3 Interview Transcrpt Template Maria Rivera 2

Justice Maria Rivera is a retired Associate Justice of the First District Court of Appeal, Division Four. She is from a unique combination of backgrounds, with her grandfather and grandmother being Puerto Rican and her father being an Episcopal priest and the first elected Hispanic bishop in the United Episcopal Church. Her mother was a daughter of the Mayflower and descended from the Starbucks and Coffins in the East Coast. Justice Rivera inherited a love of the outdoors from her father and discipline from her mother. She has three sisters, one of whom followed in her father's footsteps and became a priest and bishop. Justice Rivera has five sons, three of which are stepsons and two of her own. She met her husband, Jim, at her first job after law school and he had a successful career in antitrust law. They took a trip to Berlin to attend a 50th reunion of the first class of Stanford in Germany and extended the trip to visit other places in the area. Justice Rivera attended a boarding school in Arizona for three years before finishing her last two years of high school in Visalia. She attended Smith College and majored in Hispanic Studies and minored in Psychology. Smith College lived up to her expectations.