planning commission recommendation and dovetailed with the city\u2019s recognition of Chicano Heritage Month in August.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palomino family has a longstanding connection to the surrounding neighborhood, with three generations of family members attending Rosita Elementary School and its feeder schools,\u201d Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez said.<\/p>\n

The city manager\u2019s office will cover the minimal costs of changing signage at the park without a dime coming from the general fund.<\/p>\n

Palomino family members attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the elementary school in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

Once lacking public recognition for their family\u2019s fight for equality, the Palominos can now look to a public park and elementary school bearing their surname. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an event 80 years in the making, honoring our grandparents after all these years,\u201d Andrew Palomino said. \u201cIt\u2019s an incredibly important moment for our family.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before Frank and Irene Palomino Elementary School celebrated its new name with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,169768,1409,169772,50161,169773,14552,169770,148040,19639,69928,148041,169771,169769,338,4265],"class_list":["post-425976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-andrew-palomino","tag-city","tag-et-al","tag-frank","tag-garden-grove-school-district","tag-honor","tag-palomino-family","tag-palominos","tag-recognition","tag-ribbon-cutting-ceremony","tag-rosita-elementary","tag-rosita-elementary-school","tag-rosita-park","tag-santa-ana","tag-school"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}