Feature Story: Remembering Graciela (1928-1987)
“Graciela was truly a ‘different kind of lawyer.’ She used her legal training to fight against racial discrimination and injustice. She was a tireless advocate for the poor and disenfranchised members of our society,” says Notre Dame Law School Professor and prominent member of the Hispanic community Jimmy Gurule of Graciela Olivarez.
Olivarez made history and beat the odds when she graduated from Notre Dame Law School in 1970. She became the first woman and the first Hispanic to graduate from Notre Dame Law, and she did it all without a high school diploma to her name.
Because her birthday is in March, Notre Dame Law School takes this opportunity to remember the woman and the legend that is Graciela Olivarez.
Born in 1928 in Phoenix, Ariz., Olivarez dropped out of high school to help support her family. Despite humble beginnings, she rose to ultimately become the highest-ranking Latina in President Jimmy Carter’s administration as director of the Community Services Administration. “The CSA [has] been the most tangible expression of America’s commitment to the poor,” said Olivarez at her Senate confirmation hearing in 1977. “With your help, I intend to sustain this commitment and to venture into creative and innovative areas for meeting human needs.”
Over the course of her life, Olivarez held numerous positions of influence and responsibility. From 1952 to 1966, she worked at all-Spanish radio station KIFN in Phoenix. She worked her way up from bilingual secretary to announcer to women’s program director.
From 1962 until 1966, Olivarez was a staff specialist with the Choate Foundation in Phoenix, where she was involved with projects that focused on finding solutions to poverty, juvenile delinquency, and educational problems of Mexican-American children.
Prior to entering Notre Dame Law School in 1967, she served as the director of the Arizona State Economic Opportunity Office in Phoenix.
Following graduation from Notre Dame Law School, Olivarez was director of Food for All, a community action program designed to improve federal food programs such as food stamps, school lunch, and surplus food distribution in Arizona. Then, from 1972 to 1975, she served as director of the University of New Mexico’s Institute for Social Research and Development, and also was a professor of law at the University’s law school in Albuquerque.
Olivarez became the director of planning for the State of New Mexico in 1975 and, in 1977 was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to be director of the Community Services Administration.
During her Senate confirmation hearing, Senator Pete V. Domenici (New Mexico) opened the hearing by stating to his colleagues, “I hope the chairman understands that I do not want to delay the hearing. I had felt since the nomination that Grace would be confirmed quickly.” He goes on to say, by way of introduction, “You noticed she has a degree from Notre Dame Law School. Well, the wonderful priest [Father Theodore Hesburgh] that heads that institution, some years back…said he wanted to…provide a much broader spectrum of opportunity. Grace gave him that opportunity and challenged him immensely because she said, ‘I want to go to your law school.’” Domenici goes on to say that because of Olivarez’s persistence and Notre Dame’s commitment, she went on to become the first woman and Hispanic alumnus of the law school.
