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Documentary, American Experience 1-A CLASS APART
American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history.
The series premiered on October 4, 1988 and was originally titled The American Experience, but the article "The" was dropped during a later rebrand and image update. The show has had a presence on the Internet since 1995, and more than 100 American Experience programs are accompanied by their own internet websites, which have more background information on the subjects covered as well as teachers' guides and educational companion materials. The show is produced primarily by WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons of the show, it was co-produced by other PBS stations such as WNET (Channel 13) in New York City.
Some programs now considered part of the American Experience collection were produced prior to the creation of the series. Vietnam: A Television History was one of them, airing originally in 1983 after taking six years to assemble. Also, in 2006, American Experience rebroadcast Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, the first half of the 1986 documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s.
#AmericanExperience
American Experience is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American history.
The series premiered on October 4, 1988 and was originally titled The American Experience, but the article "The" was dropped during a later rebrand and image update. The show has had a presence on the Internet since 1995, and more than 100 American Experience programs are accompanied by their own internet websites, which have more background information on the subjects covered as well as teachers' guides and educational companion materials. The show is produced primarily by WGBH-TV in Boston, Massachusetts, though occasionally in the early seasons of the show, it was co-produced by other PBS stations such as WNET (Channel 13) in New York City.
Some programs now considered part of the American Experience collection were produced prior to the creation of the series. Vietnam: A Television History was one of them, airing originally in 1983 after taking six years to assemble. Also, in 2006, American Experience rebroadcast Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, the first half of the 1986 documentary series about the Civil Rights Movement during the 1950s and 1960s.
#AmericanExperience
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00:04To be continued...
00:38To be continued...
01:19To be continued...
01:53To be continued...
01:57From Gustavo Gus GarcĂa, a prominent local lawyer.
02:02Quiero rendir un breve informe respecto del caso de Peter Hernández en contra del estado de Texas, el cual se
02:11ventilĂł recientemente ante la Suprema Corte de la NaciĂłn en Washington.
02:16The Hernández case involved an issue that GarcĂa and his listeners knew all too well.
02:24Discrimination against Mexican-Americans in the Southwest.
02:35It was the first time that the issue of Mexican-American civil rights had ever reached the United States Supreme
02:42Court.
02:44And GarcĂa was a key member of the legal team.
02:49Agradezco el hecho de poder haberle dicho a los magistrados de la Suprema Corte que estaban un poquito confundidos, acaso
02:59fuéramos todos espaldas mojadas en Houston, San Antonio y en los demás lugares.
03:21GarcĂa and his colleagues had tried to convince the nine justices that long-standing patterns of exclusion and ill-treatment
03:28were unconstitutional.
03:31If they succeeded, their community could no longer be pushed to the margins with impunity.
03:38If they failed, the best hope for change in a generation would be lost.
03:46The decision would not come for months.
03:50Roguemosle a Dios que triunfemos.
03:53Que la Suprema Corte de la Nación nos dé la razón.
04:09Que la Suprema Corte de la Nación nos dé la razón.
04:35Life in the 1950s was very difficult for Hispanics.
04:40We were considered second rate.
04:42We were not considered intelligent.
04:45We were considered invisible.
04:48It was overt discrimination.
