college of arts and letters
eri yasuhara, dean

Fall 2004

The Honor in Endurance

Florentino Garza has seen his share of hard cases as a longtime trial lawyer, and his work has won him honors. But it’s the hard knocks in early life that also have brought rewards and regard to his door.

A partner of the San Bernardino law firm of Garza, Garza & Pacheco, Garza has a internationally known practice in the areas of civil rights, civil appeals, personal injury and environmental law. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Trial Lawyers and the American Academy of Trial Lawyers, and was named California Trial Lawyer of the Year in 2000 by the American Board of Trial Advocates. In June, Cal State San Bernardino recognized that career with an honorary Doctor of Letters degree during the university’s annual Commencement. He’s the university’s fourth recipient of an honorary doctorate.

Among his many honors, however, also has been an award established by the San Bernardino County Bar Association, an award that had less to do with the job of trial law and more to do with his character. In 2002, the association established the Florentino Garza Fortitude Award, honoring attorneys who “exhibit strength of mind that enables them to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with great courage.”

On his way to becoming an attorney Garza had leaped plenty of hurdles. At 76, he said during two Commencement speeches he delivered at CSUSB, he could look back and be thankful for what the country had given him. A native of Texas, he once worked Texas cotton fields and spoke little English. Presbyterian missionaries brought him into their family after he was orphaned, and in 1956 Garza graduated from the UCLA Law School – one of the first Mexican Americans to do so. At Commencement he remembered those roots and reminded the new graduates to remember theirs and to give back to their communities and their country.

“I realize,” he said, “what this great country can offer if you are just willing to sacrifice and pay the price for an education.”

Quick Takes

On the heels of a 2003 Outstanding Teacher Award from the Inland Empire Foreign Language Association, the California Language Teachers Association awarded Terri Nelson its 2004 Outstanding Teacher Award. Nelson has worked with high school language teachers and helped found CSUSB’s Center for the Advancement of Second Language Acquisition, which awards scholarships to high school students. She also developed Internet exercises for “Volilà,” a French language textbook distributed nationwide.

Risa Dickson, who served as the communications department chair for four years, has been appointed associate dean for the College of Arts and Letters. She succeeds Loren Filbeck, who retired in July after 32 years at CSUSB. Dickson has been at the university since 1991. A communications theorist who specializes in attachment, gender relations and interpersonal and organizational communication, Dickson has written book chapters and has been published in several journal publications as well as presented papers at national and international conferences.

“If a family comes from a poor area of Latin America,” says Mirta Gonzalez, who was born in Cuba, “the only idea they might have for the girl is to get a job and be able to buy material things, instead of being behind the girl to study and be whatever she wants to be.” Gonzalez is a professor of Spanish at CSUSB. When she was 20 a priest put her on a plane to Kansas City, Mo., where she lived with a Cuban family in public housing, married, gave birth to her first child and earned a bachelor’s degree. She went on to earn a master’s and at 49 her Ph.D. Earlier this year, the national publication Hispanic Outlook for Higher Education magazine named her one of 20 “Trail-Blazing Mujeres.”.