There are a lot of things, especially in these trying times, that we all wished we had more of. For some it’s difficult to see the blessings for the tribulations that cloud our journey. But even amidst all that, I can say that one of the many blessings I cling to is my Hispanic heritage. It is this heritage that has afforded me, a minority female, the opportunity to serve as the first female Cuban-American dean of an ABA accredited law school in the United States.
Yet I am not alone in my endeavors, as all across America more Hispanic men and women are embracing their heritage and turning to it as their motivation for success and to help others. Whether it is Nobel Prize-winning physicist Luis Walter Alvarez, political leader Nydia Velázquez or poet and author Julia Alvarez, we all have an opportunity to find our place in this world. But when we do, we must not forget how we got there. We must not forget our Hispanic heritage.
As a lawyer and educator, I can look back and say that it was in my blood. My grandfather, Gilberto Diaz Barreiro, was a respected civil judge in Camaguey, Cuba’s third largest city. His son and my father, Gaston Armando Diaz, was on the verge of earning his law degree at the University of Havana when his career plans were suddenly altered. Forced to move his wife and young children to New Jersey in 1961 to avoid Castro’s regime, my father had to leave Cuba before he could finish his legal education. He had only one class left to take before he would have become a practicing attorney, a dream that was ultimately fulfilled by me, his daughter, many decades later.
