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3 Domestic Violence Xavier, the Painter Querido Alfredo, I want to thank you for your patience, as I have been extremely busy and have not had the time to write. I have been running around quite a bit, teaching and continuing my work with Milagro. Enclosed you will find a picture from a recent immigrant rally in Phoenix, and yes, the one on the left is me, albeit unrecognizable with such a dark tan! Thank you for your letter and for incorporating the new edits on your previous chapter. I must confess I was very intrigued by the child abuse case. It had all of the elements of an exciting case that would be presented in a law and murder television show. You are right, being a zealous advocate is a basic truism in law. In your case, it was easy to be a zealous advocate for the couple because you believed in their innocence. Even the field notes of your assistant, Alma, reflect the same sentiment toward the young couple. You also related that it would be difficult to be a zealous advocate for someone accused of committing a heinous crime, such as the one the young couple was accused of—yet advocating for María came naturally to you. How do you think you would have represented María if you were not as confident in her innocence? What does a rascuache lawyer do when the presumed innocence of a client is not evident? I ask this because, as a young lawyer, I find myself constantly having to deal with my biases. In other words, how does a rascuache lawyer continue being a zealous advocate? Do you believe there are times when it is better to drop a case? Your reflections on this case were very insightful. It is still quite startling to see the type of “evidence” that the detectives introduced against the couple, and if you had not been such a zealous advocate, I can envision the case with a completely different outcome.What a great case, 74 crimes against the person truly showing the trials and tribulations of a rascuache lawyer. Sorry, but I have to go now. I must return to the Milagro clinic! Hasta la próxima, Fermina Hola Fermina, I want to thank you for your letter, your edits, and your comments on my last chapter. Your comments were very helpful and I will incorporate them into my revisions. I am glad that all is well at your work and with the adjunct teaching and at the immigration clinic. Thanks for the picture. I have posted it on my bulletin board. I wish that I could have joined you at the protest in Phoenix, but I was teaching a three-week summer-school class and just couldn’t get away. The work at Milagro must be keeping you busy with all of the anti-immigrant bashing and xenophobia that is going on in the country. Before getting into the next case, I wanted to briefly respond to your question. I think that our job as lawyers is to be zealous advocates for our clients, not to judge their guilt or innocence. I really never want to know about my client’s culpability. It is the responsibility of the courts to determine guilt or innocence, and it is our responsibility to give people the best representation possible and to be a zealous advocate for them, irrespective of the charges. The next case I’d like to tell you about revolves around an immigrant mexicano who was accused of domestic violence. But before getting into the case, I want to go back to a comment that you made about Oscar Zeta Acosta, the Brown Buffalo, in your letter a couple of weeks ago. You were critical of me for lauding Acosta and not acknowledging his sexism and misogyny. Let me clarify: My intent was not to glorify Acosta or to defend his sexism and homophobia, but to recognize his contributions to rascuache lawyering. Lawyers simply do not talk about Acosta because they tend to see him more as a Chicano movement figure and as a creative writer than as a lawyer. As you know, he is credited with creating the gonzo journalism style that was popularized by Hunter S. Thompson and his Dr. Gonzo in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a character modeled after Acosta.1 I realize that Acosta is openly sexist and homophobic in his writing , and most women are understandably...

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