Last Wednesday, April 28, 2004, I had the honor of attending the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association Noche de Gala at the muy fancy Four Seasons Hotel in San Francisco. This was my second Noche de Gala, and this time I was able to attend as a guest of one of my colleagues, and a dear mentor, John Trasviña. Under the Clinton Administration, John was the highest-ranking Latino attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice ~ his list of political and community achievements is inspiring. I am lucky to be working with him and to be able to do things such as "mooch" a seat at his table for gala Latino events! But it's more than that ~ it's about the opportunity to sit in a room surrounded by other Latinos/as and people of color who are passionate about social justice and who fought hard to get through graduate school, or empower their local communities, or rise in politics, or all of the above. In the neighborhood I grew up in, in the public schools I attended, in the life I could have led had I never moved to San Francisco, well I had never had a glimpse of a room like this. I was 19 when I moved to the Bay Area, but a decade passed before I met some of the Latino/a role models who looked like me, talked like me, thought like me, and inspired me to by myself ~ even in graduate school.
I was 30 when I started law school. As a student, my classmates and I volunteered at the Noche de Gala event ~ we had to move chairs, help arrange tables, and greet people ~ all for the chance to snag an empty seat at a table full of strangers and get to hear Justice Carlos Moreno, of the California Supreme Court, give the keynote address. Justice Moreno is a down-to-earth guy, puro Chicano raised in Los Angeles, who made his way to Yale University and then Stanford for his law degree. During his speech at that Noche de Gala a few years ago, he switched between Spanish and English, broke into a little song, and joked with many of his friends in the crowd. For me, a Latina law student who had spent so many years seeking out role models and mentors, well, to look out over an overflowing crowd of Latino and Latina attorneys, judges, academics, and community activists, was overwhelming.
First and best of all, Latinos/as have this amazing way of greeting each other ~ whether they are construction workers or bankers or truck drivers or farm workers or attorneys ~ it's a huge bear hug, some term of endearment like, oye compadre, que va?, and then maybe, if we're lucky, they'll break into a grito when the music gets going, but we can always count on the salsa dancing. It's comforting; it feels like home; and damn, they're all in suits and stuff. Then, there are the other communities who come out to support Raza Lawyers ~ members of the Asian Bar Association, African American attorneys groups, and Anglos, all exchanging business cards, ideas, and Spanish jokes.
This time, I saw fewer student volunteers setting up tables ~ this time, the event was muy fancy ~ the swanky hotel, the huge ballroom ~ this time, more attorneys sponsored students so they could attend without having to volunteer ~ this time, I sat at a table of colleagues, not strangers. I chatted with Kamala Harris, the inspiring and committed District Attorney of San Francisco; I chatted for a minute with Mayor Gavin Newsom; I was introduced to the City Attorney Dennis Herrera.
Listen to that roster of names
~ Kamala, the daughter of a Jamaican father and South Asian mother, is San Francisco's first female District Attorney, and the first African-American D.A. in California, and the first Asian Indian elected D.A. in the entire country. She is also brilliant, passionate, beautiful, and principled. Kamala, 38 years old and a relative unknown when she began her campaign, beat out the Incumbent, 67-year-old Terence Hallinan.
~ Gavin Newsom, at 36, is the youngest mayor of San Francisco since another Democrat, James Duval Phelan, was elected in 1897. Although not enough Latinos are currently represented in S.F. Commissions, in Mayor Newsom's Administration, women now occupy most of the leadership positions in The City. Newsom named Heather Fong as The City's first woman Police Chief ~ making her the first Asian woman and only the 8th woman in the nation to head a big city police department ~ and Joanne Hayes-White as San Francisco's Fire Chief. The Mayor's pro-active stance on the gay marriage issue was also a first in the country.
~ Dennis Herrera is San Francisco's first Latino City Attorney, and he was named among California's top twenty lawyers under age forty during his first year in office.
How could I be more awe-struck? Well, with the night's two honorees. S.F.L.R.L.A. honored two long-time Latino activists: Margaret Cruz and Raymond Del Portillo.
~ Margaret, who is 84 now, served as the first woman national president of the Mexican American Political Association (MAPA), she served as a Board Member of the National Council of La Raza and National Council of Christians and Jews (now called the National Conference for Community and Justice), she is founder of the San Francisco Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and, as a breast cancer survivor, she is founder of the Margaret Cruz Latina Breast Cancer Foundation. After Margaret graduated law school at the age of 62, she set to work helping immigrants obtain status, residency and citizenship (including the Carmelite nuns at the Cristo Rey Convent in San Francisco). Margaret has met every U.S. President, from Truman to Clinton, and shines her light on important issues in the Latino Community. After Noche de Gala, I "googled" Margaret's name and was surprised to find very little information about her and her work ~ she's "old school" I hear, more concerned with getting things done in the community I figure, than worrying about a blog or webpage. Well, her speech last week inspired me to keep working hard, and that the least of what I can do is tell other people about her ~ she is an amazing, tireless, dedicated (and very funny!) mujer fuerte.
~ Raymond Del Portillo spoke after Margaret because he "wanted to get the last word." Ray has spent a half century involved in educating young people in San Francisco. He has been a counselor, a teacher, an administrator, and an activist for all children in the Unified School District. Ray served as the first Director of Bilingual Programs after the Lau v. Nichols case mandated a child learn in a language that she understands. Ray set up four Newcomer Centers, now national models, to ensure smooth transitions for immigrant children into the public school system and he has taught thousands of children Spanish, English, and Latin. As he always says when confronted with injustice: homo homini aut deus aut lupus - Erasmus (Man to man is either a god or a wolf). Ray was one of the founding members of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the Latino Democratic Club. In addition to the many years Ray has served on community boards, he has worked for 12 years on the San Francisco Commission on Aging and Adult Services and has become an advocate for health and quality of life issues for the elderly, but especially for our immigrant elderly in San Francisco.
Aside from all these amazing people, I saw friends, classmates, colleagues, and so many people I admire. I am lucky to live in the Bay Area, privileged to have gone to law school, and inspired to do so much more in my community. I hope you enjoyed learning about some of the amazing people who make the Bay Area such an amazing community.
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