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Taking Care: A Duty to Self and to Others
“We’ve been living in a harvest.” Sherrilyn Ifil reminded us of this at the ACLU-IL luncheon. She began her keynote reminding us that we’ve been leaving in the harvest of civil rights and individual liberties thanks to the hard work from so many before us. And because it felt like an abundance we thought it would last forever. She was much more eloquent but it is an analogy that has stuck with me. It stuck because it’s so true; both the hard truth that perhaps we weren’t as vigilant in protecting our rights and the systems as we should have been. And that we are now facing a moment, especially…
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A Survival Framework: The Magic is in the Balance
At this point, I am resigned to the fact that life will continue to be “unprecedented,” with extreme highs and lows. I guess such is life, and we have to figure out how to not just survive it but overcome it and find joy, hope, resiliency–all the good things. Again, I don’t want to come off as polly-anna–things are rough, to say the least, and it’s only day two. But I was an immigration attorney, on the ground, during the first term and I practiced for a long time prior to that. I am old enough to have a plan and also wise enough to know that I don’t know…
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Latina Leadership: Unleashing Power and Potential
Happy New Year! It’s been a while since we’ve hit publish on this site, but I’m excited to get back to it especially as we enter our second decade (can you believe it?)! As we kick off the new year, I want to share some shifts in content that I hope will make you just as excited as I am. Over the past ten years, we have discussed the need to increase Latina representation within the legal industry. When I first started writing, we were at 2% of all US attorneys. Recently, a study came out, and imagine my surprise that we’re now at 3%. …a 1 percent increase in…
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2024 Latina Equal Pay Day: The Power of Walking Away
Today is Latina Equal Pay Day, which means we finally earned that dollar that a white man earned months and months ago. It’s an important day to acknowledge because Latinas face one of the largest wage gaps of social group, earning as little as 52 to 54 cents to the dollar. And in some of the largest Latina populated states (like California) Latinas earn even less. We’ve spoken for years on this topic and the damage it does—not just to the psyche but the literal damage of what it means to be short-changed and unable to afford necessities the way others may be able to do. As we make note…
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200 days of a rest: lessons learned during my sabbatical
“But I’ve always worked?” That is what I kept telling myself a little more than a year ago when I was weeks away from my job ending. I was going back and forth on finding a job (any job) so that I could keep working or following the lead of some of my colleagues and take a break before looking for my next role. I ultimately took the leap and went on break for 210 days. It was exactly what I needed to rest and reflect. I’d like to share a few lessons learned and encourage you to invest in self, in whatever way that looks for you. First, at…
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Emotional Damage: Preparing for the Bar Exam
Why the bar exam so difficult? It’s stressful, emotionally draining, and usually makes those studying a ball of frustration and anxiety. Why? Over one exam?! I’ve shared before that the summer I studied for the Bar, was beyond stressful. I did nothing but study for 12-14 hours a day, freaking out every day that I was going to fail, and on exam day when I read the first question I was -literally-embarassed at how much I had freaked out because the test was just like my law school exams. Duh. That’s what everyone who had taken the test said, but I just couldn’t believe them. So I know that in…
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What I’m Taking with Me in 2024
I thought it made sense to pop in and say hello. Every time I do, I usually say I’m going to write more posts but then it doesn’t happen so I won’t say that. I do want to keep providing content but I have found (as most old school bloggers eventually find) that folks just aren’t as into long-form written content, which breaks my heart because I love writing a nice, long post but I also want to give you what you want! So maybe I’ll focus on quality over quantity for the time being. On the personal front, I took all of summer 23 off (and the fall, eek).…
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Solo Navigation: Career Advancement as a First-Generation Attorney
What do you do when you’re the first to enter a space? When no one in your family or close friends have been in those spaces, how do you figure out how to act and advance to the next stage? I recently saw a TikTok of a guy mentioning how he is in spaces where now has to figure things out alone because he didn’t come from a family who had professional jobs and sometimes it didn’t make sense to follow their advice. This resonated with me and reminded me of the advice many first-gens get about keeping our head down at work. Thinking that eventually our good work will…
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“If You Don’t Know How, Learn.” Lessons from A Million Miles Away
Last week after an especially jolting 5k (pro tip: don’t decide to run a 5k and then fail to train when you have asthma), I decided to take it easy for the day and watch A Million Miles Away. oh. my. god. I was a sobbing mess. It’s a must see, if you’re Latino, if you feel connected to migrant farmworkers and their story, or if you simply want to see a story about perseverance and determination. AMMA is a biopic of the first Latino to go into space, Jose Hernandez. He grew up as a migrant child farmworker, earned a degree in engineering and went on to join NASA,…
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Hello, It’s Me.
I feel like a negligent parent because I really thought a summer break would mean more and more written content, but that is not what happened! My bad. Last we spoke, my job was ending and I was figuring out what my next steps would be. In early May, I decided I would take the summer to figure out—really assess—what I wanted to do next. While I kept my law license active, the days of traditional practice seem behind me. Not in a “I wish I could go back” way, but rather my goals have moved past direct rep. I put in ten good years doing it and when I…