‘Rich history’: Award-winning photo book features this Wichita neighborhood
.JPG "Anita Mendoza of Wichita is one of three co-authors of the award-winning book, “Images of America: Mexican Americans of Wichita’s North End.”")
Anita Mendoza reminisces about growing up in Wichita’s North End, waking up on the weekends to the aromas of her mother cooking in Wichita’s North End.
“It’s the craziest thing to think of now, but being a kid, you know, I think of the smell on a Saturday morning …menudo, freshly cut and freshly made tortillas,” Mendoza told an Eagle reporter.
Her family planted their roots in the North End when her grandfather migrated to Wichita from Chihuahua, Mexico, in in 1907.
“I miss all those people and the characters that are my uncles, aunts, my parents and the way they lived their life,” Mendoza said.
Now she is sharing those memories in an award-winning photo book. “Images of America: Mexican Americans of Wichita’s North End” contains photos of what Mendoza describes “bringing the invisible lives of those first immigrants in Wichita, Kansas and making them visible.”
It won the gold medal in the best history book category at the 24th annual International Latino Book Awards in Los Angeles on Aug. 22.
The book grew from Mendoza’s desire to learn more about her grandfather, who had died when she was a little girl.
“I wanted to know more about him and why he came here. As I was doing my research, I realized that there aren’t many stories, books and artifacts about people from the North End. It kind of made me sad, because it’s such a rich neighborhood of history,” Mendoza said.
Mendoza, who co-authored the book along with two Wichita State professors, Jay Price and Jose Navarro, says winning the award is surreal.
“It’s a shared effort with Price and Navarro. I really thank them for going through this process with me and also having this passion for the North End. It shows that you don’t have to grow up in the North End to love it,” Mendoza said.
Price, a professor and department chair of history at Wichita State, said his involvement with the book started in 2018.
“For a number of years I’ve worked on some projects that are tied into the North End, and that’s how I was able to get connected with Anita. She took the class as a student and we talked quite a bit about, ‘Well, how do you tell the story of the North End?’” Price said.
Price and Mendoza created a local history project named “Somos De Wichita” to help collect and share stories and photos of the North End. From this, Mendoza formed the North End Wichita Historical Society.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the project to go online in 2020, which Price called “the game changer.”
“There was always a collecting element to this with the project. … Anita started talking with her colleagues, friends and family and launched a Facebook page. ... That was really where people could share photos,” Price said.
While the book recognizes the history of the Latino community in the North End, Price says there is more to it.
“I think one of the things that Wichita is now realizing is that we think of the North End as having a Mexican American Latino presence, but it didn’t begin that way. It began really as a working class neighborhood connected to the meatpacking industry, and it was a multiracial, multiethnic community,” Price says.
Mendoza said that although she appreciates the award, she is grateful for the impact that the book has had.
“I’m very honored, but I just feel like I’m a vessel where I’m just sharing these stories. It’s surreal that this book is out in California and people are seeing it. I spoke with a cousin today and said ‘our families here in the North End, their images are now across the nation, and they will be there forever,’”Mendoza said.
The book is available on Amazon or northendwichita.org