Publication Date

7-1-1999

Document Type

Article

Organizational Units

Sturm College of Law

Keywords

Sprint, La Conexion Familiar, Expert testimony, Dialogue, Latina, Latino, Chicana, Chicano, Puerto Rico

Abstract

I was asked to be an expert witness for Sprint Corporation in December 1995. I found out that the hearing was being held by the U.S. National Administrative Office because a Mexican labor union had filed a complaint pursuant to the NAFTA labor side accord. I prepared my testimony, I attended the hearing in San Francisco and testified. I began to realize the gravity of my mistake, however, when I sat down and listened to the testimony of the person who spoke after me. Her name was Dora Vogel. She was one of the Latinas who had been employed at La Conexion Familiar and she testified in Spanish.

My testifying was a mistake, but it did not change my leanings or my sensitivities. And, although it was inconsistent with who I am, it should not, but probably will, change perceptions about me. My deciding to testify came as a result of both emotional and intellectual errors in essentializing and not essentializing, mistakes that could only have been corrected by interrogating myself at a deeper level of thought and emotion.

I also think American law can often be too hypertechnical. There is so much sheer detail in the various legal structures we erect—especially those that are created by statute. International law has often frustrated me because a lot of it, especially public international law, is stated in very vague, general principles. As I learned from testifying in the Sprint/LCF dispute, however, international law can serve as a check on domestic law that is characterized by the hypertechnicality of U.S. law. International law can help to remind us not to lose sight of justice

Rights Holder

Roberto L. Corrada, University of Miami Law Review

File Format

application/pdf

Language

English (eng)

Extent

24 pgs

File Size

1.4 MB

Publication Statement

Copyright held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.

This article was originally published as Roberto L. Corrada, Familiar Connections: A Personal Re/View of Latino/a Identity, Gender, and Class Issues in the Context of the Labor Dispute Between Sprint and La Conexion Familiar, 53 U. Miami L. Rev. 1065 (1999).

Volume

53

First Page

1065

Last Page

1088

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