FAMILY BIOGRAPHIES - Sam (the 3rd oldest)

SAM (SEBASTIAN) HERNANDEZ

(Sam on the left and his 2 oldest brothers, Linus and Isidore)

Sam is from a migrant family of 9.  [Some or All] of the remaining siblings of that clan are here today.  All of them were members of this community.  They were one of a very few ethnic minority families in this town - the only such family that resided here through most of their Public School years.

The Hernandez family came from another even smaller town, this one in Martin County near  Fairmont, by the name of East Chain.  They came to Delavan because the sugar beet grower who they worked for had found it necessary to stop planting beets.  The only lowland truck farm that Delavan ever had, was the Verdoorns.  They hired the Hernandez clan.  In one simple, unconscious act they inadvertently did what became the turning point toward a chance for unimaginable equal opportunity for the Hernandez clan--especially the children.  It was not the work or the type of work that mattered.  It was work that was offered year-round to a family that had migrated from job-to-job, from one seasonal crop to another, and from one state to another all year long.  For example, when Sam entered school at Grade 6 in Delavan, he had already attended over 40 schools!  The family “settled out”, a phenomena only dreamed about among migrant families.  They could now be a typical family - at least in relation to residency.  The Hernandez family will forever be indebted to the Verdoorns for the crucial and pivotal opportunity the Verdoorns unknowingly gave them to freedom, comfort, equality and hope.

Sam became a musician at age 7, first on violin, then mandolin, then trombone and string bass.  He progressed from performing within the family combo to putting together a jazz combo named The Starlighters in the Tallahassee, Florida, area in later years.  Sam joined the U.S. Air Force in 1950, working primarily in a mobile weather detachment operating for a number of military bases all over Europe, mainly in Germany and France.  The resulting opportunity to benefit from the GI Bill opened the door for him, and thousands of veterans, to seek  higher education.  Sam started his college education by first taking home courses via the Air Force Education Institute service, which included time in Oklahoma State College and courses from Heidelberg while in Germany.  Upon discharge, Sam pursued his program in earnest at Mankato State College, went on to Florida State University where he finished his undergraduate, and then returned to Minnesota to earn his Master’s in Education at Macalester College in St. Paul.  He started teaching in the Saint Paul Public Schools in 1961. 

Sam became an activist  in race relations, civil rights, human relations and, finally, cultural diversity.  Between 1962 and 1970 he was deeply involved in programs that offered opportunities for students to travel abroad for education and societal immersion.  As a result, the veteran organization known as “The 40 and 8 Club” honored him with the Americanism Award.  Within that same timeframe, Sam became the only Latino, to date, to receive the Teacher of Excellence and the Teacher of the Year Finalist awards from the Minnesota Education Association.

The surge of activism for equality in race, gender, education, employment, etc., in the 70’s and 80’s by such national leaders as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Cesar Chavez, brought about the birth of similar leaderships in every State of the Union.  Sam became one of the prominent Latino Ombudsmen at that time - primarily under a new national force known as Affirmative Action and Equal Education and Employment Opportunity.  He joined a number of state activists identified by the MN Department of Education, and they drew up a bill that passed the congressional floor as the HR521 Bill.  The Bill stated that no teacher could get licensed or renew a license to teach, unless they took 60 clock hours of course work which included requirements on the history, heritage and culture of the four groups of color; their contributions to the U.S. way of life, and how to better multiculturally communicate with them.  Sam became one of the most prominent trainers and presenters in the State on cultural diversity issues.  He formed his own consulting business, called Sunsol Enterprise, to facilitate cultural diversity teaching and training, and has presented at virtually every Minnesota school district, and in other states.  In the late 70’s, Sam was selected by the National Educational Task Force de La Raza to be one of a few speakers to present on cultural diversity issues crucial to Latinos, including bi-lingual education in key districts all over the Midwestern states.

