By Steve Walker
While taking photos of last week’s election by City
Council of Ivy Taylor, the first African-American female as Mayor of San
Antonio, I got to thinking about the number of well qualified women in San
Antonio who hold elected office, especially Hispanic women.
Hispanic women appear to do well in seeking and winning
higher office in the Alamo City. I realize we are strong in especially electing
a good number of Hispanic female judges ranging from Justice of the Peace to
County Court, District Court and the 4th Court of Appeals covering
San Antonio and surrounding areas.
Some years ago we were honored to have elected Alma Lopez
as the first Hispanic female to serve as the Chief Justice of the Fourth Court
of Appeals. Not only was she the first here in San Antonio to get elected to a
Chief Justice position on a higher court, but the first in the nation to be
elected to a Chief Justice of any court. I have enjoyed taking her photo at
various events over the years when she was in office and when she retired.
When we look at the impressive list we see that the next
Chief Justice of the Fourth Court of Appeals will be a woman, since the two
candidates running for the office are both women. One is Angelo and one
Hispanic. Should Irene Rios win the seat
she will be only the second Hispanic female Chief Justice to do so on that
court. Rios previously served a number of years as a County Court Judge prior
to her nomination for that seat.
Currently there are three Hispanic Females on the 4th
Court serving as Justices. It happens that all three were elected to the bench
at the same time in the last election cycle. They include Rebeca Martinez in
position 7, Patricia Alvarez in position 3 and Luz Elena Chapa in position 4. During
Law School, Judge Chapa interned for Chief Justice Alma Lopez when she was on
the bench.
I covered their elections for the Walker Report. In
Justice Alvarez’s case I enjoyed visiting with her mother who was right by her
side during the entire campaign. At times I thought they were joined at the
hip.
Going to the district courts Bexar County has 166th
Civil District Court Judge Laura Salinas whose daughter coincidentally was born
on September 5th my birthday. The Judge also served two terms as a
County Court Judge.
The 437th Criminal District Court is held by
Lori Valenzuela, whose father, Freddie Valenzuela, is a retired two star Army
General and a friend of mine for a number of years. He always said she would eventually be a
judge.
438th
Civil District Court bench is held by Gloria Saldana who served as a previous
District Judge who after a break returned to the bench.
There is also three Hispanic females who sit on County Court
benches. In County Court #8 Judge Liza Rodriguez, County Court #10 Tina Torres
the daughter of Pete Torres, who served on the City Council as one of the first
Hispanics to do so and County Court 13 Monica Gonzalez who served a number of
years as a Municipal Judge.
Finally there are two Justices of the Peace benches
filled by Hispanic females. JP2 Monica Caballero served a number of terms in
Precinct 1 before recently being redistricted to Precinct 2. As a former JP2
Judge I was able to work with Judge Caballero on truancy issues within our
courts. Lastly Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace-elect Yolanda Acuna Uresti will
be sworn in January 1st as an unopposed candidate for the bench. As
a teacher at McCollum in the 90s, I taught her oldest son Michael.
With the slowly increasing number of highly qualified Hispanic
females getting elected as judges, it appears that in San Antonio, justice will
prevail.
As always, I write “Just a Thought.”
Steve Walker is a Vietnam Veteran, former Journalist and Justice
of the Peace.
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