04:51And not just you can't belong to my country club type, you know,
04:54but the real rough type in theaters and swimming pools even in some public parks
05:05we were segregated something something awful really it got to the point where
05:14the Texas Restaurant Association put out a sign that said no Mexicans niggers or
05:21dogs alone discrimination had become a harsh fact the Mexican American life over
05:29the 100 years since the end of the Mexican War in 1848 the victorious United States
05:37acquired huge swaths of Mexican territory and along with it tens of thousands of
05:42residents who were offered American citizenship as part of the treaty ending
05:47the war legal citizenship for Mexican Americans was one thing equal treatment
05:54turned out to be quite another many would lose their land to unfamiliar American
06:01laws or to swindlers with the loss of land came the loss of status over two three
06:10generations the people who had owned vast ranches were suddenly farmers after the
06:18Civil War ever larger numbers of southern whites came into South Texas all of a
06:25sudden you start seeing allegations that are cloned from the attitudes that they
06:30had in the deep south about black people and see these values being applied to
06:34Mexicans to Mexican Americans they're shiftless they're lazy they're dumb they
06:41don't like to work and you know they're trying to get your daughter of mixed Spanish
06:47and Indian ancestry Mexican Americans did not fit neatly into America's ironclad
06:52racial categories black or white by the early 20th century they were considered
07:00white by law largely owing to the treaties grant of American citizenship but in
07:07everyday life their status as citizens meant little a lot of Mexicans were killed for no
07:16reason at all a lot of them were lynched and a lot of them were just shot anybody
07:22was a cowboy hat that could be a ranger or a vigilante or a regulator
07:32segregation was widespread enforced not by written laws as was the case for
07:38African Americans but by a rigid social code it was very clear that the social
07:44isolation was the perfectly symmetrical system one that hermetically sealed
07:49Mexicans and blacks away from whites in all the daily aspects of life
08:03when we moved in the neighbors started getting upset the kids would come on their
08:11bicycles and call us dirty Mexicans you eat toilets one time I said something
08:18really nasty to one of them and the father of this kid came up and asked me
08:24to step off the sidewalk so he could hit me discrimination followed to the grave
08:33cemeteries were segregated many funeral parlors even refused to prepare Mexican
08:40American bodies for burial so for the most part if you died if you were Hispanic you had
08:47to be buried pretty quickly after you died so that you wouldn't create a smell in
08:56education as in many other spheres separate and unequal treatment was commonplace
09:06our school were old school they were dilapidated we had no toilet facilities inside we had an outhouse
09:18the Anglo children had a nice school a modern school was indoor plumbing and heating so there was quite a
09:26difference quite a difference second-class treatment exacted a heavy toll they were
09:35always referring to us as dirty Mexicans they call us pepper belly they call us
09:40greasers they call us wet back they made us feel ashamed to be a Mexican-american
09:55and as long as Mexican-americans believe that they couldn't do anything about that then they in a sense
10:02reinforce the system the social stratification that occurred in their lives
10:11then came World War two 300,000 Mexican-americans served their country
10:30they suffered casualties and earned honors disproportionate to their numbers they returned home with
10:37dramatically raised expectations believing they had earned the right to first-class citizenship
10:54we went to fight to give people liberty and to give them their civil rights and then we come back
11:03home and we find out that it's the same way as we left it
11:08the great many people came home expecting that they had won their full citizenship rights
11:16when they come home and they're decorated war heroes and they're turned away from restaurants are told to go to
11:22the balconies of theaters it created a building resentment
11:29when their kids were not allowed to go to the good schools it created a great deal of resentment
11:43the treatment of private Felix Longoria a war hero killed in the Philippines became a flashpoint
11:51when his body was returned to his hometown of Three Rivers Texas in early 1949
11:58the town's only funeral parlor refused to hold a memorial service because they told Longoria's widow the whites wouldn't like
12:07it
