EXHIBIT – You Have the Right! Mexican Americans and Due Process of the Law

Explore MACRI’s new traveling exhibit, You Have the Right: Mexican Americans and Due Process of the Law.

This exhibit explores three court cases involving Mexican Americans and Mexican-perceived individuals that have been significant to the interpretation of the Fifth, Sixth, and Fourteenth Amendments and shaped interpretation of due process of the law in the United States: Miranda v. Arizona (1966), United States v. Brignoni-Ponce (1975), and Chavez v. Martinez (2003). 

The verdict in these cases, whose plaintiffs were Mexican American and Latino individuals, affect all Americans today. Miranda v. Arizona (1966) secured what we now call our “Miranda rights;” United States v. Brignoni-Ponce (1975) prohibited law enforcement from stopping and questioning someone on the basis of their appearance; and Chavez v. Martinez (2003) marked a rollback in protections from coercive questioning from authorities. 

The three moments featured in this exhibit remind us that the interpretation of constitutional amendments is constantly debated in courts at all levels of government, and can result in expansions and contractions of civil rights. The legal struggle for civil rights is continuous, and rarely a linear progression. 

The exhibit will be on display from Monday, April 20, 2026 through Tuesday, June 30, 2026. 

The exhibit gallery is open Monday through Friday, 10 AM—NOON and 1 – 4 PM, or by appointment.

MACRI’s programs are funded in part by the City of San Antonio Department of Arts & Culture, Bexar County, the Mellon Foundation, the John L. Santikos Charitable Foundation Fund of the San Antonio Area Foundation, Spurs Give, and individual donors like you! Gracias!