Profile -- Week 3 Antonia Hernandez President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), Antonia Hernández is an advocate for 35 million Latinos in the U.S. Through law, community education, and research, she leads her organization in the fight for the advancement and protection of civil rights. Characterized as “sweetness and fire,” she continues to fight legal battles that have improved the lives of minorities throughout the nation. Antonia Hernández was born in El Cambio in Mexico in 1948. Her mother’s family home was a communal ranch. Her father was an American citizen, born in Texas. During the Depression, when he was eight, American government officials sent him and his family to Mexico. Like many other Mexican-American families, they were told, “There is no work. Just go,” and handed one-way train tickets to Mexico. In 1956, determined to seek better educational opportunities for his children, Antonia’s father, Manuel Hernández, and her mother Nicolasa left El Cambio and immigrated with their children to the United States. Life and schools in East Los Angeles proved to be very different from their loving memories of family and bountiful harvest in Mexico. Young Antonia’s determination and intelligence prevailed over the harassment she endured at school as the new girl. As she recalled in a profile in the Los Angeles Times Magazine, “The ranchera dress, the long braids and proper Spanish—it was like wearing a bull’s eye: ‘Direct all teasing here.’” While excelling in her academic life, she also worked tirelessly to help support her family and six younger siblings. She helped care for her brothers and sisters while her parents were working, and earned money selling her mother’s homemade tamales throughout East L.A. Later she worked at produce markets and, along with her family, spent hot summers picking crops in Fresno, Bakersfield. and Modesto. After graduating from high school, Ms. Hernández seized an opportunity to go to college—first to a local community college and then to UCLA, where she earned an undergraduate degree in history in 1970. She earned her teaching certificate in 1971, followed by her law degree in 1974. While working as a legal clerk at the California Rural Legal Assistance Office in Santa Maria, she met her future husband, attorney Michael Stern, who was impressed as much by her intelligence and energy as her gift to relate easily to their clients. Ms. Hernández’s career has been a commitment to activism. She served as staff attorney for the Los Angeles Center for Law & Justice from 1974-1977 and then as Directing Attorney for the Legal Aid Foundation. In 1979 she became the first Latina to serve as a staff counsel to the U. S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary. In the early 1980’s, Ms. Hernández worked to advance bilingual voting assistance in the extension of the Voting Rights Act, empowering Latinos throughout the nation by providing them with the opportunity to participate more fully as voters. In 1981, Antonia Hernández began her work with MALDEF as Regional Counsel in their Washington D.C. office. After serving as Employment Program Director for MALDEF 1983-84 and then as Executive Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, she was elected as MALDEF’s President and General Counsel in 1985. In that capacity she directs the efforts of MALDEF’S nine offices across the country, directing all litigation and advocacy programs and managing a 75 person staff and MALDEF’s $6 million dollar budget. Under her leadership, MALDEF’s has been active in redistricting efforts, to assure the creation of electoral districts that give the Latino community a fair chance of political representation. MALDEF’s Leadership Development Programs encourage Latinos in communities across the United States to participate on nonprofit boards and commissions. MALDEF took the lead in battling against Proposition 187, which would have denied a free public education and other benefits for the children of undocumented immigrants. Proposition 187 was struck down by a federal court that held unconstitutional provisions involving the determination of legal immigration status, including language which denied immigrants’ access to state education services. Active on many national and international corporate and non-profit boards and committees, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Ms. Hernández has also served on the board of the school her three children attended and helped with many school-related programs and activities. She has earned many honors and awards, including the Hispanic Heritage Awards Foundation Award for Leadership, the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, and the League of Women Voters Leadership Award. Hernández remains close to her family. She lives on the same street as her parents, and at one time nine Hernández children attended the same parochial school. She continues to speak for the Latino community, as recently as a broadcast on NPR’s Latino USA program, addressing concerns about the dangers of racial profiling after the recent terrorist attacks. With her soft but strong voice, her intelligence and commitment, she forcefully represents the Latino community in the United States. The American Bar Association salutes Antonia Hernández both for her personal and professional achievements and for her determination to help her fellow Hispanics achieve a real chance to succeed in America. Photo Usage: Permission to use the above photo was granted by Antonia Hernández. State and local bar associations may also use her photo for similar programs addressing lawyers in the Hispanic community. National Hispanic Heritage Month 2001 | Links