With a lump in his throat, the lawyer Sergio García recalled a conversation he had recently with his mother after buying a watch with the value of $ 3, 000.
“He told me, ‘if when you were born someone had told me that my son was going to grow up to one day be the owner of a donkey, he would have made me cry because we were so poor that I would never have believed it.'”
Now the prominent lawyer, expert in car accidents and personal injuries, can not only afford luxuries of high monetary value but also share his success with those most in need.
García, who is recognized for having been the first undocumented lawyer sworn in California, created his Sergio C. García foundation in the 2009 to help young people interested in attending university.
Now in celebration of the early publication of the book in Spanish of his biography, García decided f estejar as only he knows how to do; helping others.
The Sergio C. García Foundation is offering $ 17, 000 in scholarships for high school youth planning to attend to the university.
This is part of the contest “Tell me your story”, where García asks young people who live in the United States, regardless of immigration status or nationality, to tell the story of their life and the obstacles they have faced to excel.
García asks that the essay be no more than 1, 000 words and in Spanish.
“We want to have at least 100 essays and from those we are going to choose four winners ”, said García in an interview with Real America News.
First place will win $ 10, , second place will win $ 5, 000 and there will be two third places that will win $ 2, 500 each one.
“The chances of winning are very good,” said García.
The lawyer said that a book was published a few years ago with his biography in English. But Spanish-speaking people asked him to publish one in Spanish and for him this was the right time to do it.
Example of improvement
García is one of six siblings and a native of a small town in Michoacán, Mexico called Villa Jiménez.
“I was born in an adobe house that my parents they rented and I spent my first days of life in a bed of stone and mud, ”said García.
The high need to get ahead led the family to emigrate to the United States when García had little more one year old. They lived in California for about eight years until the family returned to Mexico again.
When Garcia was 17 years again emigrated to the United States and this time it was clear to him that he wanted to be a lawyer, of course as long as he survived the border crossing.
García said that on that last occasion he crossed the border as undocumented in 1994 had to do it locked in the box of a Chevy S pickup 10 together with others seven men.
“They kept us locked up there for more than three hours while we were crossing and some of them fainted. We were like two or three awake and praying aloud to God that we would get out alive ”, said the lawyer.
Once in the United States, García continued with his plan. He was an outstanding student and upon graduating from high school, universities such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, UC Davis and others were interested in him.
Due to his undocumented status he was unable to enter these universities but not gave up and in 2009 earned his Juris Doctorate from Cal Northern School of Law. Law, in the city of Chico, in northern California.
A few months later, he successfully passed the California Bar Exam on the first attempt. After a lengthy investigation, he was denied a lawyer’s license due to lack of immigration status, even though he had already been waiting for more than 15 years his legal permanent residence after his father petitioned him.
After a five-year fight against the United States Department of Justice, Garcia won his landmark case, becoming the first undocumented person in the nation in history to be authorized to practice law.
“But they told me that I could not work for anyone because it was still illegal,” Garcia recalled.
This did not close the doors but rather it motivated him to open his own business where he has worked so far.
Now García considers that his life experience has led him to be an outstanding man, who with the support of his wife Amairani Serna, continues to help different communities.
After r Reflecting, García cannot forget his humble beginnings in his life, which is why he wants to help other low-income students.
“I went to school with broken shoes and there I hid one foot in front of the other so that my classmates would not make fun of me, ”said García. “Also many times I went with an empty stomach hoping that someone would share me with his family.”
García, who has won many car accident and personal injury cases, he said that he feels very fortunate to be able to help others, including his own family.
“I always say it, I think this world has many rich and millionaires because they have not discovered the joy that gives one to help someone else “, asserted the lawyer.
The deadline for submitting the essay is 30 of September. Those interested can find all the details and apply for the scholarship at: https://sergiocgarciafoundation.com/essay-submissions/