Why few Latinos have left a bigger imprint on California than Cruz Reynoso

To understand the legal legacy that former California State Supreme Court Associate Justice Cruz Reynoso left when he died May 2 at age 90, one must realize the world he grew up in.

One of 11 children born into a farmworker family in Brea, it would be more than a half century before he would be named the first Latino to sit on the state’s highest court.

Universities had no Latino outreach efforts.

The California Legal Rural Assistance, of which he served as deputy director, wasn’t founded until 1966.

La Raza Lawyers Association, which he helped found, was established in 1977.

In 1959 when Reynoso went to the state Capitol to serve as a legislative assistant in the state Senate, it would be three more years before Phillip Soto became the first Latino elected to either legislative body. Since then, more than 100 Latinos and Latinas have been elected to that body.

In other words, Reynoso had no wing man, no blocker, no left guard that would protect him as he plowed ahead. The term “affirmative action” was not coined until 1961 when President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order on government contracting.

Get this: Reynoso was the first Latino admitted to the State Bar of California. That happened in 1959.

He was also the first Latino appointed to the California Court of Appeal (1976).

When the state bar released its first report card on the diversity of its attorneys, Latinos accounted for 7% of more than 190,000 lawyers in California. Remember, the Latino population is 40%.

It’s not easy being the first at something. The trailblazers are often out there alone, with few advocates.

When he was 1, he was repatriated along with his family to México even though he was born in the U.S. “The ‘repatriation’ resulted from a wave of prejudice against Mexicans” in the 1930s, he wrote in an op-ed.

Even his mother was tough.

At a 2010 screening of the documentary ‘Planting the Seeds of Justice,’ Reynoso revealed what his mother would say upon seeing him reading at home: “Look at this lazy boy; he has nothing else to do but to read.”

Los Ángeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano had the best piece about Reynoso, suggesting that people should remember Reynoso for more than being recalled by California voters in 1986.

“Most Californians, if they’ve ever heard of him, just remember Reynoso’s historic defeat, the only time voters ever rejected sitting California Supreme Court justices,” Arellano wrote. “But his legacy will outlive the haters by decades.”

Arellano reasons that Reynoso’s most significant contributions were made after his 7-year tenure on the high court. “Reynoso quietly became one of the most influential-yet-unknown Latinos this state has produced,” he said.

Arellano is right. When Reynoso retired from teaching at UCLA School of Law in 2001, he relented to a campaign from law students at UC Davis to go teach there. Reynoso accepted.

In 2000, President Bill Clinton honored Reynoso with the Presidential Medal of Honor, the highest civilian award in the United States.

Reynoso was often spotted in the San Joaquín Valley, speaking at luncheons or dinners, or just dropping into meetings on how to improve the situation for Latinos.

He helped outlaw the short-handed hoe in 1975.

In 1993, the U.S. Senate appointed him to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.

His favorite line was, “Democracy without participation is no democracy at all.”

Those are words worth taking into account today.

Esta historia fue publicada originalmente el 19 de mayo de 2021, 4:55 p. m..