Abstract
Latinx law teachers and scholars are vital to the success of Latinx and other students in legal education, as well as to the attainment of the power, influence, economic advancement, and justicegetting that students seek through that education. Today, one in five Americans are Latinx with the proportion quickly growing to one in four. Although there are many Latinx law professors who are highly credentialed, sharply skilled, and deeply committed, to date, there has not been an adequate accounting of their presence and contributions at law schools. What is known is that their numbers are, and have long been, grossly under-representative of growing Latinx law student bodies and the Latinx population. By and large, however, law schools and their faculties have ignored these facts. They have failed to recognize and mitigate biases and even hostility against Latinx law aspirants and professors, and to put adequate efforts into Latinx law professors’ recruitment, retention, and professional development. The data show that law faculties have largely excluded Latinx professionals for decades. Latinx law professors who do obtain faculty positions often find themselves marginalized, stereotyped, pigeonholed, and discriminated against. Consequently, glaring and interrelated disparities persist. The limited Latinx presence on law faculties under-represents the proportion of Latinx students in law schools and even more so of the proportion of Latinx people in the general population. Latinx law students are also under-represented vis-àvis the population; and they are under-supported in law schools, in significant part due to the entrenched dearth of Latinx law professors, mentors, and models on those faculties. These failures
Recommended Citation
Emile Loza de Siles,
¡We Count! The Enumerated History of the Latinx Legal Academy: Part One, Beginnings to 1990,
23
Seattle J. Soc. Just.
595
(2025).
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sjsj/vol23/iss3/42