Justice Consuelo Marie Callahan, Circuit Judge, United States Courts of Appeal [0:00-5:01]

Good morning and welcome. I am here with Consuelo Maria Callahan, a retired justice of the Court of Appeal Third District. She's blazed a historical trail in the judiciary. We will cover that and much more later in this interview. This interview is the brainchild of the Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts. They have instituted the Appellate Court Legacy Project which includes an oral history of the Appellate Courts via interviews of retired justices. I am Tani Cantil Saku Uwe an associate justice on the Court of Appeal Third District and I have the honor of interviewing Judge Callahan. A few minutes ago I referred to Judge Callahan as a trailblazer because she was the first woman appointed to the San Joaquin Superior Court. She was the first Hispanic to be appointed to the San Joaquin Superior Court. She was the first San Joaquin County judge to be appointed to the Third District Court of Appeal in 73 years and she is the first San Joaquin County judge to be appointed to the Ninth Circuit. There's more and to my knowledge she is the first California female judge for whom an American Inn of Court is named. This interview seeks to know more about this trailblazer behind the robe in the stylish suit. Good morning, Connie. Good morning, Tani. Good to see you. You too. I'm gonna ask you a series of questions in chronological order. Feel free to expand. Where and when were you born? Well a very long time ago and I don't feel like I'm really actually retired since I have another job but the I was born in at the Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California and my folks were living in the Bay Area at the time and I spent my it was at June 9th 1950 and I went home to live in Los Althos was the first place that I lived. Is that where you were raised? Well yeah it's funny. I say I'm from Stockton and you will hear that from people because that's the very longest that I've lived anywhere but actually my life did begin in the Bay Area and I lived in Los Althos till I was 12th. Then we moved to the other side of the Bay, Fremont. My dad took a job over there and I went to junior high and high school there and then I did my undergraduate at Stanford so I went back to the the other side of the Bay, the Palo Alto and it was law school and my legal career that brought me to the valley and I just haven't left since so I guess I you know I am a Bay Area born girl but I consider myself a valley girl at this point. Good I'd like to get to that in a few moments but while you were in Los Althos and those early years before 12 did you have any siblings? I'm the oldest and people say I am a definite first child they usually guess that and I have a I have a younger sister who is two years younger and then I have a brother that's that would be five years younger so the that's our family. Tell me about your mom and dad. Well my mom and dad you know I came from I I would describe as pretty humble background I would say that I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth but I was born very fortunate to have very wonderful parents that were very committed to their children and to education. My mom is Spanish and my dad's Irish although I think he married probably my dad was a Spanish teacher and when actually my mother was his student but they claim they didn't date till after she was in college but he had he was a Spanish teacher and he had lived in Mexico for a while so that was a huge influence on my life. My mom did not speak Spanish I did not speak English until she went to school and that was true of all the children in their family so she's very much the immigrant mentality. My dad was you know a he lived in the depression in San Francisco was a native San Franciscan and his parents are Irish and so they were you know both sides were really quite poor and my my parents were the first that got any further education because with my grandparents my grandmother used to describe herself as like Jethro and the Beverly Hill abilities I think she went through it was either fifth or sixth grade the furthest we had anyone go was through eighth grade and that was pretty high brow for our family at that time although I think particularly on my mother's side her parents came to this country through Hawaii in those days when people came some people that couldn't pay for their way here went to Hawaii they were essentially indentured servants and they had to work there till they paid off their fare to get here and then they settled in the Santa Clara Valley and my grandfather was a