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Connecting a Cultural Divide, a Book Review
I recently finished reading Cup of Water Under my Bed (CWUB) and I highly recommend it! CWUB is a memoir by Daisy Hernandez, a Latina with a Cuban father and Colombian mother. A New Yorker who became a journalist for the New York Times before moving on to write progressive pieces with a focus on social justice. I became interested in reading CWUB just by the title alone. I grew up with Mexican culture/traditions, so when I heard, “cup of water under a bed,” I didn’t think of Santeria (which is the context of the title), but rather remembered my mom would cure me from Ojo and place a cup of water…
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What Did You Miss?
We’re so excited for 2015! We have a lot of fun and informative plans in store for everyone! Though we’ve only been sharing information for the past four months, we wanted to share our favorite posts thus far: For prelaw students: our first part of the Breaking Barriers series. For law students: creating institutional change at your school even when faced with resistance. For attorneys: navigating the rules of professional etiquette, starting with your wardrobe. For those creating work-life balance: What to do when family obligations become obstacles. Of course my ultimate favorite is our mission statement! We’ve had a really great four months and look forward to the New…
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Article Review: Women, Work, and Policies
I recently read this article by the New York Times that I thought required more than just a highlight on the monthly links post. The article is entitled, Why U.S. Women Are Leaving Jobs Behind. The author describes the difference in parenting policies enacted by the U.S. compared to Europe. This is always an interesting topic for me because I’m vehemently opposed with creating a façade that women have a choice, but really they’re arranging it so that only one choice ends up being the better option. The article discusses how the European policies seem to give favorable maternal leave, daycare subsidies, and higher protections to women once they have children. Whereas the…
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Responding to Performance Reviews
Having to sit in front of your boss and receive criticism, even if constructive, can be tough. Your ability to show that you can accept feedback in a stable, steady will help you move forward in your career, but it’s anxiety-inducing. It can cause emotional response that can affect your reputation at work. When there’s a face-to-face with your boss regarding your review, the key is to try to relax and go in with an assumption that this will be a learning tool. If you have moderately competent bosses then you should be aware ahead of time of any major issues. This really shouldn’t be a time with big surprises.…
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Breaking Law School Barriers II: Hidden Costs
This series, Breaking Law School Barriers, tackles the big and small issues that come into play when you’re deciding if you’ll even attend law school. The purpose is to give practical advice for college students, and for current law students and attorneys to give suggestions about their real world experience. For those that have started the law school application process it’s likely that you already know this–even applying to law school cost money. Seriously, as a college senior applying for law school, all I could do from giving up, was keep hoping that I would be given extra hours at my part-time job so that I could afford what…
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Happy Thanksgiving: Link Round Up
We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We are on the mend of a really bad head cold (in fact, I just googled “can I harm my brain from coughing,” because this cough is still something fierce). But instead of wallowing about being sick, I’m trying to enjoy having time off work and getting to spend quality time with family. Though I know for many people it’s the beginning of high stress season with finals approaching. I mentioned on instagram that Thanksgiving as a 1L was so stressful and sad–so even though I’m sick, I’m still much happier today than when I had to work Black Friday and cram for exams…
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Culture Conflict: Being Humble
Being humble is often held up as a positive attribute among Latino families. How many times have we heard our parents or family talk about being humilde? Humble is defined as not thinking of yourself as better than other people. It is someone who is not proud or haughty. This can be a great quality and one that is definitely venerated by most of our communities. However, there is a second part of that definition that blurs the line and makes me call into question as to whether this quality is a trait that will help you succeed in your legal career. For some, being humble also means someone who is easily…
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Latinas and Political Representation
Midterm elections are finished, and after a few months break the big race to 2016 will commence. If you’re like me, you love political season. If you’re like most normal people—you hate it. Regardless how you feel about the systems and parties in this country, I want to introduce you to a new organization called Latinas Represent. A nonpartisan group dedicated to helping Latinas get in the game. Latinas compose only a little over 1% of elected officials, a dismal number. As we’ve mentioned again and again, all women’s issues are Latina issues and often it hits us even harder. So why aren’t we running to make things better? Latinas…
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Latinas Are Leaning In, A Book Review
Two summers ago, I brought the book Lean In with me on vacation to St. Martin and promptly threw it back in my travel bag because this is just not beach-reading material! A few months later, I was having lunch with one of the few Latina lawyers I know and she highly recommended the book. I started reading it and couldn’t stop. It was so informative and compelling, not just because the stories and statistics provided illuminated problems women face in the professional workforce; or because the advice seemed practical and useful; but because it was a window into a powerful world that we are trying to join. First, from a…
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When Family Obligation Become Obstacles
We have talked a lot about how to navigate the status quo within the legal community because there’s so much pushback from those already in power. However, we often overlook the pushback we receive from family/communities who fear that we’ll either abandon our connections or don’t understand the time and commitment needed in order to succeed. Now many of us would say that our families have always been our biggest supporters, but being our biggest supporters isn’t mutually exclusive from also subconsciously (or consciously) setting barriers in front of us. A few years ago, a study on Latino lawyers revealed that personal/family obligations were a big factor in derailing us from finishing/attending…