Antonia Hernández January 10, 2006; February 6, 2006; April 18, 2006 Recommended Transcript of Interview with Antonia Hernández (Jan. 10, 2006; Feb. 6, Citation 2006; Apr. 18, 2006), https://abawtp.law.stanford.edu/exhibits/show/antonia-hernandez. Attribution The American Bar Association is the copyright owner or licensee for this collection. Citations, quotations, and use of materials in this collection made under fair use must acknowledge their source as the American Bar Association. Terms of Use This oral history is part of the American Bar Association Women Trailblazers in the Law Project, a project initiated by the ABA Commission on Women in the Profession and sponsored by the ABA Senior Lawyers Division. This is a collaborative research project between the American Bar Association and the American Bar Foundation. Reprinted with permission from the American Bar Association. All rights reserved. Contact Please contact the Robert Crown Law Library at Information [email protected] with questions about the ABA Women Trailblazers Project. Questions regarding copyright use and permissions should be directed to the American Bar Association Office of General Counsel, 321 N Clark St., Chicago, IL 60654-7598; 312-988-5214. ABA Commission on Women in the Profession Women Trailblazers in the Law ORAL HISTORY of ANTONIA HERNANDEZ Interviewer: Louise LaMothe Dates of Interviews: January 10, 2006 February 6, 2006 April 18, 2006 INTERVIEW WITH ANTONIA HERNANDEZ BY LOUISE LAMOTHE FOR THE WOMEN'S TRAILBLAZER'S PROJECT OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION'S COMMISSION ON WOMEN JANUARY 10, 2006 Ms. Lamothe: Antonia, thank you so much for agreeing to be interviewed for this oral history. Maybe we could begin at the beginning with your birth and I understand that you were born in Mexico. Ms. Hernandez: Yes, I was born May 30, 1948 in a communal ranch called El Cambio in the State of Coahuila. I lived in the ranch until the age of seven when my father decided to bring the family to the north to Los Angeles. Ms. Lamothe: I see. And what was it like living in that rural area in the early 1950s? Ms. Hernandez: Actually, it was quite idyllic and pleasant. I lived with my maternal grandparents and with the extended family in a ranch and, in that particular ranch, many of my relatives lived there. So I lived across the street from aunts and uncles and I went to school in that community. My grandfather, my maternal grandfather, had a plot of land in the communal ranch and worked it with my uncle. My father would go back and forth between the ranch and the United States to work in the United States. We were, of course, poor but you would never know it. We never lacked food. We never lacked essentials. I was surrounded by grandparents, aunts and uncles. So I really can't say that it was unpleasant. It was quite pleasant, quite tranquil. Ms. Lamothe: How many brothers and sisters did you have? -1- Ms. Hernandez: Well, actually we're a total of seven. I'm the oldest of seven. Four of us were born in Mexico and three of the younger siblings were born in Los Angeles. Ms. Lamothe: After you came up to the United States. Ms. Hernandez: Yes. Ms. Lamothe: And tell me, what made you parents decide that they would take the family, you and your siblings and move to the United States when you were seven. Ms. Hernandez: Well, actually my mother did not want to come. All of her family was there. My father had been born in Texas. His family is from Texas and the family was returned, sort of sent back, deported during the Depression when a lot of Mexican families were sent back to Mexico. So my father always knew he had been born in Texas. He had other siblings who had been born in Texas and they had lived there for many, many years. So he wanted to return to California, or wanted to live in California, because his brother and sister were already living in California and he believed that we could have a better life. Ms. Lamothe: And so did your mother come with him after all? Ms. Hernandez: Reluctantly, we came. Ms. Lamothe: And how did the children feel about it? Had you ever been to the United States on visits before you came. Ms. Hernandez: We had never been to the United States. Interestingly enough, I had my eighth birthday in Juarez, Mexico and we lived there for a couple of -2- months while my father fixed our papers. I turned eight in Juarez and we crossed the border in early