4.1 Introduction to Carlos Ruvalcaba Hernández
Whitney Chappell and Carlos Ruvalcaba
Many kids grow up dreaming of becoming lawyers. Some may be attracted to the money, status, and power that lawyers wield in our society, but perhaps one of the most motivating factors for future lawyers is the admiration they have felt for legal heroes; watching the quest for legal justice in classic films like To Kill a Mockingbird, Erin Brockovich, My Cousin Vinny, The Rainmaker, and so many others inspires us to set wrongs right, to make the world a better place through the legal system. In the case of Carlos Ruvalcaba Hernández, an immigration attorney with his own successful law firm, witnessing injustice firsthand led him to pursue his career as a lawyer, and he has helped hundreds of clients achieve residency or citizenship in the United States.
In this chapter, we’ll listen to Carlos’s personal story–how he got to where he is today, what he does at work, and how Spanish is such a powerful tool for an immigration lawyer. Let’s meet him.
Transcript: “Hi, I’m Carlos Ruvalcaba Hernández, the owner and primary attorney at Ruvalcaba Hernández Law Firm–we are an immigration law firm. I went to school at UTSA, where I got my Spanish and Psychology degree. I also got my Certificate in Translation and Interpreting Studies from UTSA. From there, I went to St. Mary’s University School of Law, where I got my law degree. Four years ago, I opened up my own law firm, where we handle family-based immigration cases, but we also take humanitarian cases. We deal, we deal with a lot of cases involving victims of crime, victims of trafficking. And I really, really enjoy what I do.”