12:09this guy gave his life so that we could have the same rights and privileges that are available to everybody
12:16and he couldn't be buried with the whites because he was brown what the hell
12:22and it really hits a nerve in the nation and particularly with many veterans groups who say how can they
12:29not allow him to be buried
12:31for Mexican Americans the Longoria incident came at a crucial time since the 20s civic organizations such as LULAC
12:40the League of United Latin American citizens had begun pushing for civil rights with some success
12:50now emboldened by their war experience and growing political clout
12:55Mexican American activists press demands for broader change
13:01after an intense public campaign Felix Longoria was buried in Arlington National Cemetery
13:14and it's this generation who fought in World War II who begin to demand civil rights for Mexican Americans
13:21they form important social organizations like the GI forum
13:27these organizations are committed to fighting for equality for Mexican Americans
13:32as well as to fighting for pride in Mexican origins
13:37the activists also took their fight to the courts
13:43with the help of lawyers like Gus Garcia and his colleague Carlos Cadena
13:48both veterans they began to attack the legal foundations of discrimination throughout the Southwest
13:56Garcia led a team that won a court order curtailing the segregation of Hispanic students in Texas schools
14:06Cadena won a ruling that ended restrictive covenants barring Mexican Americans from buying homes in Anglo neighborhoods
14:15but those victories could only take Mexican Americans so far
14:21Mexican American lawyers had achieved some successes on the state level
14:25but the bottom line was the local majorities in these states were intent on treating Mexican Americans as second-class
14:33citizens
14:35if they were to be fully protected
14:39if they were to be regarded as equals with other Americans
14:44they would need to receive the protection of the Constitution
14:48they would need to take their cases to the U.S. Supreme Court
14:52The lawyers faced an uphill battle
14:54they knew that Mexican Americans had been denied the protection of the Constitution's 14th Amendment
15:01an essential weapon for African Americans in their fight against discrimination
15:07some states had argued that the amendment only barred discrimination by whites against blacks
15:13and by law Mexican Americans were considered white
15:18to end the discrimination that stifled their community
15:21they would need to find the right case
15:23one with the potential to redefine the very meaning of the United States Constitution
15:37On August 4, 1951, on the streets of Edna, Texas
15:41the locals were taking advantage of a steamy day off
15:44a tenant farmer named Gaetano Espinosa, known to everyone as Joe
15:50headed to Chencho Sanchez's cafe on Menifee Street
15:55Pedro Hernandez, a field worker with a bad lay, was already inside
16:04It was a Saturday, and I think it was my father's birthday
16:08and as we passed Edna, he said, I'm going to stop here to talk
16:14to the cotton pickers
16:16I sat there at a table and I ordered a Coke
16:21and all of a sudden I heard an argument
16:24Joe Espinosa arguing with Pete, with Pedro
16:29and when I heard the argument
16:32I heard something to the fact that Pedro El Chueco Cabron
16:37no woman is going to look at a cripple like you
16:41they're interested in a real he-man like me
16:45and with that, Pedro left the cantina
16:49We saw Pete walking towards his house
16:53like he was in a daze
16:56he didn't even turn around and say hi boys or anything
16:58he just kept going
17:00so about 20 minutes later, here he comes with a rifle
17:06He came back, entered the cantina
17:09and shot Joe Espinosa in the heart
17:16he lived maybe 30 minutes after we got to the hospital
17:22and my mother told me, okay, I understand
17:27it was just hard to believe, it was just incredible
17:40In his law office in San Antonio, Gus Garcia listened
17:45as Pete Hernandez's mother choked back sobs
17:49Garcia realized that there was more to this case
17:51than a small town murder
17:56Hernandez was guilty of sin, no question
18:01but they had been looking for a significant case
18:04which would bring about a ruling from the higher courts
18:09that segregation or discrimination against Mexican Americans
18:13would be illegal
18:16The key issue for Garcia was not whether Pete Hernandez shot Joe Espinosa
18:21it was that like many Latino defendants before him
18:24Hernandez's fate would be decided by an all-Anglo jury
18:30There were 70 or more counties in Texas
18:33who had never had a Hispanic want a jury
18:39just because they didn't think that we were capable
18:42of doing anything worthwhile
18:45How do you get around the law?
