On January 25, 2025, Dr. Joe J. Bernal, pioneering bilingual educator, groundbreaking political leader, consequential Texas legislator and relentless force for Mexican American civil rights, died at 97 years old.
A quintessential American success story raised on the Westside of San Antonio during the depths of the depression, he leaves an impactful legacy for generations to come. He was rooted in working class Mexican cultural and catholic values devoted to his loving family with a life-long dedication to improving the lives of others.
From his shoeless, barefoot childhood in a segregated barrio along Guadalupe Street he developed an inner drive for self and community improvements. This led him to become an inspirational teacher and coach, compassionate social worker, resolute bilingual education advocate, generations impacting legislator, and forceful local, state and national political leader. Joe B, as he was affectionately called, along with his child nickname Chema was born at 711 Torreon, which he proudly referred to as a Callejon and wore as a badge of honor. His father died when Joe was twelve As one of nine siblings, he was raised with limited family income he would later tell friends that the bottoms of his feet were so leather thick that he could walk on glass without bleeding. His mother’s humble, honest and firm but loving manner and her devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe helped him form a foundation for living a life dedicated to helping others. As he was known then, Chema worked at a variety of jobs as a child, selling tomatoes door-to-door, candy at Progreso Theater and shining shoes with a self-made shine box. His older brothers also worked to support the family allowing Joe to finish school. He loved his barrio neighborhood often sharing vivid childhood memories with his friends from Lanier High School. Joe and his fellow Lanierites regularly shared these memories at Ray’s Drive Inn of historic puffy taco fame. These childhood memories formed an unbreakable bond of friendship between the Lanierites and others that extended throughout Joe’s lifetime. He always kept his beloved Lanier community in the forefront of his mind during his teaching and legislative career. Throughout his adult life he supported financial assistance and scholarships for Lanier students.
Joe was quite the athlete who played golf and tennis well into in eighties. He was a track miler and played football and basketball in high school. He was a member of the one-loss 1944 Lanier team that played in the state basketball tournament yielding only to the winning champions. Their road to statewide excellence was often marked with racial slurs by opponent fans, including an up-close shotgun threat in a restaurant parking lot in San Marcos. The life lessons he learned from his mentor, coach Nemo Herrera, instilled in him a quiet yet confident self- discipline to overcome ill-conceived prejudice. Coach Nemo taught him to overcome discrimination by achieving excellence in every endeavor he undertook. Joe volunteered for military duty after graduating early from high school and enrolled in a US Army Corps of Engineers training program hitchhiking long distances to attend college, first at Texas Tech University and then New Mexico A&M. He returned home early and entered active US Army duty in 1944, was promoted to staff sergeant at age of 19 and received an honorable discharge in 1946. He trained for the infantry during Army preparations for a high casualty invasion of Japan but was redirected to the Philippines after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. He was then assigned the Headquarters Squadron, Pacific Air Command in Tokyo. There he served as a security clerk supporting and observing the daily meetings between the Japanese emperor Hirohito and General Douglas McArthur during the surrender and transition of the Japanese government. On reflection he marveled at the hospitality of the Japanese people. They followed the wishes of the Emperor, who with Gen. McArthur wanted a peaceful transition back to their national sovereignty. This led Joe to conclude that friendship with the former enemy resulted in a rapid recovery in Japan, which continues to produce economic benefits for Americans and the world. When Joe returned home, he enrolled in college on the GI Bill graduating from Trinity University in 1950 with a degree in sociology and a teaching certificate. After being rejected at San Antonio Independent School District (SAID), his first teaching job was in Kosciusko, Texas, a small Polish immigrant community, where he taught elementary classes.
He then taught in Edgewood ISD from 1951-54 and continued his post-graduate studies at Our Lady of the Lake University, where he met his bride, Mary Esther a music major and accomplished pianist and organist. Joe would walk the hallways of OLLU drawn to the beautiful piano music emanating from her classroom. He eventually gained the courage to introduce himself and their romance blossomed into marriage in June 1956. They were an amazing team for 65 years devoted to educational opportunities for others. Joe taught sixth grade at Crockett Elementary school in SAISD in his old neighborhood on the Westside from 1954-64. He was required to enforce English-only laws at the time but found them to be unjust. He also experienced mandated rules which hindered rather than help teacher productivity. He also coached youth teams and did family and elders social work at Guadalupe Community Center in his home barrio. These experiences led to Joe being recruited to run for the Texas House of Representatives in 1964 where he served for 2 years before serving 6 years in the Texas Senate. His first bill in the House resulted from his social work with the elderly parents of fellow World War II veterans who were not eligible for state supported old age assistance. This prompted him lead a successful voter approved constitutional amendment by securing support from colleagues who had German, Czech and Polish immigrant families and constituents also needing old age assistance support.
