Judge Walter Rivera grew up in downtown Manhattan, in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood, where at that time the population was predominantly Puerto Rican. What he saw and lived there influenced him to decide to study social work
“I saw many drug problems among young people there,” he said. “There were many other social problems.”
At 15 years old, when he was in the ninth grade, Judge Rivera received a scholarship to study at the Governor’s Academy, a prestigious boarding school in Massachusetts. That opportunity gave him the pass to Columbia University, where, at the end of the first year at this institution, he decided to change careers.
“It occurred to me that [a career in] law could perhaps have more impact, that it could use the legal system to help the community,” he said.
More than 40 years have passed since Judge Rivera received his law degree. Of these, he dedicated 32 to private practice and for the last ten he has been a judge of the Court of Claims of the State of New York, and also a teacher in various educational institutions.
Currently, as a member and president of the Latino Judge Association, Judge Rivera is working on efforts to increase the number of Latino judges on the state’s courts. To date, there are 105, most concentrated in New York City. In Buffalo, Rochester, Albany, and what is known as upstate, the shortage is even greater.
The judge is the son of Puerto Rican immigrants; his mother cleaned hotel rooms and his father worked as a laborer. They both understood, he said, that the way to progress was education, and they told him and his sister that they should not lose focus on their studies.
In perfect Spanish, Judge Rivera recalled that since he was 11 years old he had to work as an errand boy in the grocery stores in his neighborhood on weekends and after school hours.
Now he is three years away from retirement –because the position he holds does not allow him to continue in office after 70 years–, and although he does not intend to stop to work fully, he does want to travel and spend more time with his wife, children and grandchildren, whom he appreciates for supporting him in his decisions.