18:47that you have to be judged by a jury of your peers
18:52Garcia was convinced that this was the case
18:55that he and his activist colleagues had been waiting for
18:59Gus Garcia was not one to think small
19:03You can write a book about Gus
19:06fine-looking fellow
19:08movie star-looking type
19:10well-dressed guy
19:12brilliant
19:15At 36
19:16Gus Garcia was already a local legend
19:20the son of ranchers who could trace their Texas roots
19:22back to the Spanish crown
19:24Garcia was a dashing figure whose legal victories
19:27and glamorous social life had made headlines
19:34he was tall and he was slender
19:36he had cold black hair and those green penetrating eyes
19:41that in my view made him very handsome
19:47Gus was a silver-tongued orator
19:51he had a deep resonant voice
19:55anything he said he said with authority
19:58Garcia had been an outstanding student at the University of Texas
20:02captain of the nationally ranked debate team
20:05he had excelled at law school as well
20:08still even for Latinos with a stellar record like Garcia's
20:12the doors to the state's top law firms remain closed
20:17there was only so far that you can go
20:20there was a certain space provided them
20:22in which they could then fulfill some of their ambitions and dreams
20:28so as good as they were they saw the ceiling quite low outside of their community
20:33but within their community I think they could fulfill much of their desires
20:39Pete Hernandez's trial was set for October 8, 1951
20:44in the Jackson County Courthouse
20:47at the pretrial hearing
20:50Garcia entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of his client
20:54then he raised an objection to the entire proceeding
20:57he argued that Hernandez was being denied a jury of his peers
21:02that the practice of excluding Mexican-American jurors
21:05and the social hierarchy it reflected were fundamentally unfair
21:12if Mexican-Americans had served on juries that judged whites
21:17that would have upended Texas' racial caste system
21:20that would have said that Mexican-Americans were the equal of whites
21:25were capable of sitting in judgment on whites
21:28and that I think is ultimately what the lawyers were fighting for
21:32Garcia soon realized it was not wise to wage legal war alone in Edna, Texas
21:39without some reinforcements
21:42Texas had a phenomena called sundown towns
21:48this name came from the idea that no minority should be caught in town
21:54after the sun went down
21:57at the penalty of violence
22:00Garcia called in John Herrera
22:02an experienced Houston trial lawyer
22:05with a well-earned reputation for toughness
22:08Mr. Herrera was not afraid to speak out against anybody
22:13he had big feet, he'd step on anybody
22:16he was scared
22:18Herrera brought along a young attorney
22:20James Deanda
22:22to handle the statistical research
22:24I did quite a bit of investigation on the case in that county
22:28as it turned out there had never been a Hispanic in modern times
22:32ever served on either a grand jury, petty jury or any other type of jury
22:36Garcia and his team pressed their case
22:39armed with statistics proving the county's history of systematic exclusion
22:44and their lead lawyer's sharp tongue
22:46they walked into the courthouse
22:49and when they confronted the judge
22:51the judge asked them if they needed an interpreter
22:54and in his own articulate way
22:57Gus Garcia replied
22:58no sir, if you can't understand English or Spanish
23:03perhaps one of my colleagues can interpret for you
23:09when you bring a civil rights case
23:11you're challenging social convention
23:13and tradition and custom
23:17and some people see it as a threat to a political structure
23:21a social structure, a threat to a way of life
23:26it wasn't safe for them to stay there
23:28because some of the people were very upset about the case
23:32and what these lawyers were trying to do
23:36and they thought it best not to stay there
23:39they may not wake up there
23:42the men who were arguing the Hernandez case
23:45had to drive home to Houston every night from Edna, Texas
23:49they didn't dare stay in town
23:53the first task the lawyers faced
23:56was to show a pattern of discrimination against Mexican Americans
24:00as a group
24:01to do that, they called Pauline Drosa, an Edna resident
24:05to the stand
24:07she testified that she had tried to enroll her U.S. born English speaking children
24:12in Edna's all Anglo school
24:14only to be told
24:16they did not accept any Latin Americans
24:20pressed by the prosecutor she insisted
24:23they discriminated against me and my children
24:27for Pauline Rosa, a Mexican American woman in Jackson County, Texas
24:32to challenge the Anglo power structure was something pretty, pretty amazing
24:39she saw that she could do something to effect change for her children
24:46people have said, she's indicting the whole community
