Antonia Hernandez Heads Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund Back in 1956, as eight-year old Antonia Hernandez was preparing to move from Torreon, Mexico to Los Angeles, little did she realize that four decades later she would be leading one of the nation's preeminent civil rights organizations. Since 1985, Antonia Hernandez has been in the vanguard, as President and General Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF). As its CEO and chief lawyer, she leads MALDEF's efforts to protect the legal rights of the Nation's 29 million Latinos, the minority group that is expected to soon become the Nation's largest minority group. Working from her Los Angeles headquarters and five regional offices, with a budget of $5 million dollars and a staff of 75, (including 22 lawyers), Hernandez and the members of her organization serve as a national watchdog, litigating and promoting the civil rights and other issues of special concern to the Latino community. Her organization works in close cooperation with other civil rights groups whenever their interests intersect, as well as with other organizations that work for the common good. Hernandez's commitment to social justice comes from her parents, particularly her father who was one of many American-born Latinos corralled and arbitrarily deported to Mexico during a wave of anti-Mexican immigrant hysteria in the 1930s. Hernandezs awareness was further heightened when her family lived in an East Los Angeles public housing complex during her coming-of-age years, and while working as a summer migrant worker in 105 degree temperatures in the San Joaquin Valley. By the mid-1960s she was an integral part of the Chicano civil rights movement. Ms. Hernandez received her B.A. from UCLA in 1970 and completed her law degree from UCLA School of Law in 1974. She worked for a number of non-profit organizations after graduation, including the Legal Aid Corporation, before being recruited in 1979 as a staff member for the US Senate Judiciary Committee. She has been married for twenty years to Michael Stem, a civil rights attorney whom she met while they were both staffers with California Rural Legal Assistance, a group that worked closely with Ceasar Chavez' UFW (United Farm Workers Union) in addressing the needs of migrant farm workers. They have three children and make Los Angeles their home. CRJ: Tell us a little about what it was like when you were growing up in California? The housing projects then were very different from the projects today. It was a working class, poor community with intact family units, but there were 'gang bangers' around. I liked books, so I was their little nerd and I was protected. I don't want to glamorize it, because I saw people getting killed in front of my eyes, for no reason whatsoever. Overall, though, we concentrated on family and church and school. We took care of each other. CRJ: What was the experience of being the first Latina working on the US Senate Judiciary Committee? I had to compete with the best and the brightest to get and keep that job. It was in the late 1970s, and it was a phenomenal, fascinating experience for a Latina to be able to go to Washington and actually be part of a historic Senate institution. I was in the belly of power and worked with a group of bright, dynamic people who are today at the center of influence, in and out of Washington. CRJ: What are MALDEFs major priorities? Actually we're up to our noses addressing a welter of familiar civil rights issues that won't go away any time soon. We've just finished working on issues of higher education, naturalization, affirmative action in the Federal government, the English-only initiative, judicial nominations and appointments, minimum wage, and welfare reform. Whether it's at the State or Federal level, government has not been in a very positive, proactive mode. But the pendulum is always swinging, and my staff is always on full alert, fighting the good fight day in and day out, anticipating the swings of the pendulum and taking full advantage when it swings back in our direction. CRJ: Has MALDEFs focus changed since it was founded? Unfortunately, the issues facing Latinos and our strategies to address them have remained essentially the same. What is changing is our emphasis, in large part because of the devolution that came about during the 1980s - the shifting of power from the Federal to the State and local levels. We have been pretty successful in staying ahead of that power shift and revising our strategies to make them relevant to the new realities. But make no mistake, MALDEF is still very much a presence in Washington because that is still where the major policy decisions first surface and get made. CRJ: What is the most important civil rights issue facing Latinos? There is no single issue that's most important - they're all interconnected. Latinos suffer more housing discrimination than any other group, for example, and there is no question that affordable housing in decent neighborhoods usually means better schools for our children, which is terribly important. Employment, language, immigration, police accountability, and health issues are all near the top of our list of concerns. But if I were forced to choose only one, it would be education. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see why Latino kids are falling through the cracks in school. I challenge anybody to visit two Los Angeles schools, Beverly Hills High and South Central's Jefferson High - I could choose other pairs of schools in many other cities - and tell me whether they think that students attending those schools are getting the same quality education. This Nation has to find a way to decrease our school dropout rates and increase the numbers of Latinos who pursue and complete post-secondary education. Right now, over 30 percent of Latinos do not graduate from high school, nationwide, and that figure is much higher in some places. It's a disaster in real time for the families involved, and a disaster in the making for the United States in terms of having an educated, competitive workforce. Without an educated Latino community, our dramatic increase as a percentage of the US population is not going to result in policies that improve our lives as Americans. Wasn't it George Orwell who said "To be political, you first have to be well informed"? A solid education levels the playing field for everybody. It's the surest provider of equal opportunity CRJ: What is your organization's position on illegal immigration to the United States? Every country should be able to control its own borders, but they can build the biggest wall along our southern border and it won't stop people from coming in illegally if the US economy demanded it. On top of that, growers will continue to demand to be allowed to bring temporary migrant workers in for the harvest, the majority of whom will be ill-housed, underfed, and underpaid. Many will be continually exposed to toxic pesticides, and others, especially sugar cane workers, will suffer debilitating injuries. Finally, remember that over 50% of undocumented workers don't cross the