On Thursday, January 24th, we were extremely lucky to get a visit from Judge Elizabeth Guerrero Macías, a Superior Court Judge in Orange County. Her visit to Berkeley marked the first law school visit of her listening tour on behalf of the California Latino Judges Association's Judicial Outreach Committee. She listened to our suggestions on how to make law school more accessible to Latinx students, and we listened to her awesome life story. She told us about growing up poor and having to become the caretaker of her family at a very young age. We were particularly blown away by her tenacity. Despite growing up in a difficult situation, she became the first in her family to get a high school diploma, graduated from Cal State Fullerton with a double major, and received her JD from California Western School of Law. She says she was never daunted by not having the same "pedigree" as some of her counterparts. "What they don't know is my ganas. My motivation to succeed. I will not fail. I run circles around people who went to Harvard." After several years as a public defender, she went on to become a judge. Just two years after becoming a judge, she was supervising other judges. In addition to her hard work and determination, she credits much of her success to always working with integrity. We are incredibly proud to have her represent the Latinx community on the bench!