He used this lesson of success from finding common ground with others throughout the rest of his life. In the Senate he was responsible for the enactment of laws pertaining to civil rights, voting rights, lowering the voter age to 18 years, the first minimum wage, and the establishing the University of Texas at San Antonio and the dental and nursing schools at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio. Because of his teaching background, Joe sponsored legislation giving teachers time to prepare lessons, improving equal educational opportunities for Texas children, establishing free statewide kindergarten programs for five-year-olds, removing the prohibition of teaching in a language other than English and establishing Texas bilingual education programs. In 1968, Joe was one of the founding members of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), an organization devoted to the civil rights of the Mexican American community. He was the lead plaintiff in White v. Regester, a U.S. Supreme Court case decision brought by MALDEF to establish single member districts in Texas to elect state representatives. He supported and testified in legislative hearings and lawsuits advancing voting rights for the disenfranchised and equal educational opportunities for students from poor school districts and non-English speaking communities. During his active career he was a board member of the National Urban Coalition dedicated to improving conditions in cities throughout the nation. There he interacted with national corporate CEOs including James Roach of General Motors, David Rockefeller of Chase Bank and Sol Linowitz of Xerox. This also led him to friendships with Father Theodore Hesburgh, President of Notre Dame University and Chair of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Whitney Young of the NAACP and Vernon Jordan of the National Urban League. Both as a legislator and as a community leader he actively supported Cesar Chavez and his fight for farm worker rights. In 1972 this led Joe to a confrontation with the infamous Texas Ranger Capt. C.Y.
Allee in the Rio Grande Valley for forcefully denying union protest picketing based on state anti-protest statutes. The federal courts later declared the Texas statutes unconstitutional and enjoined the Rangers and other officers from intimidating the farm workers in their organizational efforts and from using their authority as peace officers to arrest, stop, disperse, imprison, or otherwise interfere with workers’ organizational efforts without adequate cause. This experience led Joe to co-author with Commissioner Albert Pena and Professor Julian Zamora of Notre Dame University, a book entitled Gunpowder Justice citing documented atrocities against Mexican Americans committed by Texas Rangers, especially in their early formative years. After his stint in the Texas Legislature, Joe was elected to the Texas State Board of Education, where he served an additional 10 years, focusing on educational reforms, curriculum and bilingual and dual language education. He was instrumental in getting the Texas Education Agency Commissioner to support Mariachi band competition in the University Interscholastic League (UIL). Joe understood that educational attainment was the key to economic success in this country. He passionately believed an equal opportunity for all. His legislative priorities certainly followed this mandate throughout his career.
He served for a time as Executive Director of the Guadalupe Community Center and the Catholic Archdiocese’s Commission on Mexican American Affairs. At the Commission he was responsible for the successful federal funding of the nonprofit Comprehensive Barrio Health Clinic on Barclay Street now part of CommuniCare Clinics. He also developed the first national mail order Chicano Book Distribution Center and advocated for affordable housing initiatives. He later returned to education serving as Principle of Emma Frey Elementary in the Edgewood District and as Assistant Superintendent for Instructional Programs at the Harlandale ISD before retiring from full time employment. Joe was a life-long member of the Democratic Party and began attending national conventions in 1968. He worked steadfastly for Hubert Humphrey in 1968 and later became personal friends with Bill and Hillary Clinton during the 1972 George McGovern presidential campaign.
Not willing to accept discrimination within the Texas Democratic Party he became the founding Chair of the Mexican American Democrats and a tradition-breaking member of the Democratic National Committee when he and Barbara Jordon were elected as the first minority representatives from Texas. After actively supporting the successful 1976 presidential campaign of Jimmy Carter, he served on the presidential personnel transition team. In 1978, rather than accepting a position in Washington D.C., he agreed to a Presidential appointment close to home as Regional Director of ACTION in Dallas, an agency that had 28,000 ACTION volunteers and 70 employees in the five-state area of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. He served there for 2 years. In 1978, Joe earned his Ph.D. in Education at the University of Texas, under the tutelage of iconic professors George Sanchez and Americo Paredes, both trails blazing champions for Mexican American Civil Rights. Joe and Mary Esther were active in their Catholic Church communities. Joe was an active member of St. Paul’s Catholic Church. He also supported Mary Esther‘s 60 years of service at the San Fernando Cathedral developing and directing its music ministry. Joe’s favorite saint was Saint Jude, the patron of impossible causes. He and Mary Esther developed a close personal friendship with the
beloved Archbishop Patrick Flores, the first Mexican American bishop in the United State, He believed that serving the less fortunate members in the community was his Christian duty. He never forgot the prevalence of poverty in his barrio and fought for equal opportunities for all throughout his lifetime. In 2014, the Northside ISD named a middle school in honor of Dr. Joe J Bernal. He regularly visited the campus and was extremely proud of the administration, faculty and students. He was especially proud for the dedication of a music wing at his school in honor of Mary Esther. He was the loving husband of Mary Esther Bernal and father of Richard, Patrick (Elisa), Barney (deceased) and Rebecca (Robert). He had eight grandchildren – Bianca, deceased (Justin), George, Carlos (Priscilla), Gabriel, Robert Joseph (RJ), Ryan, Benjamin (Lauren) and Nathan – and seven great grandchildren – Brandon, Luke, Leo, Julia, Alexxander, Camerin and Macx. He was predeceased by his wife of 65 years, Mary Esther, son Barney and granddaughter Bianca, along with his parents, Jose Maria and Antonia Juarez Bernal, brothers Edward, Alex, Arturo, Robert, Ramiro, Gilbert and sister Margie Paniagua. He is survived by his sister Celia. With immense sorrow, we say goodbye to a once in a generation leader, and honor a generous, compassionate and talented Hijo del Barrio who truly contributed to a better world far beyond his Westside roots. Rosary will be held on Wednesday, February 19th, at The Angelus Funeral Home at 6PM, with viewing starting at 5PM. The Mass will be held at San Fernando Cathedral on Thursday, February 20th, at 9:30AM, followed by burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery at 11:30AM.