24:49but she was reflecting a view by Mexican Americans
24:52that while people might not individually say something or do something to them
24:58collectively, they were happy with the system
25:01but I think all of them, both Anglo and Mexicans
25:05understood very well what she was talking about
25:07in terms of, they all discriminate against me and my children
25:13during a pause in the proceedings
25:15the Hernandez lawyers sat out a men's room
25:18they found one on the courthouse grounds
25:21but it turned out that there was a problem
25:24the sign said men, but a Mexican janitor whispered to them in Spanish
25:28that they couldn't use it
25:29and he told them in Spanish that there was another one
25:31hasta paca, out back
25:33and they went downstairs and they find another men's bathroom downstairs
25:38with a bathroom sign that says colored men
25:41hombres aquĂ, men here
25:44think of the irony of this
25:46in the very courthouse
25:48where the state of Texas is arguing that Mexican Americans are white
25:51and therefore an all white jury can convict a Mexican charged with murder
25:55they can't use the bathroom reserved for whites
25:58they're not lawyers who are operating above the fray
26:01who are somehow independent of everything that's going on
26:04they too are subject to this racial system
26:09in some real sense
26:11the lawyers in Hernandez versus Texas
26:14were themselves the clients
26:18the judge overruled the defense team's objection to the all white jury
26:25it took that jury less than four hours to reach its verdict
26:33Pete Hernandez was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison
26:37his lawyers immediately appealed
26:41for them, the hard work was just beginning
26:51in the spring of 1952
26:54as they mapped out their strategy
26:56Garcia and Herrera realized they needed help
27:00they turned to Garcia's longtime friend and former law partner Carlos Cadena
27:07these two guys together were probably the most powerful
27:11intellectual legal team that you could ever field
27:15they made a kind of legal odd couple
27:17Garcia, charismatic and outgoing
27:20and Cadena, scholarly and reserved
27:24Carlos was the quiet one always doing the heavy research
27:28Gus was the one always talking and making the changes
27:30and I think that's why they got along so well
27:37After discussions with Latino civil rights activists
27:40the Hernandez lawyers decided on a bold but risky legal strategy
27:47arguing for constitutional protection for Mexican Americans
27:50they would emphasize their ambiguous and vulnerable place
27:54in America's racial hierarchy
27:57they would put their very identity on trial
28:03Mexican Americans were fighting to be treated as if they were white
28:09but the irony here is that the Texas courts seized on their claim to be white
28:14not to treat them fairly
28:17but to continue to defend this practice of unfair mistreatment
28:23the Texas courts responded by saying
28:26so you're white, that's fine, look at the juries
28:30there's nobody but white persons on the jury
28:32you have no claim of discrimination
28:35in turn the Mexican American lawyers had to respond
28:38we're white but we're a class apart
28:41we're a distinct class that though white is being treated as if we're not white
28:46and that's the basis on which they went forward with their litigation in Hernandez versus Texas
28:50the class apart theory was as controversial as it was innovative
28:55I think many Mexican Americans were afraid
28:59what would happen if we weren't considered white
29:04how do we know we're not going to be forced or pushed to identify with the black race
29:10at a time when black people are fundamentally denied so many basic rights
29:18but there's also the element of racism
29:22of the belief among some Mexican Americans that blackness is inferior
29:30so there's an element of racism and there's an element of fear of Jim Crow segregation
29:37Carlos Cadena took the lead in drafting the Hernandez appeal
29:40writing a tightly argued legal brief
29:43he elaborated on the novel theory of a class apart
29:48he also punctured the state's legal position
29:51that Mexican Americans were white
29:53and therefore outside the protection of the 14th Amendment
29:56with a few well-placed rhetorical thrusts
30:01about the only time Cadena wrote that so-called Mexicans
30:05many of them Texans for seven generations
30:07are covered with the Caucasian cloak
30:11is when it serves the ends of those who would shamelessly deny this large segment of the Texas population
30:17their fundamental rights
30:21Texas's high court was not persuaded
30:24the appeal was denied
30:26the next step for the Hernandez lawyers
30:29and a very risky one
30:31was to turn to the United States Supreme Court
30:35it was an unusual
30:37ambition to take a case beyond Texas
30:40and to take it to the U.S. Supreme Court
