Alvaro Luna Hernandez

Jailhouse political organizing While imprisoned, Hernandez studied Mexican-American history, the prison system, and revolutionary political theory, along with local laws usable in his and others' defense. Hernandez fought against institutional corruption he saw through constitutional and civil rights lawsuits, hunger strikes, work stoppages and yard takeovers, and was one of the "seven other prisoners" whose civil suits were merged into what later became the landmark Ruiz v. Estelle victory for prison reform against the Texas Department of Corrections. While incarcerated in Huntsville, Texas, he met Ricardo Adalpe Guerra, a Mexican national who had been convicted of killing a Houston area police officer, at the time on death row in the cell next to Alvaro. He spent much of his sentence in solitary confinement (allegedly due to retaliation from the prison), before being cleared and freed in 1991, due in part to investigative reporting by former Houston Post staffer Paul Harasim.

Activist career Hernandez settled in Houston with his wife. Immediately following his release, he became the national coordinator of the Ricardo Adape Guerra defense committee and is credited as being a major influence in Adape Guerra's conviction being overturned. He founded a national civil rights group on behalf of Mexican-Americans, The National Movement of La Raza, and did extensive community work with "Stop the Violence Youth Committee, and the Prisoners Solidarity Committee". Hernandez also helped to negotiate truces between Hispanic street gangs in Pasadena, Texas, following a spate of shootings. He also worked internationally, speaking in 1993 to the United Nations General Assembly regarding the United States' mistreatment of political prisoners.