Six Latino judges from across Wisconsin spoke about their careers and the evolution of barriers in the legal system at the Legal Luminaries panel at Memorial Union on Oct. 1.
Each of the judges shared the obstacles they faced throughout their careers and the hope they felt for coming generations of legal professionals.
“To be Latino, it’s just a little harder when you're on the ballot,” said Judge Pedro Colón, the first Latino Wisconsin Court of Appeals judge, of his campaign for a judicial position.
Though the state’s judgeships have been predominantly held by white judges,Wisconsin now boasts a number of judges who identify as Latino. But Colón said it’s been a long road to get to where the state stands today.
“I practiced in Milwaukee, and I thought you literally had to have an Irish name to actually be a judge,” Colón said.
Judge Yadira Rein, the first person of color to serve as a judge in Outagamie County and one of few Spanish-speaking attorneys in Fox County, spent much of her childhood in Mexico but moved between foster homes in the U.S. She never felt community in either world, and in school nobody looked like her.
When she returned to Mexico after dropping out of high school, she was perceived as too “Americanized.” And when a high school counselor had told her “you’re not really college material,” Rein said she believed him.
“I was crying, [and] I went home and the lady that I was living with said, ‘get in the car.’ I said, ‘Where are we going?’ and she goes, ‘I'm taking you to college,’” Rein said. “She literally drove to our technical college, she signed me up for one class and she said, ‘There. You're in college.’”
While the judges shared anecdotes of challenges they and others have faced, they also touched on the ways in which the Wisconsin legal system is evolving for the better.
One day each year in Wisconsin, judges are required to complete training aimed at making participants more cognizant of prejudice and the ways in which it can manifest in the court.
“Some of the things I think we’re starting to do a better job of in Wisconsin…is to present programming to the judges and those in the criminal justice system about bias and implicit bias and recognizing that we all have it,” said Judge Carolina Stark, a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge. “
Similarly, Judge Ness Flores, who served as a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge from 1978 to 1983, noted the importance of diversity in bolstering efforts to make the judicial system fairer.
“We need more governors who are receptive to appointing minorities, especially Hispanics, to the bench, and they need more of a group of lawyers they can choose from,” Flores said.
Though the judges concurred that progress has been made in terms of diversity on judicial benches, they collectively urged students to pursue their careers with zeal, seeing as they have the opportunity to rectify the issues still present today.
“We need leaders to be committed to what I call ‘functioning diversity.’ That is, competent diversity that understands all kinds of people,” Colón said. “What kind of America do we want? We can create it. You guys have to decide when you are going to take your personal leap so we can create this America.”
