Filipina Women's Network Magazine, Profile, Fay Alvarez Olympia, Posted: Jul 22, 2010

Editor's Note: Justice Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye, newly nominated as Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court explains in this 2007 profile how previous generations of Filipino women have laid the groundwork for achievements like hers.


If you happened to meet Tani Gorre Cantil-Sakauye for the first time at a Girl Scout meeting or a church basketball game, you might be pardoned for filing her under your mind’s Attractive-Asian-American-Soccer-Mom-with-Long-Name category.

Once you discover who she really is, however, you could very well decide to accept that pardon from the Honorable Associate Justice of the California Court of Appeal, Third Appellate District.

Without a doubt, her involvement in the lives of daughters Hana, 11, and Clair, 8, is extremely important to Justice Cantil-Sakauye, 47. So is her 13-year marriage to Police Lieutenant Mark Sakauye. Yet, there is much more to this barrier- breaking, history-making Filipina woman than the tightly scheduled activities on her kids’ after-school calendar.

Currently one of only two women and one of only two persons of color in the Court of Appeal’s Third District, Cantil- Sakauye was the first woman of Asian (Filipina) ethnicity to serve as judge in Sacramento County and, at 31, was one of the youngest judges in the state.

In the last two decades, she has worked in Sacramento as a deputy district attorney, a member of Governor Deukmejian’s senior staff, a trial judge and has been appointed to successively higher levels in the judiciary by Governors Deukmejian, Wilson and Schwarzenegger.

Ten years ago, in 1997, she established and presided over the first court in Sacramento dedicated solely to domestic violence issues.

In 2005, the Metropolitan News-Enterprise reported on her appointment to the Court of Appeal’s Third District Appellate bench, noting that she was “one of the first judges in the country to uphold the validity of an indictment against a suspect who could only be identified by his DNA profile.”

Today, she chairs a statewide taskforce responsible for developing best practices for domestic violence cases in California courts. She is a sought-after speaker in Northern California events and serves the community in various volunteer capacities, including membership on the boards of My Sister’s House and the Sacramento Asian Sports Foundation.

This high-powered yet graciously accessible Filipina woman thanks her second-generation Filipina mother for her uncommon success and is grateful for the legacy of her strong Cebuana grandmother as well.

Like other children of itinerant farm workers in California’s Central Valley, Cantil-Sakauye’s mother, one of eleven siblings, had a sporadic education because she and her family followed the harvest, often having to pull out of school in the middle of the term. Despite these difficulties, they were taught to value education, to get as much learning as they could, and to appreciate this and other aspects of Filipino culture. In turn, she and her husband passed these values on to Tani and her siblings.

There was a time, though, when the transplanted cultural values she grew up with seemed like weaknesses to the young Tani. Looking back, she now sees that what seemed to be cultural weaknesses have turned out to be strengths.

“I was raised to be gracious and respectful,” she relates, aware that these traits seem anachronistic in a world where lawyers often win their cases by out-yelling the competition.

As a trial judge, she insisted on running a genteel courtroom. Lawyers on both sides learned quickly that power trips and shouting especially at women lawyers were counterproductive in the Honorable Cantil-Sakauye’s presence.

She modeled respect and received it in return. She gave people a graceful way out of potentially humiliating trial situations, creating a safe courtroom environment in which justice could thrive. Eventually, more and more people asked to be on her docket even if it sometimes meant a delay in their cases with so many wanting to get in.

No less important to her advancement, she believes, is the legendary Filipino sense of humor. “That’s why we age well,” she says with one of her brilliant smiles, making it easy to imagine how she must have brought humor into many a situation that could have otherwise gone badly.

SHOULDERS TO STAND ON

Responding to the question of how to create a better future for Filipina women by 2012, Cantil-Sakauye says, “We need a plan for empowerment.”

She calls attention to two ways Filipina women can contribute to this empowerment–by thoughtfully and intentionally raising empowered daughters, and by modeling through their accomplishments the possibilities open to all girls and women of color.

