Hernandez vs. Texas: Groundbreaking case for Latinos
Carlos Guerra: Groundbreaking, yet little-known case for Latinos subject of film
Web posted 04/27/2007 San Antonio Express-News
Even though the U.S. Supreme Court answered the question in 1954, people still ask: "Aren't Mexican Americans 'white'?" And few realize that the answer forever changed Latinos' legal status everywhere.
Yes, Hernandez vs. Texas:
Remains little known as its importance is under-appreciated. "I didn't learn anything about this case in University of Chicago (Law School)," says Carlos Sandoval, an inactive attorney who began making a documentary about it in 2002, when he realized that it wasn't until the 1950s that Latinos were afforded equal rights protections.
And by putting human faces on the case, he says, Latinos will finally start sharing their history with fellow Americans.
After World War II, South Texas was in transition, and tensions were building. Mexican American veterans were coming home. But they were returning to dismal barrios and towns, where they were expected to don
civilian clothes and remain docile; content to live in isolated poverty with limited opportunities and inequality from which they thought their service had freed them.
Resentment was fueling a spreading activism. But the Texas of old was unyielding. The facts of the Hernandez case aren't pleasant. And the only veterans involved were among the defense attorneys.
One evening, Joe Espinoza was murdered by another farm worker, Pete Hernandez, in Edna, Texas. He was quickly indicted, tried and convicted.
But four young civil rights attorneys . Carlos Cadena and Gus Garca of San Antonio, and John J. Herrera and James de Anda of Houston . took on the case to challenge Mexican Americans' second-class legal status in the Lone Star State.
Hernandez should have never been indicted since Jackson County grand and petit juries included no Latinos, they argued. But after state courts upheld the conviction, they appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
As a Mexican American, Hernandez was denied his 14th Amendment right of equal protection, the lawyers argued. But that protection applies only to blacks and whites, the state responded, and being white, his conviction should stand.
But no Latinos had sat on any Jackson County juries for at least 25 years, the young lawyers showed. That was a coincidence, the state's attorney replied. But in a 9-0 decision, the Supreme Court justices disagreed.
"The evidence in this case was sufficient to prove that persons of Mexican descent constitute a separate class, distinct from whites," wrote Chief Justice Earl Warren, before adding that when "laws single out that class
for different treatment, the guarantees of the Constitution have been violated."
This monumental ruling knocked out an important linchpin in the notion that "separate" could still be "equal" . in treatment, facilities and opportunities . and it became an underpinning that helped broaden
protections for other groups in a wide variety of areas.
But this Latino story, and the story of these Latino lawyers, has gone virtually untold, Sandoval says. And because of it . and others like it Latinos are misunderstood and remain invisible to many Americans.
"Particularly after the Ken Burns controversy, it's very much up to us to reclaim our history," he says, before asking South Texans for help: "This is an opportunity for them to directly respond because people in South Texas were such a part of what civil rights were won."
Sandoval hopes that people who knew those involved in the Hernandez case, or who have photos, film or other materials, will contact his Camino Bluff Productions by calling (917) 796-5431 or by e-mailing him at .
"This isn't just about our (untold) history," he continues. "We're also being swept into the immigration debate; and all Latinos are now being seen as if they just arrived, even if many families have been here for many generations. Because of the Latino population explosion, there is a lot of fear, resentment, and let's face it, racism arising."
Transcript of the Texas case at:
Michael A. Olivas writes: This link is to the case holding or decision, but not the "transcript." There is no transcript, as cases argued then in the Supreme Court were not transcribed or reported. However, in part because of Gus Garcia's rhetoric and that of Thurgood Marshall, who also argued that January, 1954 week (in Brown), the arguments of all cases argued there began the following term, in October of 1954.
To contact Carlos Guerra, call (210) 250-3545 or e-mail
His column appears on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
Source: "LaRed Latina" WWW site:
"LARED-L Discussion Group: http//