Maria Cortez
Maria Cortez was born in Costa Rica into a family with deep and varied roots. On her mother's side, her family is indigenous Native American and Catholic, while her Jewish heritage came through her father's side. Her paternal grandfather, Pedro Cortez, was a Sephardic Jew who emigrated from Spain to Costa Rica after World War One, joining a Jewish community that was largely made up of Polish immigrants. Her family spent two generations in Costa Rica before her parents decided to come to the United States to further their education, her father training as a physician and her mother working in education.
The family experienced significant cultural and weather adjustments, spending about seven years in Minnesota before settling outside San Diego in southern California, where her father established his medical practice. As immigrants raising three children, her parents faced uncertainty about green cards and finances, and Maria remembers the whole family living and dying by one another. She attended Catholic-hosted private schools, which gave her a strong early grounding in theology. Drawn to math and science, she pursued electrical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and specialized in semiconductor fabrication.
After starting her career in Houston and returning to Austin, a job promotion brought Maria to Dallas around 2000, where she develops computer chips in the semiconductor industry. Within two weeks of arriving she joined Shearith Israel, and she later became active at Congregation Anshai Torah as well, where her sons Jordan and Justin celebrated their bar mitzvahs. Her parents moved to Dallas to be near their grandchildren, and her mother, an executive chef, still makes challah each Friday. As a single mother, Maria found a supportive village among her Jewish friends. She comes from a strong military family and counts raising her two sons as her greatest pride and purpose.
Full Transcript
okay good morning i'm joe reingold and today is july 31st 2020 and i'm here with maria cortez for an interview and how are you today how are you doing good morning it's friday it's a nice day outside everyone's healthy thank god okay so maria let's start by uh asking you tell us a little bit about your family whatever you know about the background your grandparents your parents where they lived what they did for a living what they did for entertainment etc and if they were involved at all in the jewish community yeah absolutely so it's uh it's interesting in in terms of going back a
few generations which is which is very germane to how me and my family got to be here in dallas today uh i was born in costa rica and uh one side of my family is uh indigenous native americans that's on the maternal side and on my father's side uh my grandfather uh pedro cortes came from spain and uh that is where uh my jewish heritage actually started uh on my mother's side uh they are catholic uh and they uh on my grandfather's side they met in in costa rica that's where uh that's where it all started very good so how long did they stay there
in costa rica absolutely so uh my heritage is that we had two generations in costa rica and then uh a few years after i was born in order to expand their education my father was a physician or he was trying to be and my mother was in education so they decided to come to the united states and my father finished his schooling um they went on to have uh my little brother as well so there were three of us we lived in minnesota for about seven years and you can imagine coming from costa rica that was quite a cultural shock in a in a weather
shock as well so uh we actually spent some time in minnesota and then california and then for my education that's actually what brought me to texas i ended up in austin at the university of texas when you were growing up what type of activities did you enjoy what did you get involved in what were you some of your interests in school yes it was uh in in terms of school it was anything to do with with math or science i had no comprehension of what that might mean in terms of a profession uh but my parents were always adamant that my number one job was
being a good student so that as i got older i started to think about the practical applications of that so as i started to look at what to major in in college my passion ended up being electrical engineering um and as i got more detailed into that i started to study semiconductor fabrication which is a derivative of what i do now now i help develop computer chips here in dallas in the semiconductor industry very good i'm going to back you up for a minute tell us a bit about um how you got to california where did you where did your family settle there where did
you live there and were they involved at all in any kind of jewish or civic activity activities or communal activities yeah so uh the the what took us to california and so i was in my i was a tween i suppose at the time and my father had finished his schooling so that is where his medical practice ended up beginning it's in southern california we were outside of san diego it was a great fit for my family because it was it was much more of the tropic closer to the tropical environment of of what we were used to um i would say that my at
the time uh my parents were just starting to to get on their feet um learning to still acclimate to a new country and uh raising three children at the at the same time so i still remember back then uh it was a very uh i think it was a very vulnerable time making sure that they would be able to stay in this country um so i don't know that there was a lot of extra time for for leisure and civic uh involvement but at home they absolutely set uh um very strong they were very strong role models um for for our heritage and uh and