Sam was an Assistant Principal Intern before taking the position of Consultant.  During that period, he worked with Mankato State College to pilot a Minority Student recruitment program in the metro area schools.  As a result, more minority students from the Twin City metro area came to Mankato State than at any other time in the college’s history. 

By this time Sam was no longer in the classroom.  He was the St. Paul School District “Consultant on Hispanic Affairs”, and was free from the District office to accept national contracts.  He did similar contractual work with Control  Data Corporation, this time training corporate managers of many major national corporations all over the U.S.

Sam had continued to work toward his doctorate in School Administration.  He completed enough other hours to become a licensed social worker, worked as a consultant/trainer in the adoption of children of color by Anglo couples, and co-chaired the State Task Force on the Heritage Bill that was passed to better monitor the adoption placement of minority children.

Sam is now retired but still active in education concerns.  He is currently planning a conference, to be hosted by Mankato State University, that will address key crucial issues regarding Latino enrollment, academic competiveness, graduation and seeking post-high education.  Attendees will include key state Latino organizations and administrators of school districts with large Latino student populations.

Sam says, “The fortune of me being here in this position is partly due to the audacity of a Delavan math teacher who crossed the street from the school, walked into the house after I refused to answer the door knock; grabbed me by the scruff of my neck, and dragged me toward the school saying ‘No way in hell are you going to drop out of school, Sam.  Git!’”

Sam got.

Rosario: "A eulogy for the living, a beloved St. Paul teacher & civil rights advocate"

Article was shared in St. Paul Pioneer Press By RUBÉN ROSARIO || Pioneer Press

September 22, 2018 at 9:43 pm

*(Photo) Sebastian Joseph Hernandez looks through papers at his Stillwater home in Sept. 2018. The 88-year old longtime St. Paul educator and social justice advocate suffered a life-threatening stroke Aug. 25, 2018. He remains in hospice care at his Stillwater home. (Rubén Rosario / Pioneer Press)

If there are thoughts and prayers for the dying, there should also be eulogies for the living.

So when I heard that 88-year-old Sebastian Joseph “Sam” Hernandez — child migrant worker, Air Force veteran, jazz band musician, Macalester College grad, St. Paul assistant school principal, social worker and pioneering civil rights educator in the Twin Cities — was in hospice care after a recent devastating stroke, I figured he might be worthy of a toast before the final roast. Others thought so, too.

“Sam is one of the few truly colorblind individuals I have ever met in my lifetime — and I am not talking about paint colors,” said Yusef Mgeni, a longtime friend, educator, activist and former first Vice President of St. Paul NAACP. “He is a one-in-a-million guy who radiates credibility, has an addictive smile and is constantly involved in 101 different projects.”

Added Daniel Rodriguez, executive director of Merrick Community Services on St. Paul’s East Side:

“He’s forgotten more about the importance of culture and diversity and Mexican history than most people will ever know. He has this commitment to equity that also includes gender and anyone who might be different from someone else. He has a strong moral compass about right and wrong.”

A handwritten sign taped to the front door of the Hernandez residence in rural Stillwater informs visitors of the serious aftermath of the Aug. 25th cerebral stroke: “Please limit visitors at a time to 1-2 people and visits to only 15-20 minutes if sleepy …”

I found Hernandez seated at a table waiting for me, wearing a gray cap with a P-38 Lockheed Lighting fighter plane patch sewn to it. He could barely utter a word right after the stroke. A few days ago, though he was difficult to understand at times, we chatted for nearly an hour about his life and views.

He was born in a boxcar in Fort Dodge, Iowa, in 1930 to Vicente Hernandez and Magdelena Medina Hernandez.

As a child, Hernandez and kin picked or tended cotton, fruits, flowers, vegetables, potatoes, sugar beets, grapes, berries along a seasonal route from Texas to California, up the coast to Oregon and Washington, then east to Idaho, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin and Michigan, then back to Texas.

“Sometimes, we would get paid with one or two tomatoes,” he recalled during our chat.

