Eagle Passan Leticia Saucedo Receives MALDEF Lifetime Achievement-Excellence in Legal Service Award
By: Ricardo E. Calderon, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc., Copyright 2024
Eagle Pass High School Class of 1980 Valedictorian Leticia Saucedo was honored by the nationally recognized civil and legal rights organization, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), for her “commitment to uplifting the Latino culture and to protecting the civil rights of the Latino community” at their November 7, 2024 Los Angeles, California National Gala Awards, bestowing her with the prestigious MALDEF Lifetime Achievement-Excellence in Legal Service Award, announced Thomas A. Saenz, MALDEF President.
Saucedo was recognized with the Lifetime Achievement-Excellence in Legal Service Award by MALDEF “for her long career protecting the legal rights of workers and immigrants. Saucedo, an expert in labor, employment, and immigration, has focused her work on the impact of employment and labor laws on the conditions in low-wage workplaces, and on the responses of immigrant workers to their conditions. She has been a visiting professor at Duke School of Law and a research scholar with the Chief Justice Warren Institute of Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at the University of California at Berkeley,” Saenz said.
“Saucedo is a former Maldefian attorney, beginning her career as a Fried Frank MALDEF Fellow, and worked in the MALDEF San Antonio Office for several years before moving on to academia. She also served as MALDEF’s National Senior Counsel from 2021 to 2023 before returning full time to teaching,” Saenz added.
Currently, Saucedo is a Professor of Law at the University of California- Davis School for Law in Davis, California. She is a graduate of nationally recognized Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania and earned her Doctor of Juris degree from Harvard University School of Law in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“It has been my great honor to be affiliated with MALDEF all these years, Saucedo said. “As an academic, I look forward to continuing to work with MALDEF in pursuing justice on behalf of the Latino community,” added Saucedo.
Saucedo was recognized with two other national Latino leaders at the MALDEF Gala Awards, including United States Representative Grace Flores Napolitano (CA-District 31) who was awarded the Lifetime Achievement-Excellence in Government Service Award and Los Angeles, California artist Robert Vargas who was presented with the Excellence in the Arts Award.
Saucedo is the daughter of the late Maverick County Judge Ramon Saucedo and distinguished educator Veronica Saucedo of Eagle Pass, Texas. She attended public schools of the Eagle Pass Independent School District and graduated at the top of her class from Eagle Pass High School in 1980.
MALDEF recognizes the significant contributions of these outstanding leaders and their dedication to advancing the civil rights for all. The MALDEF national gala awards draws notable government, business, and community leaders from the United States.
The Eagle Pass Business Journal congratulates Leticia Saucedo and her family on her being awarded the prestigious MALDEF Lifetime Achievement-Excellence in Legal Service Award at its national gala awards on November 7, 2024 in Los Angeles, California.