the values that we had in uh in our family with me and my two brothers did you or your siblings attend any kind of sunday school or religious school um to some extent uh in the this is this is interesting because at the time the only uh private schools that existed were hosted uh by uh the catholic community uh so that was that was very interesting for me to bring uh to grow up in an environment um of of theology uh so i would say from an early age i had a very strong exposure to an emphasis on on theology um and it was based
in uh the catholic school teachings okay so did you did you get involved with any kind of religious organization or anything like that on campus at university of texas do you want to be up there yeah you know the very strong involvement that that i would say that i started having in the jewish community i don't know if it's very different from many people but when uh the the for my first child uh jordan uh my view just changed completely and i wanted to uh uh immerse him in this amazing community and although at the time um i had been a member at the local
synagogue and i would say that that is where my my involvement took a step function up and increasing it was really my motivation to to have my kids now i have two children jordan and justin is to have them firmly embedded and supported by this okay after college your path led you here but did you consider any other places or any other jobs besides coming to dallas and if so what did you consider and once you got here tell us a little bit about some of your work projects that were very memorable to you okay so right out of college my first job was in
houston so i still got to stay in in texas i was there for a couple years went back to austin for a few more years and then a job promotion brought me to to dallas and that's where i have been since 2000 uh actually since around 2000 and um my work projects is uh um fascinating to me because i develop computer chips which are used in in really anything around us that uh has electricity so this this uh camera that we're on right now or the lighting in a house or even my car that i drive they all use the the technology that i that
i develop uh with my semiconductor computer chips and once getting to dallas what were your impressions of the city uh the city itself as well as if you can remember the jewish community back then yeah that was uh um when i came here one of the very first phone calls i made was to uh the different synagogues in the area and uh i think within two weeks of moving to dallas um i was a member of uh sheriff israel and uh the the welcoming environment and all of the the community activities that they had was a big part of how i started to uh form
my network and really feel welcome into this i would say that that was a huge huge impact to me when i first moved to dallas so what did sheriff offer you specifically why was it the place that you felt the most comfortable so the uh in terms of in terms of when i when i first got there uh there was so much so many opportunities for for learning uh and then in addition to one of the things that i was looking for is knowing that i was going to be starting a family i looked for the events that they had surrounding the the children and
all the educational opportunities both social and from a theology standpoint they had a very very strong [Music] curriculum and and opportunities to get involved okay tell us a little bit about your married life where and when were you married how did you meet your spouse what did you guys do as newlyweds settling in here and how has your family grown since then um so uh i was married in 1997 um and uh met uh in austin and then uh now it's very uh a changed environment which is uh being in dallas uh with two uh teenage boys um and as a single mom uh i
would say that one of the things that really impacted me was uh one of the things that i have counted on tremendously is uh my friends in the in the jewish is uh how supportive everybody has been um people talk about uh it takes a village and and i will say he's a single mom in in dallas my jewish friends have definitely been part of part of my village what are your children involved in at this point and how old are they yeah so i have uh my oldest uh jordan is 19 years old and he is in college uh one of the first um
groups he became involved in is actually hillel at smu where he attends school and he is a dual majoring in music competition music composition and uh pre-med biology uh a specialty in neuroscience my younger son justin is at one of the local high schools he is uh 16 years old and he is at green hill okay is he involved in anything in the jewish or otherwise yeah so he um is a huge um fan of volleyball and tennis uh from a sports perspective uh those definitely occupy a lot of his dedication and then academically his interests um are in uh biomedical engineering so as we
are all in this uh quarantine environment he has been spending a lot of hours uh taking uh um uh extra biomedical engineering courses online okay and what about your immediate family are your parents still in california and where are your siblings now oh absolutely so my uh i'll start with my uh my parents and uh they have uh lived just a few miles away they moved to dallas to be closer to the grandkids um when the kids were around i guess my oldest was around five and uh they both uh are very active and and still work uh my mom very often uh still makes
a challah for us every uh every friday because she is a uh she's a chef and so she definitely helps out with uh with our cuisine here at the house my uh two brothers um i have an older brother uh roberto cortez and we are lucky enough to have him in in dallas he's just a few miles away with his daughter gabby and he uh is in the uh um in the finance world and my younger brother ernesto cortez is uh in the army he graduated from from west point he's deployed to afghanistan about 14 times at this point and now he has a command