30:43moreover no Mexican Americans had ever tried a case in the U.S. Supreme Court
30:47they had no reason to believe that they would win
30:53the lawyers in Hernandez gambled when they decided to take this case to the Supreme Court
31:00they knew on the upside that they could win national recognition for the equality of Mexican Americans
31:07but they knew on the downside that if they lost
31:10they would establish at a national level the proposition that Mexican Americans could be treated as second-class citizens
31:19and not just that
31:22they knew that this was probably their one shot in a generation
31:28an appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States is a costly matter
31:32you have to pay a filing fee
31:34you have to pay for the printing of the briefs
31:37you have to pay to travel to Washington D.C. to argue the case
31:42they didn't even have money to get up there much less to really fight the case
31:48and all that time away from home and their practice all shot because they were dedicating so much time to
31:56the case
31:58activists issued a national appeal for funds
32:03the Mexican American community was generally poor
32:06but the Hernandez case struck a chord
32:10the American G.A. Forum takes it to the people
32:13its founder and national president Hector Garcia has a radio program
32:20he gets on the radio and he starts pleading for donations
32:25Lulek does it through its chapters across Texas and the Midwest requesting money
32:31so what you find is people sending letters and saying this is the Wharton Lulek Council and we're sending you
32:37$25
32:38there is a group in Chicago that sends $25
32:44and then you have these individuals who are donating money
32:49there is a gentleman who says I heard you on the radio and I'm sending you this money
32:53please let me hear my name as someone who stands up for Mexican American rights
33:00at one time Carlos Cadena literally had tears in his eyes
33:04he said they would come up to me and they would give you crumpled up dollar bills
33:09and they'd give you coins
33:12these were people who couldn't afford it but couldn't afford not to
33:17we all dug deep into our pockets and through the dollar bill
33:22and the fundraiser and the dollar bill there
33:25we made it you know we made it
33:28the Hernandez team had another problem
33:30one of their own
33:34according to the rules of the Supreme Court
33:37the petition was due on January 20th 1953
33:41and had to be professionally printed
33:44the Hernandez petition arrived on January 21st
33:48a day late
33:49typewritten
33:52despite the Texas Attorney General's repeated objections
33:56the Supreme Court decided to accept the submission
33:58but it was a close call
34:01and a troubling indication that something was seriously wrong
34:06Gus Garcia had a problem with alcohol
34:12quite young in his life
34:14most people received that he was an alcoholic
34:16and some of the discussions among reformers is
34:19can Gus Garcia handle this opportunity
34:29the activists who had backed the lawyers efforts for so long began to worry out loud
34:36finally they had the case they wanted before the United States Supreme Court
34:40but perhaps after going all this distance
34:44Gus Garcia would not be up to the challenge
34:49I think in some ways the Mexicans were also intimidated by the process and said you know
34:53we got to be up to it
34:55we really got to look good there
34:57we've got to seize the opportunity
34:59and is Gus ready to do that
35:07The case of Hernandez versus Texas was scheduled for oral argument before the Supreme Court
35:14and its new Chief Justice Earl Warren
35:17on January 11th 1954
35:20Gus Garcia arrived in Washington early to prepare
35:25time enough it turned out to give his doubters more cause for concern
35:31Garcia knew that lawyers for the NAACP led by Thurgood Marshall
35:36had recently appeared before the court
35:38arguing the landmark school desegregation case
35:42Brown versus Board of Education
35:46hoping to keep up with the better funded civil rights group
35:49he retained a publicist
35:51and a hotel suite his team could ill afford
35:56Gus Garcia was looking at the issue
35:58and he wanted the kind of support that African Americans had gotten
36:01and the other reformers were dealing with the realities
36:05that is we can come up with maybe $3,000
36:08and that barely covers what we have to do
36:10soon Garcia was joined by the rest of the legal team
36:14including John Herrera and Carlos Cadena
36:18Carlos got to Washington
36:21and Gus had taken a hotel room for him
36:24he had a bartender
36:26and he had a table set up with drinks and everything
36:30Carlos was pretty furious because they were on a short budget
36:34and Gus thought nothing of spending the budget
36:37because it was partly his
36:41Cadena went out to the airport
36:43to meet a man who was bringing money from San Antonio
36:48and the man said how did you like the money that we sent
