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Content provided by the American Bar Association Division for Public Education. Visit the Division for Public Education's website to learn more about the law and its role in society (www.abanet.org/publiced). For more profiles of pioneers in the legal profession, visit the Division for Public Education's Raising the Bar: Pioneers in the Legal Profession website at www.abanet.org/publiced/raisingthebar.html.
Antonia Hernandez
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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 directed 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 was 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. 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. In 2004, Antonia Hernández became President and CEO of the California Community Foundation, which is one of the largest and most active philanthropic organizations in Southern California. (Originally published in 2001. This article has been revised to include events occurring after 2001.) |