In order to make a few bucks on the side at weddings, birthdays and other migrant-family occasions, the family formed a musical band. Little Sam learned to play the violin, string bass and mandolin. He later learned to play the tuba, baritone, trombone and percussion.

At the age of 9, he accompanied his guitar-playing brother to Minneapolis and competed in a radio program called “Stairway to the Stars,” headed by Cedric Adams at WCCO.

“We won an award for our performance,” he notes in a short autobiography.

Hernandez answered the call in response to a severe shortage of semi-truck drivers in 1944-46 as a result of men drafted into military service. He drove the truck all over Midwestern states for various farms. He was 14 when he began trucking.

“Not exactly legal or proper, but war brings about innovation,” he noted.

The family ultimately settled in Delavan, a small town in southern Minnesota where he graduated from high school. A year later, he enlisted in the Air Force and served four years during the Korean War conflict.

* Sebastian Joseph “Sam” Hernandez during his Air Force days. 

He joined the local musician union upon his relocation to the Twin Cities and played trombone for visiting jazz cornet player Doc Evans and local artists such as Jose Cortez and the Nick Castillo band.

Along with an older brother, he moved to Tallahassee, Fla., and enrolled in Florida State University under the GI bill.

He graduated in 1959. Along with a second brother, the three siblings formed the Starlighters, a jazz combo, and subbed regularly with bands backing Ray Conniff, Stan Kenton and Dixieland jazz type groups.

He returned to the Twin Cities, enrolled at Macalester College, graduated with a master’s degree in education and pursued a doctorate in secondary school administration.

He began teaching with Spanish and history in St. Paul schools from 1961 through 1970. It was not surprising at all that he embraced the civil rights, human rights and cultural diversity movements that surfaced during this time.

He helped spearhead a public awareness and fundraising program at Harding High School and throughout the St. Paul district that helped send local students on student exchange programs throughout the world.

In 1968, he was honored as Teacher of Excellence and a finalist for Teacher of the Year.

He played a major role in a bill passed that required state teachers to take 60 hours of diversity and multicultural training in order to be licensed.

Though he retired from teaching in 1995, he later worked as an adjunct professor at Hamline University until 2001.

“He was the most organized instructor I ever met,” recalled Tim Klein, a former student during Hernandez’s Hamline days, who later became a fellow St. Paul teacher.

Klein recalls the stunned and puzzled looks on the faces of Hazel Park junior high students one day when both he and Hernandez found themselves about to teach in the same classroom.

“Mr. Klein, he’s my brother,” Hernandez told the students. Klein is seven foot tall. Hernandez barely tops five feet.

“It made for a fun and light-hearted moment,” Klein said.

* Sebastian Joseph Hernandez played a major role in a bill passed that required state teachers to take 60 hours of diversity and multicultural training in order to be licensed. (Photo Courtesy of Peggy Hernandez, photograph by Xavier Tavera)

Hernandez, who also served as a multicultural consultant for major Twin Cities corporations, was working on a documentary about migrants in America and other projects when he was felled by the stroke. Doctors told his wife, Peggy, that things did not look good. They advised keeping him in a hospital setting for the remaining days. Sam wanted to go home. It’s been two weeks now.

“He has fought a long fight for equality and cultural understanding in education and employment, and he will not give up this fight easily,” she shared in an email a day before my visit. “I believe he’s going to be around for a while longer.” The couple raised two adopted children, both now adults. Hernandez has a daughter from a previous marriage.

Don’t ask him what he thinks about negative portrayals of migrants and immigrants in recent years. Well, do ask him because, though frail, he perks up and gives you a “let’s cut the BS” look, followed by a few choice words about bigots and fear-mongering politicians. That’s why, though facing a dire prognosis, he is adamant he wants to hang around until he finishes his migrant project, among others. “I’m still here so I want to finish it,” he told me as he stood up, smiled, shook my hand, and began heading for the makeshift first-level bedroom with the aid of a walker.  “Thanks for coming.”

My pleasure, Sam.

Ruben Rosario

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*photos were omitted rather than be concerned with copyright of them here