Hernandez vs. Texas

Hernandez vs. Texas (1945) was a US Supreme Court case deciding whether Latinos should be under the protection of the 14th amendment. The US took over many territories that belonged to Mexico and were offered US citizenship in order to work in the country. Mexican-Americans were later seen as white, but their citizenship continued to be challenged. They were never treated as first class citizens and received social isolation, negative commenting on their intelligence, and segregated school systems. During WWII, 300,000 Mexican-Americans were involved in the war and they believed that the successes they achieved would earn them the right to be treated as white; however, that wasn't the case. Felix Longoria was a hero from WWII and died during the war, he wanted to be buried in the Arlington National Cemetery. There were arguments about whether or not he should be allowed to be buried there and he luckily was buried in his ideal location. The 14th Amendment continued to not be acknowledged and the Supreme Court didn't believe that Longoria's case didn't justify their case, until the case of Hernandez and Espinoza. Hernandez killed Espinoza and was guilty of that, but during the trial he had to be given a jury of his peers and since Mexican-Americans are categorized as white then the jury they are given must be white and they must be treated with the same rights as them. Gus Garcia and Carlos Cadena, the lawyers on the case, challenged the double standards. The double standard was that Mexican-American were only considered white when it was in favor of the government. Hernandez had a retrial and the result was the jury was changed with more of his peers. This small step allowed them to challenge the school system, employment system, and the housing market.