Jose Almanzar Opens Up About His Immigration Journey from the Dominican Republic to the U.S. and His Path as a Hispanic Attorney
Holland & Knight's Diversity Council and Hispanic Affinity Group are proud to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and pay tribute to the generations of Hispanics who have enriched America's history and continue to play a role in its future success. We now present the 2024 video series showcasing some of these conversations. We hope that the stories conveyed in these videos inspire those struggling with recognizing their roots and shine light on the contributions that Hispanics have offered the legal community and beyond.
In this episode, environmental attorney Jose Almanzar shares his childhood experiences in the Dominican Republic and his journey of immigrating to New York City. He also recounts a traumatic experience from his youth when he became ill after swimming in contaminated water, which influenced his focus on environmental issues in his professional career. Mr. Almanzar also discusses the challenges and triumphs he has faced in the industry, as well as the unique experiences of being a Hispanic attorney.
Jose Almanzar: Bienvenidos. I'm Jose Almanzar, an environmental senior counsel proudly representing Holland & Knight's New York City office. I'm excited to share my spotlight with you for this year's Hispanic Heritage Month.
I'm an environmental attorney, and that line of work, at least in my career trajectory, has been pretty isolating in that I have not seen a lot of other attorneys that look like me or that have similar backgrounds as me.
I was born in the Dominican Republic, moved to New York when I was around 7 years old. And my story is, I don't want to say it's typical kind of immigration story, but it's very common. First, my dad moved to New York, New York City, Washington Heights, when I was very young, and he would work different kind of odd jobs and send money back to the Dominican Republic so that eventually my mom and me could come over. And we left my two sisters behind for a little over a year with my aunts and uncles and grandparents.
My whole background has kind of bits and pieces of my childhood with Dominican Republic. I must have been around 4 years old, and my dad and his brother, my uncle, who are still alive, they took me to a local creek, stream to just kind of play and be recreational. Turns out there was some water contamination in that creek. We don't know the source. We don't know exactly what happened. But I became extremely ill. And I spent almost a year and a half where I was — it was a crazy viral bacterial infection. The doctors really couldn't pinpoint it, and I really couldn't move. And I — it became difficult to swallow solid food. So I became very, very, very ill. I eventually got better. And fast forward to a few years ago. I was speaking with one of my two sisters, and we were just speaking about her career and my career, and she goes, hey, dude, I think I realize now why you're so passionate about the environment. You had this thing happen to you when you were a kid that almost killed you, and it's relating to water quality and pollution, and you tend to carry that with you as part of what you do. And I never thought of it that way. But in many ways, going through that traumatic experience, it was kind of my superhero origin story in a way.
I've been practicing for 13 years now, and I've been a professional — counting my work before going to law school as a scientist — I've been a professional for over 18 years now. I did not realize until 2022 that most of my career, I've been the only person around a table or in a meeting or in a project group that has been Latino, and I've been at several law firms and have worked on numerous matters, and I did not realize how lonely it was. And I think that might have impacted me earlier in my career where I felt that I didn't belong. And in many ways, there's still a part of me that feels that way. And I'm actively working on challenging those self-limiting thoughts.
It's important for the firm to realize what great — not just what great assets they have in attorneys, but just what great people they have in this Hispanic Affinity Group, which I have been at a few firms, and this is the first time that I feel welcomed for being who I am, not just on the environmental, substantive legal side, but just also who I am kind of as a cultural way of being. So I'm very happy and grateful to be here.