southern border, they come in through ports of entries along our northern border and both coasts, entering on student and tourist visas and overstaying their visits. MALDEF has always had a family reunification emphasis regarding US immigration policy, but we are now also emphasizing the need to attract more skilled workers from around the world. Why is it that when we are in a recession immigrants become the issue, the scapegoat, and when the economy is good you don't hear very much about immigrants who are here illegally and taking jobs away from Americans? Today's undocumented workers have virtually no rights or legal protection against abuses by employers, landlords, police and other forms of illegal discrimination. Several of your Commission's southwestern State Advisory Committees issued a scathing report last year documenting physical abuse of undocumented immigrants while in the custody of the US Border Patrol. The fear we (MALDEF) have is creating a permanent underclass of folks within our society, and that spells trouble for everybody. We must have a sound, generous policy that allows most people to enter the US legally so that they can have the full protection of our laws. CRJ: How important is the "English-only" debate? Language and religion are the bedrock of a culture. As someone who is bilingual and had to learn English, I can tell you I'm a much mote valuable American by being bilingual. Latinos have to learn English; it's the language of economic progress. However, that doesn't have to mean we have to forget Spanish and lose an asset that others don't have. We need to get beyond the American nativist [attitudes] of "English only" and deal with the reality of why Americans have the worst multiple language capabilities in the world. CRJ: There are very few Latinos on the Federal Judiciary. What can MALDEF do about that? MALDEF is spending some of its resources on that issue, because it is unlikely that Latinos will get our array of law and justice related issues addressed "with all deliberate speed" if we don't have Latinos and people of color on the Federal judiciary. We've been working closely with the White House, the Republican majority, and other Latino civil rights organizations on the issue. Minority judges and US attorneys have to endure triple the normal time in get, ting scrutinized and approved by the Senate. God forbid that these people expressed strong views favoring civil or human rights, because their confirmation will be further delayed, if not derailed, whereas a white person can usually go in and say the same thing and not cause a firestorm of controversy. CRJ: MALDEF has been actively involved in key redistricting battles. Will that involvement continue? Since MALDEF came into being we've been involved in every important redistricting battle, and we intend to be very involved in the years 2000 and 2002 after the results of the next census count are in and are being implemented. It is fortuitous timing that the Latino population is growing rapidly in certain key electoral States. MALDEF has been one of the organizations that has conducted a massive national educational outreach effort encouraging Latinos to cooperate with neighborhood census workers and be counted. We have hired a national director and seven regional coordinators to head up that effort. CRJ: Is there increased competition and conflict among recent immigrants and other resident minority communities? Although that may sometimes become an issue at certain times and places around the country, it's not anything unusual in US history. I don't see that as a significant issue right now. Besides, I keep hearing that competition is generally a good thing. One of MALDEF's core values is having a collaborative relationship with all minority groups. We've made significant progress in trying to understand and work with one another and not let divisive issues get in the way That is not to say that we don't have issues, but rather than let them divide us. What we're trying to do is find the issues we have in common. CRJ: Are there any commonalities or differences among Latinos that YOU think are worth noting? That's not an easy question to answer in a few words, because it invites stereotyping of one kind or another. But I think that there is wide agreement about some of the things that define us. Obviously, language and music and other aspects of our culture bind most Latinos together, despite our different countries of origin. We all share a sense that everyone, regardless of how high up the ladder of success he or she has climbed, deserves to be treated with dignity and respect. We recognize the sacredness and fragility of being human. It's not that our way is necessarily better, but we tend to confront the reality of death more openly than some others in this society do, and our religiosity and celebrations and art reflect this. And of course, we continue to be very strongly family-centered, something that we share in common with other groups. However, there are real differences among us, too. Puerto Ricans are US citizens, so immigration is not as critical an issue for them as it is for many other Latinos. Yet, to some degree we are united by the types of discriminatory experiences that we all share because of our skin color, or accent, or names that often set us apart in other people's eyes. Immigration is an example of this. It impacts on Puerto Ricans directly because many people who discriminate against Latinos cannot tell one Latino from another, so many Puerto Ricans have to contend with bigotry and discrimination directed at immigrants, whether illegal or legal. With Cuban Americans, immigration is indeed an issue, but one that Cuban Americans often approach very differently than do Mexican Americans and immigrants from other nations in Latin America and the Caribbean. CRJ: Why did you become a lawyer? There weren't that many Latina lawyers when I was growing up. My heroes and heroines were union organizers like Delores Huerta of the UFW. But at some point I came to realize that what sets this country apart from others is that it is governed according to laws and the moral codes behind them, and that our legal system plays a very big role in everyday life For Latinos and other people of color, becoming lawyers, becoming part of the system, being able to use the tools of this profession to bring about needed change within the system - all of that is as American as it gets. I'm a very practical person, but I am also deeply optimistic. I think that the future bodes well for Latinos as more and more of us become business and labor leaders and professionals. I have a great deal of faith in the role that my profession and legal organizations like MALDEF will play in helping to bring about positive change. CRJ: How long can you keep this pace up? I'm passionate about civil rights and 40 years from now I see myself still being passionate about civil rights. I spend a lot of sleepless nights wondering how I'm going to meet the payroll, but I've never spent a sleepless night wondering if I'm doing the right thing.

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