Rev. Antonio L. Hernandez

The Press Enterprise- November 14, 2003

Cheryl Travis

The Rev. Antonio L. Hernandez used to tell people that preaching the Gospel involved more than ministering inside a church. It meant going into the community and helping people wherever they were in their lives.
The Rev. Antonio L. Hernandez led Presbyterian congregations.
He led Presbyterian congregations and neighborhood centers in the Inland area and East Los Angeles, where immigrant families found open arms and services to help them out. The founder of the Casa Blanca Home of Neighborly Service in Riverside died Oct. 29 from complications of a stroke at Arcadia Methodist Hospital. He was 86 and lived in Pasadena at the time of his death. Bronlio Lopez, 77, said the Rev. Hernandez was a Boy Scout and Casa Blanca Presbyterian Church youth leader who gave him the incentive to push toward achievement in life. "I think my life would have been different if he hadn't advised me," said Lopez, a retired Riverside Unified School District maintenance and operations supervisor, said by phone Friday. The Rev. Hernandez was born in Keystone, Neb., and raised in the Casa Blanca neighborhood.
He graduated from Spanish American Institute in Gardena, attended Riverside Junior College and received a bachelor's in sociology from the University of Redlands in 1942. He earned his divinity degree from McCormick Seminary in Chicago in 1944. He spent about 15 years from the late 1930s into the early 1950s as a leader of San Bernardino, Redlands and Casa Blanca homes of neighborly service, and serving Presbyterian congregations in the area. He organized the Casa Blanca center in 1953 in a donated two-bedroom house on Railroad Street, said Al Kovar, who retired in 2002 after 30 years as the center's director. The neighborhood had welcomed Italian, Japanese and Mexican immigrants.
As did the Presbyterian settlement houses of Chicago, the Casa Blanca center helped the newcomers adjust and offered health, education, language classes and recreation, Kovar said by phone. During the Korean War, the Rev. Hernandez served as a U.S. Army chaplain and continued in the reserves, including as chaplain of the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center from 1971 to 1985. From 1956 to 1968 he was executive director of Cleland House of Neighborly Service in East Los Angeles, a focal point for emerging Mexican-American political organizations. He was the first Latino on the Board of Civil Service Commissioners for the city of Los Angeles. He also led self-help groups in Los Angeles. He was president of the Pasadena Rotary Club at the time of his death. He is survived by a son, Andrew of Santa Ana; three daughters, Mary Ruth France of San Gabriel, Lois Velasco of San Pedro and Dorothy Hernandez Lopez of Whittier; four grandchildren; a niece and nephew; and a grandniece. Memorial services will be at 10 a.m. today at Pasadena Presbyterian Church. Burial was in Riverside National Cemetery. Cabot & Sons in Pasadena handled arrangements.

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