South Bend, Indiana residents have likely seen a group of people holding signs on a downtown street corner saying messages such as, “Honk for Peace." Reynaldo Hernandez is one of those people. He and his wife, Glenda Rae, have been active fighters for peace and social justice issues in this city for decades. Born in Texas to parents of Mexican heritage, Ray later pursued a life as a minister. When Glenda Rae told him that she did not want to be a preacher’s wife, he switched gears. He found an opportunity in South Bend to work for El Centro Christiano Communidad helping the city’s booming migrant farm worker population. In 2011, he sat down with Indiana University South Bend’s Monica Tetzlaff. They talked about Ray’s life story, and his views of himself as, in his words, an Anglicized Mexican American. 

Learn more about South Bend’s history from the photographs and documents that helped create it. Visit Michiana Memory at http://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/. 

Title music, “History Explains Itself,” from Josh Spacek. Visit his page on the Free Music Archive, http://www.freemusicarchive.org/.