36:52and he said well there isn't any of it left
36:55the man gave him several hundred dollars more
36:58and they both agreed that they would not tell Gus about the money
37:04Cadena said Gus Garcia was a scoundrel and he was a liar
37:12to be a lawyer
37:12January 10th the final night before the oral argument
37:15the next morning Gus Garcia would argue the case of a lifetime
37:20a case that would determine not only his own reputation
37:24but the future of the community that depended on him
37:31some time that night
37:32Garcia managed to evade the watchful eyes of his nervous colleagues
37:39he went off on a toot
37:41and everybody knew but nobody knew where he was
37:46and Gus shows up sometime rather late in the morning
37:50and he is very very drunk
37:58they knew they were about to face the Supreme Court justices in a few hours
38:03and here's this man putting the case at risk
38:06he was one of the two main lawyers who was going to speak
38:09before Chief Justice Earl Warren and the other justices
38:12they threw Gus in a cold shower clothes and all
38:16ordered room service a big pot of black coffee
38:20and went on to sober him up and get him ready
38:31on January 11th as the lawyers marched up to the Supreme Court
38:36the wintry chill reminded them that Texas was very far away indeed
38:43the lawyers were about to face a court that had never before been addressed by Mexican American attorneys
38:49or been asked to consider the question of Mexican American civil rights
38:54if you can imagine Carlos Cadena and Gus Garcia getting the opportunity that no one else has ever had
39:00to be able to paint a picture of a community and where it stood in time
39:05and all the practices, the laws, the circumstances that kept them where they were
39:12Carlos Cadena sitting at the council table wearing a very dark serious suit
39:18Gus Garcia sitting next to him
39:20the nine justices sitting on a long bench facing the two sets of parties
39:26the Texas Attorney General sitting at their own table
39:29ready to defend the state's decision that Mexican Americans were really whites
39:36the lawyers in Hernandez needed to argue that the 14th Amendment protected Mexican Americans
39:41to a court that had barely ever heard of Mexican Americans
39:47I opened the argument
39:48I said your petitioner is a
39:52an American citizen of Mexican descent
39:56and one of the judges
39:58asked me
39:59what is that?
40:00I'm a pretty stupid guy
40:02everybody knows what that is
40:04but anyway I was explaining
40:07and Justice Frankfurter interrupted and said
40:10they call him Grease is down there, don't they?
40:15Gus Garcia who seemed to be out of it during most of the presentation by Carlos Cadena
40:21was suddenly awoken by several questions that were asked by the judges
40:25can Mexican Americans speak English or are they citizens
40:28and I think this was the key for Gus Garcia
40:31because Gus Garcia tended to personalize that
40:34and he saw within himself all the abilities and qualities of the Mexican American community
40:41Fueled by indignation
40:43Garcia offered the justices a brief irony-laced history lesson
40:47My people, he told them, were in Texas a hundred years before Sam Houston
40:53that went back from Tennessee
40:56and he was just getting started
41:02Gus's delivery was so eloquent
41:04it was so beautiful
41:06so penetrating
41:08so down to earth
41:10in high
41:12spun
41:14legal argument
41:16There are some lights there on the rostrum
41:18and when the red light comes on, you stop
41:22and everybody knew that
41:23when the red light came on, Gus stopped in mid-sentence
41:26and then Justice Earl Warren
41:29leaned off the bench and said
41:32continue Mr. Garcia
41:36Gus Garcia was told to proceed
41:39so he stole 16 extra minutes
41:41so when we walked out of the Supreme Court of the United States
41:45he met with one of the attachés
41:47and the attaché was an old black man
41:49he says, this is unprecedented
41:50he says, they've never even given extra time here at the Thurgood Marshall
41:54he was here last week
41:58after years of planning and all the legal work, it was finally over
42:04the case that the activists and lawyers had focused on for so long was now out of their hands
42:12the exhausted Hernandez legal team headed home to await the court's decision
42:22soon after their return, Garcia and Herrera went on the radio to share their tale with the public that had
42:29supported them with their dollars and their prayers
42:35for me for a great satisfaction to participate in this case
42:40and to tell the truth to the magistrates of the Supreme Court in Washington
42:45and remember Johnny, that neither you, nor Carlos Cadena, nor a servitor
42:52have we never left the words to defend our rights
42:57finally, on May 3rd, 1954
43:00the United States Supreme Court announced its ruling
43:04in the case of Hernandez versus Texas.
