#JusticeinPimaCounty: Week 61
Beth Castro called me out of the blue last month.
“Hey girl? When do I get to meet the County Attorney and take a look around the old shop?” It’s important to be honest: I went into fan-girl mode. I had never met Beth in person, only seeing her give an impressive lecture once at the grand opening of a gorgeous permanent archive and exhibit at the University of Arizona’s Special Collections Library memorializing her father’s work, writings, letters, photographs.
The country remembers Raũl Castro as the only Mexican American governor of the great state of Arizona, and perhaps as ambassador to El Salvador and Bolivia on behalf of President Lyndon Johnson and ambassador of Argentina under President Jimmy Carter. But I have a particular fascination, because before all that he was the first and only Mexican American Pima County Attorney. (After his undefeated boxing career at what is now Northern Arizona University!)
Beth came to Tucson to see where her father’s office had been when he was County Attorney, because she was just a toddler in those days. Unfortunately, we believe his office had actually been inside the Old Pima County Courthouse in those days and has been remodeled beyond recognition. But I was able to take her around the Legal Services Building where the agency moved not long after her father’s tenure. I introduced her to the fabulous faces of the main reception, Frances Quintero and Kamarra Perkins, and then surprised Beth in the 14th floor hallway with our wall of former County Attorneys and her father’s smiling face captured in a frame.
Beth then surprised me by giving me something very special. Out of law school, Raũl couldn’t get standard work. Firms weren’t hiring students with his skin color and last name. So, he took his fraternity board, re-purposed it himself, and turned it into a sign to hang over his own law office in downtown Tucson. It’s now sitting on the desk I use here, which was Dennis DeConcini’s desk during his tenure as Pima County Attorney.
If you’re new to Arizona, or just born yesterday, then you should know that Raũl Castro had a career in public service that few could match. So, then you know how humbled I am to be in this building and to work in the shadows of the extraordinary people who came before me. To work alongside the stunning talent on all 20 floors of this building, out at Juvie, in Green Valley, and in Ajo who excel at such challenging work, all in the name of public service to you – Pima County. It’s all part of why I don’t sleep at night so much anymore. To get to be in this space and meet people like Beth, you have to give 200% to even fill half of all these shoes.
To be continued…
