Making the Tightrope Wider and More Secure for Those Who Follow

Safety nets can take multitude forms – some easily visible, others hidden from view. Growing up in a Mexican American barrio on the South Side of Fort Worth, certain safety nets – steady employment, savings, access to adequate health care – were not always available. But the most important safety net any person can have – a loving family – was always within my grasp. The story of my legal career, therefore, revolves around my family and our journey together to create a stable, secure future in Texas.

That story begins with my parents, Concepcion and Jesus Cornejo, who represent two facets of the Latino experience in the United States – she, a birthright citizen, and he, an immigrant. Mom was born in 1935 in the historic El TP barrio of Fort Worth, the youngest of nine kids in a family that immigrated to Texas in the 1920s. My father was a hard-working immigrant from Jalisco, Mexico – just 110-pounds dripping wet when he arrived in Texas in the early 1960s.