Carlos C. Cadena (1917–2001) was an American lawyer, civil rights activist and judge based in

San Antonio ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

. 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. It was founded in 1883 and is the oldest institution in the University of Texas System. With 40,916 undergraduate students, 11,075 ...

Law School in 1940, serving as editor of the ''Texas Law Review'' and graduating summa cum laude. Cadena's long legal career was interrupted only by a term as a

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

operator in the

US Army Air Forces The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. 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 U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...

for the end of a practice of systematic exclusion of

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to viceroyalties forme ...

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-Americans 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, 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

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of ...

, 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 foll ...

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 People from San Antonio American legal scholars Activists for Hispanic and Latino American civil rights American judges of Mexican descent Texas state court judges Texas lawyers American civil rights lawyers University of Texas School of Law alumni 20th-century American judges Activists from Texas 20th-century American lawyers