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Call it by Its Name: A Hate Crime in Charleston
When crimes like this occur, I recall a panel I attended in law school where an attorney for a civil rights group concisely and eloquently described hate crimes and why people that push back against using that term are wrong. The general idea is that the crime, though aimed at one person(s), is committed with the intent to terrify a specific group of people. The offender(s) goals are to terrorize with the hopes that the group flees, changes, and/or submits. This seems like a simple idea, and yet people become so hesitant to call these crimes by their name. What happened in Charleston was a hate crime. Any other lesser…
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Furthering Latino Education
The Pew Research Center released Five Facts about Latinos and Education this week. While very brief, it paints an informative picture of the status of Latinos and education. Essentially, Latinos are graduating high school at greater rates than before; enrolling in colleges at higher rates than other groups; and have less loan debt. Yet, Latinos are not earning those four-year degrees, and instead are enrolling at two-year Universities that do not seem to be pipelines to eventual bachelor degrees. Right now only 9% of Latinos between ages 25-29 hold a Bachelor’s. I’m not one to knock down good news with bad. It’s fantastic that we’re graduating high school and that…
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The Road Map for Creating Legal Change
There’s a poem I stumbled upon a few years ago called, I am the Lawyer that describes the values attorneys uphold and the virtue we strive for; my favorite line is: I am the conservative of the past, the liberal of the present, and the radical of the future. That line is so striking to me because it is so true (and btw this was written at least 50 years ago, so the ideals the author attaches to those terms aren’t as politicized as they are now, imo). Rather, what I think the author meant was that attorneys push for progress, but also uphold the law, which creates a dichotomy…
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Addressing Sexual Assault within the Latino Community through a Legal Perspective
One of the things that’s so powerful about having a J.D. is that we can become true agents of change. Of course, any individual with the vision and drive can create change in their community, but as attorneys, we are given a little extra ammunition by way of our legal abilities. My hope is that we always remember this and try our best to continue to improve everyone’s standard of living. Because April is Sexual Awareness Month, I think it’s vital to talk about what we can do as attorneys to help fight this problem. In the article I wrote for Being Latino, I mention that one in six Latinas…
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Off the Sidelines: Women in Political Office
Did everyone catch the State of the Union last night? It definitely has some buzzy moments, but one thing that caught my attention was a pundit mentioning that this is the most diverse congress the U.S. has ever had. That is true, even though the group looks as homogenous as ever. But what strikes me is that there are only nine (9!) Hispanic women representing us in the House and none in the Senate. I’m happy for the strides we have made, but still have a long way to go. We’ve spoken about the group Latinas Represent and their push to promote more Latinas into politics. I still encourage anyone…