EDINBURG — With a smile across her face and tenderness in her eyes, Arnoldo Cantu Jr.’s 92-year-old mother sat on stage here at the Hidalgo County Courthouse and watched as her son was sworn in Sunday morning.
He looked at her with adoration and pride as he recited the oath of office.
Cantu was among four Hidalgo County Court-at-Law judges being sworn into office after being reelected in November. All four, however, share something else in common.
They are all products of the Rio Grande Valley’s only and now-defunct law school — Reynaldo G. Garza School of Law.
Officiating the ceremony was state District Judge Israel Ramon, who added yet another element of sentiment to the ceremony. Ramon was a professor at the law school and even taught three of the judges taking the oath.
“I am feeling so honored to be here and so appreciative of them and so proud of them for these accomplishments they’ve had,” said Ramon, judge for the 430th District court, adding that he even postponed his New Year’s trip to be here for his former students.
According to Cantu, judge for Court-at-Law no. 5, the school first opened in Brownsville and was later moved to Edinburg; however, the school was not accredited.
“The vision was the same for everybody; we wanted a law school here in the Valley, not just for us the students but for the people that follow,” Cantu said.
Through their efforts, they gained the attention of the state supreme court which granted provisional accreditation. They sent a letter to the dean of the school allowing graduates of the first two years to take the BAR exam.
Cantu and his fellow judges were among the first two graduating classes allowing them the opportunity to take the BAR exam.
“I was a teacher during the day and a student during the night and raising my kids,” Cantu explained, adding that the school gave him the opportunity to study law without having to leave his home.
Each of the judges, Rudy Gonzales in Court-at-Law no. 1, Jaime “Jay” Palacios in court no. 2, Fred Garza in court no. 4 and Cantu have completed at least 20 years on the bench, with more than 80 years of judicial experience combined between the four “homegrown” judges, as Cantu termed it.
Moments before the ceremony began they all stood backstage joking as old friends do, and reminisced about their years in school, which they called “Harvard by the rio.”
“We graduated together more than 30 years ago. I’ve been here in office for 22 years … but we actually went to law school together so that’s what makes it special,” Gonzales, 64, said. “It’s something unique.”
Although the school did not remain open in the Valley, its impact extends outside the region and remains alive in the form of another institution, not to mention with these judges’ legacies.
A student who attended the Garza law school later opened a branch of the school in Dallas called the Dallas-Fort Worth School of Law, which quickly saw large enrollment numbers at the time. Years later Wesleyan University merged with the law school creating the Wesleyan School of Law that, as of seven years ago, is now part of the Texas A&M system.
