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The Starr County Latino/A Pioneers in the Texas Judiciary by Cynthia K

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The Starr County Latino/A Pioneers in the Texas Judiciary by Cynthia K Winner of the American Association for State and Local History’s Excellence in History Award Columns Leads Features Message from the President Viva La Huelga! The Starr County Latino/a Pioneers in the Texas Judiciary By Cynthia K. Timms Strike, Chicanos, Texas Rangers and Building Bridges for Future Generations In this issue, we again By Victor A. Flores focus on contributions the Landmark Supreme Court Decision Despite all doubt and risk, pioneers of the Latinx community have an intrinsic desire to take new to the development of in Medrano v. Allee ground, move forward, and expand. the courts and legal By Stephen P. Pate Read more... profession in Texas. More than fifty years Cynthia K. Timms Read more... later, few remember the rise of the Chicano Judge Reynaldo G. Garza movement in America. Executive Director’s Page Read more... Striking worker •The First Federal Judge of Mexican By Sharon Sandle Despite the fact that the American Descent• name “Texas” originated Mexicans in the Houston Courts, By David Garza and Reynaldo G. from “Tejas,” the Caddo Garza, III (Trey) 1908-1926 This article is written on word meaning “friend,” By Ramiro Contreras the many diverse people the sixtieth anniversary This article surveys the experiences of of Judge Garza’s appoint- who have inhabited Mexicans in Houston’s civil courtrooms, Texas have not always Sharon Sandle ment as a Federal Judge. providing a deeper understanding of Read more... lived together peacefully. Read more... the population’s early history. Judge Garza Read more... Fellows Column By David J. Beck The Taming Texas program is back in the classrooms this year and will be taught as part of the “Stories of Texas” summer camp at the Bryan Museum in David J. Beck Galveston. Read more... Editor-in-Chief’s Column By Hon. John G. Browning In April, we witnessed two more milestones, one a nod to our past and another a testament to how far Texas’ Latinx legal community has come. John G. Browning Read more... To Serve for Others: News & Announcements The Society Went Virtual at TSHA’s A Profile of Justice Eva Guzman 2020 Texas Bar Foundation 125th Annual Meeting to Examine By Justice Gina M. Benavides “Account-Ability in Court, From Pick any day of the week Award Recipients and Justice Eva Guzman The Texas Bar Slavery to Scandal” – our state’s first Latina Foundation honors By David A. Furlow supreme court justice – legal professionals This was TSHA’s first is serving our state and who exemplify the online, virtual annual its legal system as she highest standards of the meeting, something has done throughout Justice Guzman profession and this year that required more her career. Read more... is no different. Read more... advance planning for the Society than in any TSHA logo Profile of Judge Elsa Alcala of its previous programs for an annual Call for Applications: meeting. Read more... By Justice Gina M. Benavides Judge Elsa Alcala rose to 2022 Larry McNeill Research Fellowship prominence in the legal in Texas Legal History Iconic Women in Legal History profession and became By David A. Furlow Interactive Website the first Latina to serve Established in 2019 in On March 15, the Texas Young Lawyers on our state’s highest honor of attorney Larry Association launched the online criminal court. McNeill, the $2,500 educational platform Iconic Women in Read more... Judge Alcala annual fellowship is Legal History. Read more... awarded to an applicant Bridges to Judicial History who submits the best research proposal on By Alberto R. Gonzales Larry McNeill Hemphill Dinner 2021 Announcement some aspect of Texas It is hard to put in This year the Society will legal history. Read more... words the meaningful host its annual Hemphill and enduring impact Dinner in person at the that Judge Reynaldo An Exceptional Supreme Court History Austin Four Seasons Guerra Garza and Hotel, with keynote Justice Raul A. Gonzalez, and Current Practice Symposium speaker Lisa Blatt Judge Garza & By David A. Furlow of Washington D.C. Lisa S. Blatt Jr. had on my life, Justice Gonzalez career, and on the lives Lynne Liberato and Read more... of so many other Americans. Richard Orsinger Read more... presented an all- encompassing Supreme Annual Board Meeting Continues Court History and Current Looking Forward Book Reviews Practice symposium on The Board of Trustees lost no time this The original Texas April 14. Read more... Supreme Court year getting down to business at the Giving Thanks, 400 Years Later: 2021 Spring Board of Trustees Meeting, Pilgrim Legacies that Shaped Texas Journal Article on Trailblazing Lawyer as they navigated the now familiar Book reviews by David A. Furlow online format. Read more... How far back can we trace Texas’s Garners Media Spotlight traditions of democratic