Irma Gonzalez: Retired judge blazed trail, continues supporting Latinas in law - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Irma Gonzalez came across a newspaper article in December 1993 that credited President Bill Clinton with nominating the first Mexican American woman to be a federal district judge.

The problem was that Gonzalez, whose mother was born and raised in Mexico, and whose father was Mexican American, was already a U.S. district judge, having been nominated in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate that same year.

Gonzalez, who went on to serve 20 years on the bench in the Southern District of California, including seven as the region’s chief judge, wrote a letter to the editor after reading the erroneous article.

“I had to set the record straight,” Gonzalez said during a recent phone call from Mexico, where she was vacationing with her husband, former U.S. Attorney Robert Brewer.

Gonzalez remains proud of her Mexican American roots and the path she blazed for other Latina attorneys. She knew back then she could be the example she never had.

“My grandfather was a lawyer in Mexico, but I didn’t know much about what he did,” Gonzalez said. “My parents had friends who were lawyers . . . but I knew no female lawyers. When I was growing up, there hardly were any female lawyers.”

And there were, of course, no Mexican American women on the federal bench — or any Latinas, for that matter.

Although Gonzalez is known as the first Mexican American woman to be a federal district judge, she was also one of the first two Latinas: The Senate confirmed her nomination and that of current Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who was born in New York to Puerto Rican parents, on Aug. 11, 1992.

Gonzalez’s journey to the federal bench began, in more ways than one, in Palo Alto. She was born there while her father was in medical school at Stanford, and though her family eventually settled in Tucson, she ended up back at Stanford. While taking pre-med classes as a sophomore, she decided she’d rather study law.

Gonzalez graduated from Stanford, then the University of Arizona College of Law. She clerked for two years for a U.S. district judge in Arizona, spent six years as a federal prosecutor in Arizona and California, worked about four years in private practice, then served as a federal magistrate judge between 1984 and 1990. She then served as a San Diego Superior Court judge from 1991 until her 1992 appointment as U.S. district judge.

Gonzalez retired from the federal bench in 2013, and now works as a mediator and arbitrator for JAMS, helping to settle private disputes.

She points to two things that began in 2005 as among her proudest career accomplishments.

That year, Gonzalez became chief judge in the Southern District of California, a position she held until 2012. She played a central role in helping secure congressional funding for the federal courthouse that opened in 2013, and helped shepherd in the era of electronic court filings. She and two others that year also co-founded Latinas in Law, a local nonprofit that helps mentor and provide resources to Latina lawyers, law students and prospective attorneys.

Gonzalez also relished her role as a district judge in swearing in new citizens. “There would be people from 50, 60, 70 different countries, and they all want to be U.S. citizens,” she said. “That’s very rewarding.”

She hopes Latina attorneys continue following the path she blazed, and she continues the work to ensure that’s possible.

“I have tried to help counsel and give advice to women who are in law school, especially Latinas,” Gonzalez said. “I hope to continue to do it — in fact, I am corresponding with a high school student in Oregon right now. She texted me. She wants to be a judge. She’s Latina. That’s really heartwarming.”

source: https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/phenomenal-women-series/story/2022-01-29/phenomenal-women-irma-gonzalez

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