Back More
Salem Press

Great Lives from History: Latinos

Antonia Hernández

by Mary Christianakis

Mexican-born lawyer and activist

As a former president of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and president of the California Community Foundation, Hernández has enjoyed an illustrious career as a Latino civil rights attorney and community philanthropist. She has worked hard to improve the lives of Latinos in the areas of labor, education, and health.

Areas of achievement: Activism; law

Early Life

Antonia Hernández (an-TOH-nee-ah ehr-NAN-dehz) was born in Mexico on May 30, 1948, in the town of Torreón, Coahuila. Even before she was born, her family had faced discrimination in the United States. During the Great Depression, her father, Manuel Hernández, an eight-year-old Texas-born Mexican American, was deported to Mexico and sent off with a one-way train ticket.

Antonia Hernández.

324_Hernandez_Antonia.jpg

Hernández emigrated from Mexico to East Los Angeles with her family when she was eight years old. Her parents hoped to provide Hernández and her siblings with more opportunities in the United States. She grew up in the Maravilla Projects, which were situated in a long-standing neighborhood in East Los Angeles. Like many immigrants in Los Angeles, the family lived under conditions of poverty, but it was bolstered by much family love and support. Her father Manuel worked hard to support the family as a gardener and laborer. Her mother, Nicolasa Hernández, supplemented the family income with odd jobs while raising Antonia and her five younger siblings.

Hernández’s experience as a poor immigrant child in American public schools helped sharpen her civil rights focus. In school, she learned English through the immersion method, often described as “sink or swim,” and she was not given the opportunity to use the Spanish language in an academic setting. Originally, Hernández wanted to become a teacher and school counselor, but she later decided she could be more helpful to her community as an attorney, influencing and shaping the laws that affected Latino families and children.

Life’s Work

Hernández’s experiences as an immigrant Latina in the United States led her to take a leadership role in the Latino civil rights movement. She graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) with a degree in history in 1970 and received a teaching credential from UCLA in 1971. While working on her credential, she served as a coordinator of Project Upward Bound. That experience, along with the East Los Angeles high school walkouts of the late 1960’s, in which Latino students demanded better educations, inspired her to work toward improving the lives of Latino families.

Upon graduating from UCLA law school in 1974, Hernández accepted a job with the East Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, which litigated civil and criminal cases involving police violence and brutality. In 1977, she took a position as an attorney with the Legal Aid Foundation in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles. That same year, she married Michael Stern, the deputy public defender at the Federal Public Defenders’ office, whom she had met several years earlier when both worked as staffers with California Rural Legal Assistance, an organization that collaborated with César Chávez’s United Farm Workers union. The couple later had three children.

In 1978, Hernández was asked to become staff counsel to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee chaired by Senator Ted Kennedy. While in Washington D.C., Hernández served two years as staff counsel and as Kennedy’s campaign coordinator. In 1981, after the Republicans had gained control of the Senate, she accepted a position as a staff attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) at its Washington, D.C., location. While at MALDEF, Hernández played a key role in the defeat of the 1982 Simpson-Mazzoli Bill, an immigration reform and control measure that was criticized for being anti-Latino.

Hernández spent most of her career at MALDEF. In 1983, she moved to the organization’s Los Angeles office to accept the position of employment litigation director, fighting for affirmative action and increased opportunities for Latinos in both the private and public sectors. Two years later, in 1985, she became president of MALDEF and immediately led a strong opposition movement in response to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Convinced that the act would lead to further discrimination of Latinos, she persuaded the 1990 Leadership Conference on Civil Rights to support her in repealing the act.

Hernández’s training in advocacy and the law came in handy when, in 1987, an executive committee of MALDEF’s board of directors terminated her for her alleged poor administrative and leadership capabilities. They immediately hired former New Mexico governor Toney Anaya, promising to pay him $40,000 more than Hernández. Rumors of sexism and political favoritism surrounded the sudden decision. Hernández, determined to stand her ground, appealed to the state of Texas, who ruled that only the full board of directors could terminate her. The full board voted 18 to 14 to retain her.

In 2003, Hernández resigned from MALDEF. In February, 2004, she accepted a position as president and chief executive officer of the California Community Foundation (CCF), one of California’s most influential philanthropic organizations. With more than twelve hundred donors, CCF helps fund nonprofit organizations working in the fields of health, housing, human service, community arts, and education.

Significance

Antonia Hernández is best known for her eighteen-year tenure as president of MALDEF. While in this position, she oversaw the expansion of the organization, ensured its long-term financial stability, and secured a building in downtown Los Angeles. Her many accomplishments include her victory in Edgewood Independent School District et al. v. Kirby (1989), in which the Texas Supreme Court granted state lawmakers the authority to require wealthy school districts to share resources with poor districts in order to provide equal educational opportunities. Under Hernández’s leadership, MALDEF also successfully mounted a court battle to defeat Proposition 187, a California ballot initiative that would have prohibited the state’s illegal immigrants from using health care, public education, and other social services.

Further Reading

1 

Hernández, Antonia. “Closing.” Chicano-Latino Law Review 14, no. 179 (February, 1994) 1-4. Reprints a speech that Hernández delivered at the Chicano-Latino Law Review conference in 1993.

2 

Mendoza, Sylvia. The Book of Latina Woman: 150 Vidas of Passion, Strength, and Success. Avon, Mass.: Adams Media, 2004. A collection of short biographical essays of influential Latinas.

3 

Telgen, Dian, and Kamp, Jim, eds. Latinas! Women of Achievement. Detroit: Visible Ink Press, 1996. Documents the contributions of Latinas in the United States in areas such as art, science, politics, entertainment, and education.

Citation Types

Type
Format
MLA 9th
Christianakis, Mary. "Antonia Hernández." Great Lives from History: Latinos, edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera, Salem Press, 2012. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=GLL_10013240030901001.
APA 7th
Christianakis, M. (2012). Antonia Hernández. In C. Tafolla & M. P. Cotera (Eds.), Great Lives from History: Latinos. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Christianakis, Mary. "Antonia Hernández." Edited by Carmen Tafolla & Martha P. Cotera. Great Lives from History: Latinos. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2012. Accessed October 22, 2025. online.salempress.com.