uh in georgia is where he his wife and his two kids reside okay you've been here about 20 years now give or take 20 years so tell us from your perspective how has dallas changed and in what ways that's interesting um i think that my view of dallas is also hugely informed um by the diverse group of people i come in contact with at work the work in the tech industries is very very multi-cultural so uh i interface with people that are from germany are from india china and japan and then from various parts of the of the united states so i would say that
is the biggest thing that i've noticed um since i first started in dallas and what about the jewish community have you seen differences in it from the time you got here until now yeah that is um in terms of changes i have to have to give thought to that um i've seen it expand certainly um we have been uh active in both uh unshay torah and sheriff israel um and when ancient torah first started it was a a very very small synagogue and it went on to grow to over a thousand families um and then i see the role that the jcc has taken uh
in terms of bringing the community together in dallas um i would say the the expansion of the jewish community and just having so many options especially for uh for families to bring everyone together i would say that that is the biggest change i've observed have you taken advantage of some of the things offered there um yes absolutely i would say that uh my kids going through their um their bar mitzvahs uh my older son went through his bar mitzvah at uh at anchay torah and then my younger son at sheriff israel and uh that is such a a huge milestone in in their lives and
uh we got to do that um through the community each of those of those two synagogues uh that is something that to this day uh going through that experience i they still talk about it how they still they still draw from that um whether it was learning their tour portion uh or whether it was the uh the volunteer project that they that they ended up doing um it uh i i know those experiences really they're still woven into into their fabric it was a it was a big milestone for them very good i know you mentioned earlier that your parents were role models but i
wanted to get into that a little bit deeper and besides your parents if you can think of anybody else that might have been a role model model for you if not that's fine just expand upon what you feel about your parents being role models yeah i'll touch upon uh i'll touch upon my parents which is that being being an immigrant family and moving around the united states quite a bit uh we ended up the five of us just being a very tight-knit family unit and i look back and and i remember i remember very distinctly that we didn't know if we were going to be
able to remain in this country for for a variety of reasons um whether or not we were uh going to be able to get our green cards or whether or not we were able going to be able to to survive financially um we really lived and died by each other um and so as i saw my my parents go through that with such with such a grace and and honor um i look back and uh i know that my brothers and i never really comprehended uh the the pressure the struggles um that they were that they were under um i remember before i started a
family just feeling like it was a very very high bar that my parents had sat in terms of being there for for my own kids is your dad still in practice here in dallas has he um my my father works for the department of defense um and so i have a a very strong um military family and so he works for the department of defense and so he is for his work based out of fort hood just a little bit south in uh in killeen and and my mother still actively works as well um she started out in education uh and and that was a
big influence upon me my two brothers and just terms of prioritizing education but um she went on to pursue her love which is the culinary arts and so she has her own catering business and she's an executive chef this is a good place for that exactly exactly um dallas definitely has a lot of foodies and uh many of them have found her great uh maria what are you the most proud of think about it yeah i you know i actually think about that a lot and without hesitation um it uh i've actually told my my children that uh it's not unclear to me uh you
know why hashem has me on this earth and it's it's for them i i truly believe that that is my my purpose in being here um part of me being here uh for my children and especially being the mom of two of two young men um i think very actively about uh the um the example that i'm setting as a as a professional woman and just as someone who's independent and um it was fascinating to hear my my son talk about the role models in his life and uh and uh they were it was interesting to me that uh without giving much thought to it
he listed out uh his grandmother and uh and me and so i i i take that very seriously as i uh um i feel like i'm putting forth an example and hopefully uh raising two young men that uh um you know have that have very positive views on the the wonderful women they've had in their life such as uh such as my mom fantastic that's wonderful tell me uh is there anything else about your family that we have not included so far that you'd like to add um it's uh you know it's maybe to expand upon is um you know my my view i think
we all have many roles in this world right number one i'm a mom uh i'm also an electrical engineer i do firmly believe i'm i'm making this world a better place uh through the work um that i do i feel like i have god-given gifts and uh i'm really proud of the way that i have i've found a way to to utilize them one of the other things that really has enormously just informed my my upbringing is what i mentioned before about um i didn't start out being born into a military family but uh definitely that's what my family evolved into so i have an