“We were taught to see ourselves as leaders,” she recalls of her mother’s lessons. “I was raised by her to believe I could do anything. There were no limitations on what I could be,” says this daughter of poor farm workers who wielded the riches of their cultural legacy to make the American dream a reality for their children. While her father tended to be more cautious, advising her to play it safe and get a secretarial job, Mom kept urging her to “get your foot in the door. Apply. Work hard.”

In addition to the potent influence of good parents, Cantil-Sakauye emphasizes the need for mentors outside the home who are willing to spend time with young people and tell them what they could do well. Mentors, she says, can unleash the power of possibilities and help children aim higher simply by showing that people who look like them have done it.

“I got the impression from my mother,” says Tani, “that if someone could do it, I could, too.”

She is proud that Filipino Americans have no shortage of good role models. “Filipinas are talented across the board.” She sees a bright future for Filipina women because of the groundwork laid down by previous generations. “I stand on the shoulders of my grandmother and my mother,” declares Justice Tani.

Cantil-Sakauye expects no less of herself and her own generation.

“I don’t want my daughters to repeat our struggles,” she insists. “I want my children to have new and different challenges, not the same ones we had.”

For this Filipina trailblazer, there are no buts about it: “I am here for someone to stand on my shoulders. I would love to hand over my knowledge to someone else – fresh hands and legs, new shoulders to continue the struggle.”

SMELL THE FUTURE

“Do you smell that?” She asks a group of young Filipino-Americans at UC Davis about to enter medical school and thrilled at the prospect.

They look around in confusion, not sure what their keynote speaker means.

“Do you smell that? She asks again, her mind dwelling on the untold sacrifices and hard work of generations of Filipino families like hers that all culminated in the triumph of that moment in the lives of those young doctors-to-be.

“It’s the torch being passed on!” she exclaims.

GET USED TO IT

Justice Cantil-Sakauye is serious about passing on the torch and is generous with her tips for Filipina women of any age wanting to succeed in the US workplace:

» It’s important to have a goal. You need to see yourself in that position. Project yourself into your desired future.

» Step out of your comfort zone, step up to responsibility. You don’t grow from successes but from losing, struggling, learning from experience and asserting your abilities. Your confidence will build as you go.

» Exposure is critical. Influential people need to know who you are, how well you get along with others, that you are a team player, a competent professional, one who is energetic and willing to put in the time and effort. You can do this by serving in the community, chairing a committee, planning an event. Cantil-Sakauye says she even made her long, hard-to-pronounce name work for her. Because of her willingness to take on responsibility and the quality of her work, in time, she stood out as “the lawyer with the long name.”

» Get your name “in play.” You may not get the first job you apply for, or the next, but if you keep putting yourself out there, eventually, someone will bring your name up when a new opportunity arises because you’ve proven yourself and gotten your name in play.

» Give up your time for something bigger than the typical goal of wanting to be rich and famous. When you give back to your community, you begin to feel rich. As you do volunteer work and hone your skills in the process, your fame will spread.

» Persevere even if you don’t look the part. They will get used to your face as the face of leadership and competence.

Cantil-Sakauye explains this last piece of advice.

“Leadership used to look different. The face of leadership was white, male and older. I was a Filipina, young-looking and young period, with a gracious manner.
It didn’t look like a recipe for success in the legal world. But I kept at it. Now we [Filipina women] are redefining what leadership looks like.”

She points out how more and more Filipina women and other women of color are coming into their own, though she wishes there were more Filipina women lawyers and judges.

“We persevere by leading in our own style,” she asserts, confidently adding, “People will eventually get used to us.”

With a nod to the struggles of past generations, Cantil-Sakauye looks ahead with optimism and gives voice to a new refrain for all Filipina women in the U.S. workplace...

“Get used to me. I’m not going away!”

Credits:

Filipina Women’s Network Magazine: 5th Anniversary Issue (www.filipinawomensnetwork.org)

Cover Design by: Al S. Perez, Creative I Studio

Justice Tani's Photos: Abby Boxwell (boxwellphoto@yahoo.com)