43:10The decision of the Texas court was reversed.
43:18Peter Hernandez would receive a new trial
43:20before a true jury of his peers,
43:23a trial that would ultimately result in his reconviction
43:27for the killing of Joe Espinosa.
43:30But far more important was the court's legal reasoning,
43:35a holding that Mexican-Americans as a group
43:38were protected under the Constitution's 14th Amendment,
43:42in keeping with the theory that they were indeed a class apart.
43:50It was a victory for the ordinary people
43:52who had endured discrimination without recourse for generations.
43:58And the activists who had fought on their behalf.
44:01For Carlos Cadena, the meticulous legal theorist.
44:06And for Gus Garcia, who had disproved the doubters
44:10and triumphed despite his inner demons.
44:13Hailed as heroes, the Hernandez lawyers were applauded
44:17by Mexican-Americans across the Southwest.
44:21In every place they went and spoke, it was about,
44:24look at what Mexican-Americans have done.
44:27Look at how we presented our case to the nation.
44:30Look at how we have finally made the people of the United States listen.
44:37Now they know we are here.
44:40The victory in Hernandez was huge for the Mexican-American community.
44:45They now had the highest court in the land saying,
44:49it's unconstitutional.
44:52Indeed, symbolically, it's un-American to treat Mexicans as if they're an inferior race.
44:59With the decision and the power of the United States Constitution behind them,
45:05Mexican-Americans successfully challenged employment and housing discrimination.
45:09They tore down barriers to their right to vote and run for office.
45:15They ensured that their children would no longer be forced to attend segregated schools.
45:22This case is incredibly important because it guarantees that even being different,
45:29that we are still protected under the laws of this great land.
45:33I think Mexican-Americans in particular, Latinos in general,
45:36but America as a whole owes a great debt to the people who pursued this case.
45:48For Gus Garcia, the future would be shadowed by tragedy.
45:54Not long after his legal triumph, his personal life spun out of control.
46:00Alcoholism would be cruelly compounded by mental illness.
46:03Taking Garcia in and out of institutions for the next decade.
46:09I didn't see him those last few months when they said he was just beyond himself in San Antonio.
46:17All the reports that I got back were that his mind was deteriorating,
46:23that his behavior was changing, and he died on a bench.
46:29Not tragic.
46:31I mean, somebody with such a brilliant mind.
46:34My God.
46:39Gus Garcia died of liver failure in 1964 at age 48.
46:51Less than a year later, Carlos Cadena would be named the first Mexican-American justice of the Texas Court of
46:57Appeals,
46:58and would go on to become Chief Justice.
47:06After the Hernandez case, Mexican-Americans across the country would no longer be considered second-class citizens under the law.
47:18The struggle was hardly over, but the lives of millions of Americans had been changed forever.
47:27Hernandez versus Texas belongs in the pantheon of great civil rights cases.
47:31Indeed, of great American cases.
47:35But even more important, it belongs in the pantheon of great moments in American history.
47:41This is a moment when a people long regarded as inferior organize and demand equal treatment and succeed in that
47:50demand.
47:51This is an inspirational moment in American history, a moment in which equality is demanded and achieved.
48:12Aised by the major
48:12It's a very happy and
48:27more bait piece of the crust,
48:28the savage's larvae is at the same source of valемis.
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