American Experience

Narrator: García soon realized it was not wise to wage legal war alone, in Edna, Texas, without some reinforcements.

Ian Haney-López: Texas had a phenomena called “sundown towns.” This name came from the idea that no minorities should be caught in town after the sun went down, at the penalty of violence.

Narrator: García called in John Herrera, an experienced Houston trial lawyer with a well-earned reputation for toughness.

Benny Martínez: Mr. Herrera was not afraid to speak out against anybody. He had big feet. He’d step on anybody. He wasn’t scared!

Narrator: Herrera brought along a young attorney, James DeAnda, to handle the statistical research.

Judge DeAnda: I did quite a bit of investigation on the case. And that county as it turned out there had never been a Hispanic in modern times ever served on either a grand jury, petit jury, or any other type of jury.

Narrator: García and his team pressed their case – armed with statistics proving the county’s history of systematic exclusion, and their lead lawyer’s sharp tongue.

Victor Rodríquez: They walked into the courthouse, and when they confronted the judge, the judge asked them if they needed an interpreter. And in his own articulate way, Gus García replied, “No, sir, if you can’t understand English or Spanish perhaps one of my colleagues can interpret for you.”

Henry Flores: When you bring a civil rights case, you’re challenging social convention and tradition and custom. And some people see it as a threat to, to, to a political structure, a social structure, a threat, to a way of life.

Eleanor McCusker: It wasn’t safe for them to stay there, because some of the people were very upset about the case, and what these lawyers were tryin’ to do. And, they thought it best not to stay there. They may not wake up there.

Martha Tevis: The men who were arguing the Hernandez case had to drive home to Houston every night from Edna, Texas. They didn’t dare stay in town.

Narrator: The first task the lawyers faced was to show a pattern of discrimination against Mexican Americans as a group.

To do that, they called Pauline Rosa, an Edna resident, to the stand. She testified that she had tried to enroll her U.S. born, English-speaking children in Edna’s all Anglo school only to be told, “They did not accept any Latin Americans.” Pressed by the prosecutor, she insisted, “They discriminated against me and my children.”

Lisa Ramos: For Pauline Rosa a Mexican American woman in Jackson County Texas to challenge the Anglo power structure was something pretty, pretty amazing. She saw that she could do something to effect change for her children.

Ignacio García: People have said, “She’s indicting the whole community,” but she was reflecting a view by Mexican Americans that while people might not individually say something or do something to them, collectively, they were happy with the system. I think all of them, both Anglo and Mexicans, understood very well what she was talking about in terms of “They all discriminate against me and my children.”

Narrator: During a pause in the proceedings, the Hernandez lawyers sought out a men’s room. They found one, on the courthouse grounds. But it turned out that there was a problem.

Michael Olivas: And the sign said men but a Mexican janitor whispered to them in Spanish that they couldn’t use it. And he told them in Spanish that there was another one “hazte pa’ca” out, out back. And they went downstairs and they find another men’s bathroom downstairs with a bathroom sign that says “Colored Men, Hombres Aqui” – “Men Here.”

Think of the irony of this. In the very courthouse where the state of Texas is arguing that Mexican Americans are white and, therefore, an all-white jury can convict a Mexican charged with murder, they can’t use the bathroom reserved for whites.

Ian Haney-López: They’re not lawyers who are operating above the fray, who are somehow independent of everything that’s going on; they, too, are subject to this racial system. In some real sense the lawyers in Hernandez v. Texas were themselves the clients.

Narrator: The judge overruled the defense team’s objection to the all white jury. It took that jury less than four hours to reach its verdict.

Pete Hernández was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
His lawyers immediately appealed. For them, the hard work was just beginning.

Narrator: In the spring of 1952, as they mapped out their strategy, García and Herrera realized they needed help. They turned to García’s longtime friend and former law partner, Carlos Cadena.

Henry Flores: These two guys together were probably the most powerful intellectual legal team that you could ever field.

Narrator: They made a kind of legal odd couple*: García, charismatic and outgoing; and Cadena, scholarly and reserved.

Eleanor McCusker: Carlos was the quiet one, always doing the heavy research. Gus was the one always talking and making the changes, and I think that’s why they got along so well.

Narrator: After discussions with Latino civil rights activists, the Hernandez lawyers decided on a bold but risky legal strategy. Arguing for constitutional protection for Mexican Americans, they would emphasize their ambiguous and vulnerable place in America’s racial hierarchy. They would put their very identity on trial.

Ian Haney-López: Mexican Americans were fighting to be treated as if they were white. But the irony here is that the Texas Courts seized on their claim to be white not to treat them fairly but to continue to defend this practice of unfair mistreatment. The Texas courts responded by saying, “So you’re white. That’s fine. Look at the juries. There’s nobody but white persons on the jury. You have no claim of discrimination.” In turn, the Mexican American lawyers had to respond, “We’re white, but we’re a class apart. We’re a distinct class that though white, is being treated as if we’re not white.” And that’s the basis on which they went forward with their litigation in Hernandez v. Texas.

Narrator: The “class apart” theory was as controversial as it was innovative.

Lisa Ramos: I think many Mexican Americans were afraid, “What would happen if we weren’t considered white? How do we know we’re not going to be forced or pushed to identify with the black race, at a time when black people are fundamentally denied so many basic rights.” But there’s also the element of racism, of the belief among some Mexican Americans that blackness is inferior. So there’s an element of racism and there’s an element of fear of Jim Crow segregation.