elections, self- The Fall 2020 article by Society Trustee John G. Unexpected, but Welcome Praise government, constitutionalism, and the The Society was thrilled to receive a rule of law? Read more... Browning about John N. Johnson—Austin’s very special thank-you message from first Black attorney and the Texas State Bar Hispanic Issues Texas’ first civil rights Section. Read more... lawyer—piqued the John N. Johnson interest of longtime Dallas Morning Membership & More News columnist Dave Lieber. Read more... Officers, Trustees & Court Liaison 2020-21 Membership Upgrades 2020-21 New Member List Join the Society @SCOTXHistSocy FB: Texas Supreme Court Historical Society © 2021 Texas Supreme Court Historical Society Message from the President Cynthia K. Timms y grandfather was born before the invention of the automobile. As a teenager, Mhe could not take a girlfriend to the movies; movies did not exist. When Orville Wright flew for those historic twelve seconds at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, my grandfather was wrapping up the first semester of his sophomore year in college. My grandfather’s vocabulary expanded enormously during his lifetime simply to accommodate the increasingly fast-paced world of inventions. Vacuum cleaners, air conditioning, radar, plastic, radios, the Ferris wheel, bottles caps, zippers—all of these things were unknown to the world into which my infant grandfather was delivered. Our language does not change merely to accommodate new technology. All languages are moving, flowing instruments of communication. Over time, we push words together to make a single word out of two, creating terms such as “guesstimate” and “stagflation.” We convert nouns into verbs as we now “gift” an object or “task” our employees. Societal changes also affect our language. When I was growing up, women generally were either “Miss” or “Mrs.” Now, the honorific “Ms.” is preferred by many, if not most, women. That title started out as a part of the women’s movement, slowly moved into the mainstream, and eventually, for many, relegated “Mrs.” to an anachronistic reminder of a long-ago era. In this issue of the Journal, we are again focusing on the contributions of the Latinx community to the development of the courts and legal profession in Texas. And, here, we have another newly invented word: “Latinx.” That word is an effort to create a gender-neutral method of referencing people of Latin American origins. The word reminds me of the time my daughter came home from elementary school, indignant and frustrated. “Did you know that you can have 400 girls in a room and they are ‘muchachas,’ but the moment one boy enters the room, they are all suddenly “muchachos”? “Latinx” is like many newly created words, especially ones that flow out of social movements. Some love it; some hate it; many really do not care one way or the other. We who write for a living—even if those writings may be entirely in the form of pleadings and briefs—can sympathize with people who viscerally react to a perceived misuse of our language. I cannot contain myself 1 when people confuse “disinterested” with “uninterested,” and I typically—with little diplomacy— correct the speaker on the spot, even if the speaker is on the radio. We who occupy this world are on a journey. And our language is on a journey with us. We will discover with time whether “Latinx” becomes a permanent citizen in our vocabulary, or whether it is a fleeting visitor in our lives and in our writing. In this Journal, you will see the terms, “Latina,” “Latino,” and “Latinx.” We allow our contributors to choose the terminology they wish to use. I hope you enjoy the content of their articles. For this Journal, we must thank our authors Professor Ramiro Contreras, Stephen Pate, Justice Gina Benavides, Victor Flores, and the family of the late Fifth Circuit Judge Reynaldo Garza, who was the first Mexican American appointed to a federal court and first Latin American appointed to any circuit of the United States Courts of Appeals. As always, we are greatly indebted to John Browning (Editor-in-Chief) and Stephen Pate (Executive Articles Editor) as well as managing editor Karen Patton, editor Kevin Carlsen, and production manager and graphic designer, David Kroll. Though we all had to contend this last winter with a pandemic surge and the Great Texas Snowpocalypse, the work of the Society has moved forward: • The Society sponsored a presentation on March 6, 2021 from 12:00-12:45 p.m. at the Texas State Historical Association’s Annual Meeting. The Society’s joint session with TSHA was titled: “Account-Ability in Court: From Slavery to Scandal.” We presented two excellent lectures: (1) Daina Ramey Berry, University of Texas at Austin, “Improper Intimacy:” Slavery & Infidelity in Montgomery County, Texas; and (2) Stephen Pate, of the Texas Supreme Court Historical Society, A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight! Wurzbach vs.
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