After serving in the Army during World War II, Albert Armendariz Sr. returned to civilian life with a new view of himself and his Mexican American community.
"Before the war, we were inconsequential," Armendariz told the El Paso Times in 2005. "When we came back, we rose. We found out in the war that we had value and we instilled that value in our people."
Armendariz, who went on to prominence as a civil rights attorney and a founder of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, died Thursday in a Brownsville, Texas, hospital following surgery two weeks earlier, said his oldest son, Albert Armendariz Jr. He was 88.
"His legacy is . . . another generation of leaders of organizations and people using their legal education to defend the rights of Latinos, whether they're the newest newcomers or have been here for a few generations and still face discrimination," said John Trasvina, MALDEF's president and general counsel.
Through his work with national organizations such as MALDEF and the League of United Latin American Citizens, Armendariz helped change the legal landscape for Latinos in Texas and nationwide.
In 1954, while serving as president of LULAC, Armendariz helped argue Hernandez vs. the State of Texas, a landmark case that established Latinos as a distinct class entitled to protection under the 14th Amendment.
In El Paso in the late 1950s and early '60s, Armendariz served on the El Paso Civil Service Commission and is credited with helping to open the city's police and fire departments to Mexican Americans.
Representing MALDEF in the 1970s, Armendariz argued Alvarado vs. El Paso Independent School District, a landmark case that resulted in a federal court order requiring desegregation in El Paso schools.
Throughout his career, Armendariz operated his private practice from a small office less than four blocks from his childhood home.
Armendariz was born Aug. 11, 1919, in El Paso, one of seven children. Before World War II, he worked as a shoe salesman and an auto mechanic. Prospects for Latino advancement were bleak until the war.
"I credit World War II with making us aware of the other side of the coin," Armendariz said in a 1992 article in the Dallas Morning News. "For instance, we got into a Jeep, drove a Jeep, when many of us had never gotten into a car. We got into office jobs and were given the right to do that. We got behind a gun and were given the responsibility to fire."
