Carlos C. Cadena (1917–2001) was an American

lawyer A lawyer is a person who is qualified to offer advice about the law, draft legal documents, or represent individuals in legal matters. The exact nature of a lawyer's work varies depending on the legal jurisdiction and the legal system, as w ...

, civil rights

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and

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based in

San Antonio San Antonio ( ; Spanish for " Saint Anthony") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in Greater San Antonio. San Antonio is the third-largest metropolitan area in Texas and the 24th-largest metropolitan area in the ...

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

. Carlos Cristian Cadena, who was the son of Mexican immigrants, was born in San Antonio, Texas, in 1917 and attended Catholic school. He earned his LL.B. degree from the

University of Texas The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...

Law School in 1940, serving as editor of the ''Texas Law Review'' and graduating

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

. Cadena's long legal career was interrupted only by a term as a

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operator in the

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during

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. In his early years he worked as assistant city attorney (and later city attorney) for San Antonio, was partner in a law firm, and also taught constitutional law at St. Mary's University in San Antonio. Cadena, a father of one, married Gloria Villa Galvan, a young war widow with eight children. Together they raised their nine children. Cadena worked with fellow attorney Gus Garcia in the landmark case '' Hernández v. Texas'' (1954), arguing before the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

for the end of a practice of systematic exclusion of

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

s from jury service in

Jackson County, Texas Jackson County is a county in the U.S. state of Texas. As of the 2020 census its population was 14,988. Its county seat is Edna. The county was created in 1835 as a municipality in Mexico and in 1836 was organized as a county (of the Repub ...

. Even though

Mexican-American Mexican Americans are Americans of full or partial Mexican descent. In 2022, Mexican Americans comprised 11.2% of the US population and 58.9% of all Hispanic and Latino Americans. In 2019, 71% of Mexican Americans were born in the United State ...

s composed more than 10% of the county's population, no person of Mexican ancestry had served on a jury there in over 25 years. The high court, led by Chief Justice

Earl Warren Earl Warren (March 19, 1891 – July 9, 1974) was an American attorney and politician who served as the 30th governor of California from 1943 to 1953 and as the 14th Chief Justice of the United States from 1953 to 1969. The Warren Court presid ...

, ruled that United States citizens could not be excluded from jury duty based on national origin, because such exclusion denied the accused a jury of his peers. Cadena and Garcia were the first Mexican Americans to argue and win a case in front of the Supreme Court. Cadena returned to the law faculty, teaching constitutional law at St. Mary's from 1961 until 1965, when Texas governor John Connolly appointed him an associate justice of the 4th

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, the first Mexican American to hold such a high ranking judgeship. He was named the Court's chief justice in 1977 by then-governor

Dolph Briscoe Dolph Briscoe Jr. (April 23, 1923 – June 27, 2010) was an American rancher and businessman from Uvalde, Texas, who was the 41st governor of Texas between 1973 and 1979. He was a member of the Democratic Party. Because of his re-election fo ...

and held that position until his retirement in 1990 after 25 years on the bench. He continued to serve part-time as a senior appellate justice, as well as acting of counsel to the San Antonio law firm of Charles A. Nicholson, until his death from lung cancer in 2001. Cadena was survived by his wife and nine children. Cadena received many state and national awards during his more than fifty years of legal practice. The premiere student society of St. Mary's Law School is the Carlos Cadena Law Student Dining Society, and one of the University of Texas Law School's societies is named in his honor. In February 2009, the Public Broadcasting System showed a program ''A Class Apart'', centering on the Hernandez case and its social implications for Mexican Americans.

References

External links

*. Accessed February 25, 2009. *
Texas House Resolution Honoring Carlos Cadena
*

American Experience ''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...

episode
A Class Apart
'' - Aired on

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

on February 23, 2009. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cadena, Carlos C. 1917 births 2001 deaths Lawyers from San Antonio American legal scholars Activists for Hispanic and Latino American civil rights American civil rights activists American judges of Mexican descent Texas state court judges American civil rights lawyers University of Texas School of Law alumni 20th-century Texas state court judges Activists from Texas 20th-century American lawyers