1	BOOKS “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí,” a new study of U.S. Supreme Court case Hernandez vs. Texas, aims to restore the case’s rightful place in American history. read more...
2	FILM & TV A Q&A with television producer Gayla Jamison, creator of the documentary Lives For Sale, which airs its true and tough tales of border crossings this month. read more...
3	MUSIC Hardcore rapper Pitbull shows his sensitive side while exploring his Cuban-American roots in El Mariel, his sophomore release. read more...
4	CALENDAR Our monthly list of premier events throughout the U.S. read more...

BOOKS

On the Case

With the publication of “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí”, Houston’s Arte Publico continues to define itself as a leader in scholarship on Latino civil rights.

With the growth of the Hispanic population, an increase that has been accompanied by the group’s surging economic and political clout, it is easy for Latinos to take their civil rights for granted. But “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí”, a study of landmark but oft overlooked U.S. Supreme Court case Hernandez v. Texas, charts the genesis of the civil rights movement for Mexican Americans and in so doing points at the challenges that may still lie ahead.
This historic 1954 Supreme Court civil rights case preceded the renowned Brown v. Board of Education decision by just days. While Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka made racial segregation in public schools illegal, in Hernandez v. Texas the court agreed that Mexican Americans constituted a separate class in Jackson County, Texas, a group that had been discriminated against, and was subsequently entitled to protection under the Constitution’s 14th Amendment equal protection.
Hernandez v. Texas, the focus of “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí”, would form the criminal companion case to Brown v. Board of Education, the civil case that sounded the death knell for the notoriously discriminatory Jim Crow practices of the time.
Edited by Michael A. Olivas, Ed., distinguished chair at the University of Houston Law Center and director of the university’s Institute for Higher Education Law and Governance, “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí” includes 10 essays on Hernandez v. Texas written by distinguished legal scholars. And while those essays are intended for a legal academic readership, the dramatic nature of the case makes for compelling reading for anyone with a serious interest in Latino civil rights and history.
Hernandez v. Texas has its roots in the Houston area of Texas. On August 4, 1951, Pedro “Pete” Hernandez, a 24-year-old gas station attendant, shot tenant farmer Joe Espinosa dead in Jackson County, Texas. Hernandez was subsequently indicted for and convicted of murder by all white juries. But Mexican American attorneys including Gus Garcia, Carlos Cadena, John Herrera, A.D. Azios and James De Anda, formed a legal team to challenge Texas jury practices, won their case and thereby became the first Mexican Americans to try a case in the Supreme Court.
They showed that despite the fact that approximately 15 percent of the population in Jackson County was Mexican American, no Mexican American had ever served on a jury there in 25 years. In fact, on the very courthouse grounds where the case was heard, one of two men’s toilets was marked “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí”.
Published by Houston’s Arte Publico Press, as part of the publishing house’s Hispanic Civil Rights Series, “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí” takes its title from that restroom signage and arrives in the wake of the passing, last year, of Judge James De Anda, the last of the living Brown v. Texas attorneys and the second Mexican American federal judge.
Among the 10 essays, “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí” also includes a transcription of a speech by De Anda commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hernandez v. Texas, celebrated in 2004. The other nine essays explore the case in substantial depth and from a variety of perspectives, bringing back into the light of history one of the foundational moments of the Hispanic, indeed the nation’s, civil rights struggle.
The occasion for “Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí”, says Olivas was the conference held in Houston celebrating the anniversary of the case. “On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, every holler in the country was having a Brown anniversary, and I kept waiting for someone to put on a Texas v. Hernandez conference,” Olivas says. The legal scholar did more than wait: he took action. “I decided, because we [the University of Houston Law Center] were the closest law school to the case ... we would have a conference.”
While many of the books from the series don’t get the big budget that major publishing houses offer, Arte Publico is carving out a niche for itself as a leading chronicler of books on Latino civil rights with the series.
“Colored Men” and “Hombres Aquí” is the 16th book from Arte Publico’s Hispanic Civil Rights Series, which began in 1997 with the publication of Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement based on the PBS television series.
“We’re still looking to create new titles,” says Dr. Nicolas Kanellos, Arte Publico founder and Professor of Spanish at the University of Houston.