older brother who served in the army i have an uncle who served in the air force my father who is a doctor went on to bring his services to the department of defense in support of the military and i have a younger brother who as i mentioned uh graduated from west point and and uh uh has spoken so eloquently to to me and to my children about uh what um why the military is a calling for him um and it's it's definitely a role of service that he's that he's chosen um so i think any any family that has uh been up at night after
seeing a uh a news brief of uh someone getting hurt or a fatality uh overseas can can really uh testify that it it changes uh the fame one's perspective and one's a approach to life and what to be grateful for um what to stand for in principle uh so i would say that that's actually one of the biggest um additional influences uh that has that has uh um informed just the decisions that i make for me and my family now i didn't touch on this but i'm wondering um if you could tell us what the road was like if any of them well the members
of your family on the road to citizenship here in the united states that's a that's a great one um i remember so distinctly the day that i got my my citizenship um i was a teenager at that time and i remember thinking with such great relief that i get to stay now um and that was i was old enough to to comprehend the the implications of that um so i uh as a teenager um went through a citizenship class and uh learned even additional details and history um about uh the government and um uh our uh um the the the different politics and and the
hierarchy in our government and uh when i went to take the test uh in person i was so nervous and um had just the nicest man um that uh that really put my mind at ease and and let me know that it was uh it was a celebration so i was i was very lucky in my in my experience that it was it was very very welcoming um and what am what a mindset change it was for me that that as a teenager and someone who had lived the majority of my life in the united states that it wasn't until that moment that i i
really had any sense of security that i was um gonna be able to stay in this country did your parents go for theirs before you or at the same time we all did it at the same time uh the only one that was exempt from the process was my my younger brother because he was the only one out of the five of us that was born in the united states very good well we're happy you did it yeah no it makes it it uh it's often that i just connect that to to what's taking place in our in our communities in this in this day
and age it's uh um i i uh i don't know that i would have i would have made it i would have made the cut in this day and age so i'm grateful for having come to this country at a different time that i uh i was able to stay right well you've had a wonderful interview but is there anything else that you would like to add and tell us about that we have not touched on yet um i think i think one thing i i talked my uh my grandfather on my father's side so my paternal grandfather coming from from spain uh to costa
rica and it was very interesting as i explored my jewish heritage to do some to do some research on that and interestingly in costa rica it's uh it's um such a um a welcoming uh community um and most of the jewish community that's there actually is comprised of um polish immigrants uh that came uh prior to world war ii um but my grandfather actually had a different journey um he came uh post-world war one uh and he came from from spain so it was a it was a little bit of a different um journey um in terms of uh uh belonging to the jewish community
in costa rica but um you know it's a it's obviously every country has a very different culture and one of the things that i i noted is that in costa rica there were so many um jewish role models um like just as an example in politics there have been numerous vice presidents who were jewish and we had a first lady that was jewish as well so to contrast that to being here in the united states uh which i think all countries are on a journey of um of uh acceptance and diversity but it was very interesting for me to to have two um country cultures
to contrast it was your grandfather's background sephardic and did you learn from that yes it absolutely was and uh um and so so any case there are some very specific um cultures that he brought with him uh but it is also interesting that in costa rica uh when he came over and even when i was young there there wasn't the internet so there wasn't necessarily a broad understanding of where some habits or traditions came from and it wasn't until more recent history that a lot of people in costa rica understood that the habits and traditions that they had in their family um even people that
were christian uh they came to understand that it actually came from um the jewish immigrants that came um from europe and uh adopted to the catholicism of the of the country so they didn't really understand where the tradition came from of baking bread on on friday as an example and uh as time went on they realized that those were traditions that their uh that came from their their jewish so that's been a real um exploration costa rica has been very proactive about about exploring okay well we certainly are proud and glad that a good number of members of your family are here with you around
you and we hope that they continue to thrive and you do and we appreciate you giving your time for this interview it's been wonderful thank you all right have a great friday thank you you too appreciate it be well you