June 1956. My parents worked for a while in the fields in New Mexico and in September 1956 my uncle picked us up in New Mexico and drove us to Los Angeles. And I've been in Los Angeles since September of 1956. Ms. Lamothe: Ever since. Ms. Hernandez: Yes. Ms. Lamothe: Tell me then, had you had any schooling in Mexico before you left? Ms. Hernandez: Oh yes. Actually, it's quite interesting. My aunt, on my grandmother's maternal side, was a principal in Mexico and I was the youngest of a cohort of cousins in the ranch, which had a very good school. So when my older cousins went to school, I chose and begged to be let to go to school. So when I came to the United States, I had already completed the third grade. Ms. Lamothe: Oh you were way ahead of your class now. Ms. Hernandez: I was ahead because I was allowed to go to school earlier. I knew how to read and write in Spanish and I loved school. I've always loved school. I took a great deal of pride in going to school. My parents have always valued school, as had my cousins, my cohort cousins of the same age in Mexico. If I had stayed in Mexico I would have been a nurse or a teacher because all my cousins are engineers, nurses or teachers. So I felt very comfortable with reading and writing in Spanish. Ms. Lamothe: At home, obviously, everyone spoke Spanish, I'm assuming. -3- Ms. Hernandez: Everybody. Ms. Lamothe: And your father spoke English from the years that he had lived in the United States and worked here. Ms. Hernandez: My father to this day understands a lot but seldom speaks the language. Ms. Lamothe: And what about your mother? Ms. Hernandez: My mother speaks Spanish and, in fact, to this day, their predominant language is Spanish. Ms. Lamothe: So they speak Spanish to each other and Spanish to all of their children. And so when you went to school in the United States. Did you go for the first time here in Los Angeles. Ms. Hernandez: Yes. Ms. Lamothe: What was that like for you. Ms. Hernandez: It was an interesting experience because we settled in East LA and all the kids looked like me. Remember this was 1956. All the kids looked like me but didn't speak Spanish. If you recall, in that era if you spoke Spanish, you were punished. So they didn't speak Spanish. Very few. And the few that did didn't want to acknowledge it. I couldn't understand; they looked like me. Why didn't they understand or why they didn't want to speak Spanish? And it was tough I will tell you. I think of the few negative experiences in my mind were those first couple of years. I remember my parents giving me, I think it was a nickel, whatever it was at that time, money for milk. But I couldn't buy the milk because I didn't -4- know how to say milk. And so, it was that transition of learning the basics to survive. Ms. Lamothe: Was it a public school that you went to? Ms. Hernandez: Oh yes, they renamed it, Riggin Elementary in East Los Angeles. I'm a product of LA schools, elementary, junior high, high school, community college and the UC system. Ms. Lamothe: So was the experience similar then for your younger brothers and sisters who came with you? Ms. Hernandez: Oh definitely, it was similar for all ofus. It was the sink or swim method. There are few teachers whom I remember that really made an impression on my mind. Ms. Lamothe: And why do you think that is? Ms. Hernandez: They just did not make an impression. There was one, and it was an impression in a positive way, but with negative overtones. Ms. Lamothe: Expand that out a little bit. Ms. Hernandez: Her name was Mrs. Moore. I can't remember whether she was the third or fourth grade teacher. In the beginning, I remember vividly that she would help me during the breaks and after school tried to help me catch up because she quickly understood that I could read and in math I was a whiz. I was way up there. Math is a universal language. Right? Ms. Lamothe: How fortunate. -5- Ms. Hernandez: And the other thing with English and Spanish. I could read the letters because they were same. But, I just could not pronounce them. For whatever reason, she took an interest in me. And I remember, she was helping me during her free time and that was the positive. But when I say in a negative context because the message she would convey to me is that she was helping me because I was different. Ms. Lamothe: I see. Ms. Hernandez: And I used to see the other kids; they didn't look any different from me.