Kane County Judge Bianca Camargo had no business putting on a black robe and sitting on the bench of the 16th Judicial Circuit.
Or so it would seem if going by the advice of a high school counselor who told the now 43-year-old woman – born and raised in Aurora – she shouldn’t bother going to college.
Turns out the same could be said of fellow Judge Sandra Parga who, likewise, had a high school counselor from her hometown of Woodridge declare she wasn’t really college material, and that maybe she should look into becoming a hairdresser like her mother.
Obviously neither of these self-described “average” students took that advice, thanks to their immigrant parents who not only believed in them but also in hard work plus education. And in Camargo’s case, credit also has to go to a Waubonsee Community College counselor who “was always looking out for me,” which included helping her get enrolled in Northern Illinois University.
Both of these backstories are remarkable and certainly relevant as we celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month.
Parga made Kane County history in 2017 when she was appointed as the first Hispanic female associate judge in the county. And four years later the Illinois Supreme Court singled out Camargo, making her the first Hispanic female circuit judge in Kane County – which also happens to have more Latino judges than any other county in the state outside of Cook, according to Rene Cruz.
Judge Cruz would know.
When he was sworn in as the first Hispanic judge in Kane County in 2012, the Aurora man realized the pressure that came with this important distinction.
“If I was the first and only, I would have been considered a failure,” said Cruz, who was appointed to the 16th Circuit Court four years later and won that seat in the next election.
For that reason, he not only “worked hard to be an example” but also helped colleagues on the bench “recognize the diversity in talent that was out there.”
In addition to Parga and Camargo, that standout group includes 52-year-old Judge Julio Cesar Valdez, who arrived in this country as a 4-year-old with his parents and eight siblings from a small village in Mexico.
Unlike those two colleagues, however, he knew he wanted to be a lawyer by age 6. Some of those early inclinations came from an older brother who assigned him that role, but were reinforced when he fell in love with “To Kill a Mockingbird” and became determined to mirror lawyer Atticus Finch, who sought justice based on truth rather than prejudice.
Valdez recalls his own parents experiencing plenty of discrimination. And he also remembers walking by the Elgin branch court as a kid, which was four blocks from his home, gazing at the building and vowing one day he’d be mayor.
After obtaining his law degree from the University of Iowa and practicing for 18 years in Elgin – mostly working with non-English speaking clients – Valdez chose to forgo politics and in 2019 was appointed as an associate judge.
Now a circuit judge, he presides over the branch court in that building he used to walk by as a kid.
Valdez definitely had his sights set high from an early age. Yet he and the other three Hispanic judges – all of whom have also won elections – insist their careers were never about power or prestige. Instead, they saw it as an even broader way to serve their communities. By extending their public service beyond the courtroom through volunteer work and community outreach, they could reach more Hispanics, particularly young people who, as several told me, “need to see faces like ours” to understand what is possible.
“When I tell students where I am from, it means a lot to see their eyes light up … to represent their parents’ dreams,” said Valdez.
Likewise, Parga insists her role on the bench is “another way to serve the community.”
After obtaining her law degree from DePaul University, she worked at Prairie State Legal Services, then became a Kane County public defender and eventually the managing partner of a private law firm’s Elgin office.
For the past seven years, Parga has presided over the county’s juvenile division where “most kids are black and brown,” and need someone to remind them “you are not who you are on a snapshot of a really bad day in your life.”
“It matters how we talk to them,” she added. “We want them to have hope.”
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If anything, Parga noted, donning the black robe makes her “more humble and more dedicated to public service and serving our communities.”
It’s an attitude shared by Camargo, who presides over one of Kane County’s five felony courtrooms but does not seem to possess an ounce of ego.
After graduating from NIU with a degree in social work, she became a victims advocate in the Kane County States Attorney’s Office. There, Camargo developed such a passion for seeking justice that she went back to school for a law degree and worked as an assistant state’s attorney for 11 years.
It was at her going-away party – she was moving on to work with CASA Kane County – when she heard then Kane County Chief Judge Clint Hull was submitting her name to the Illinois Supreme Court to fill a circuit judge position. It was a rumor, Camargo told me, she did not believe until hearing it from the horse’s mouth a few days later.
In addition to Hull and Cruz, Camargo credits longtime Kane County prosecutors Greg Sams, John Barsanti and Joe McMahon for instilling in her a confidence she didn’t always have. Ironically enough, the judge admits she still fights that inner voice telling her she is not smart or sophisticated enough to be on the bench.
“I really do still struggle with it,” Camargo said, even admitting sometimes she feels like “an imposter in the system.”
Which is why she’s determined to not only silence her own doubting voice but make sure younger generations never hear theirs.
Kane County leadership has changed from the stereotypical white male to include more women, Latinos and other people of color, points out Camargo and her colleagues, who all won elections after their appointments.
“There’s no question the talent pool is growing,” said Cruz, who is looking to retire in the near future and wants to make sure “the legacy will continue.”
“The worst thing you can do,” he added, “is build something and then it disappears.”
Born in Panama into a military family, Cruz has long maintained that growing up in multiple states and countries taught him to adapt to different cultures, a perspective he later brought to his legal career in Aurora, where he became a partner in a law firm focused on serving the Hispanic community.
That commitment to diversity extends beyond his own culture, said Cruz, pointing to the addition of four more female circuit judges in Kane County in the last 14 years, along with an African-American, Indian-American and Korean-born judge, an openly gay judge and those from diverse legal backgrounds.
“Judge Cruz has done an amazing job of making sure that after he became the first Latino judge in Kane County he opened doors to continue to diversify our judiciary here,” noted Valdez. “From then to now it has really changed …”
Still, representation is only part of the equation.
“Service is engrained in our culture,” Valdez said, adding that finding ways to give back is especially important in today’s divisive climate.
“Irrespective of one’s political views, we have people from all over the world here,” Valdez said. “We live in a community where we have to respect one another.”