© 2015 The Texas Lawbook.
By Brooks Igo
(June 1) – The 15 scholarships and six judicial internships funded by the Dallas Hispanic Law Foundation are difference-makers not only for the law students that receive them, but also for the Dallas community and state as a whole, Dallas City Manager A.C. Gonzalez said Thursday at the DHLF annual luncheon.
Gonzalez, the luncheon’s keynote speaker, delivered a moving speech reflecting on his own family’s experience to the more than 200 North Texas lawyers, judges and law students in attendance at the Belo Mansion yesterday.
“My siblings and I were incredibly fortunate to have loving parents setting out clear expectations of doing the right things like working hard, valuing family and getting an education,” he said. “But then there was the matter of making it happen.
“That’s where all of you come in.”
Though Gonzalez believes those values are “alive and well” in the Hispanic community today, he believes the collective ability to translate those values into graduation rates and professional certifications is not happening as it needs to.
Recent Census data estimates Hispanics make up 42 percent of the city of Dallas, but only 5 percent of the city’s attorneys.
It is only marginally better when looking statewide. Hispanics make up 38 percent of Texans and 8 percent of the state’s attorneys.
“The implications of this imbalance are significant and none of them are good,” he said.
Gonzalez said this discrepancy translates to less earning power in the economy, fewer professionals to service needs throughout the community, less people in the upper-middle class and more poverty.
“But maybe the worst impact is the possible erosion of the belief that we all have the opportunity to be successful,” he said. “We cannot let the American Dream die.”
Gonzalez was appointed city manager by the Dallas City Council on Jan. 21, 2014. Over the course of 14 years as an assistant city manager, he has helped lead the development of the Omni Dallas Convention Center Hotel, management of the Love Field Modernization Program and negotiations of the Dallas Stars Reunion Arena lease, which brought the hockey club to Dallas.
Earlier in his career, Gonzalez served as the city manager of three other Texas cities: San Marcos, Carrizo Springs and Dilley. He said he wouldn’t be where he is today without the aid of scholarships.
In addition to receiving scholarships, Gonzalez said he was able to fund his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Texas and Trinity University, respectively, by working jobs on and off campus and collecting empty glass soda bottles.
For every bottle he was able to turn in, he earned a nickel. Gonzalez said how many nickels he earned was the difference between an all-you-can-eat Mexican buffet and a can of Campbell’s chicken noodle soup.
“To put that in perspective, to equal the scholarship funding you’re granting each recipient today, I would have had to collect 50,000 of these bottles,” he said. [Note: The scholarships DHLF awarded were $2,500 each.]
Perhaps the most memorable story Gonzalez told was about an art project his son, who is finishing up his Master of Fine Arts, produced called “Life Stories,” a series of portraits for which he asked the subjects to pose in front of scenes that are important to them.
Gonzalez’s son asked his grandfather – Gonzalez’s dad – to be the star of one of the portraits. When asked what he wanted to pose in front of, his dad said it was an easy decision: he wanted to stand in front of his “treasure.”
Gonzalez pulled up the portrait for everyone at the luncheon to see. His dad, who did not graduate from college, is standing in front of all of the degrees each of his children and most of his grandchildren earned, including one Gonzalez’s mom received in her thirties.
Support from family, friends and the community is an equally important part of pursuing an education as the financing piece is, Gonzalez told the law students in attendance from SMU, UNT Dallas, Texas A&M, South Texas, University of Houston and UT.
“This foundation (DHLF) is now an integral part of the community that provides critical support to these young scholars,” he said. “And that’s something you should be very proud of.”
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