J.M. Chema Garza

J.M. "Chema" Garza was born and raised in Starr County, Texas, the youngest of four in a Spanish-speaking household that crossed the river both directions every weekend. He grew up between Roma and Rio Grande City, attended Roma High School, and graduated near the top of his class in 2002. Spanish was the language of the kitchen table; English was the language of school. He has never been more comfortable in one than the other, which is exactly what his clients need today.

Education and early career

He earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science with a minor in Mexican-American Studies from the University of Texas-Pan American (now UTRGV) in Edinburg, working evenings at the Hidalgo County District Clerk’s office to put himself through. That job, sorting through warrants and family-court files at 7 p.m. while other students were at the library, is where he first saw what an unrepresented Valley resident actually looks like in court. It is also where he decided to apply to law school.

He went on to St. Mary’s University School of Law in San Antonio, where he was a Hispanic Issues Section Fellow, served on the Scholar (St. Mary’s law journal), and tried four cases as a student in the school’s Criminal Justice Clinic. He graduated cum laude in 2009 and was licensed by the State Bar of Texas the same fall.

Coming home to the Valley

Almost every Valley student who goes to law school is recruited to stay in San Antonio, Houston, or Austin. Chema Garza came back. He opened the Law Office of J.M. Chema Garza in 2014 on Britton Avenue in Rio Grande City, three blocks from the Starr County Courthouse, because the Valley does not have enough bilingual lawyers who actually live and raise their families here. A decade later, the office is still there, and the attorney still walks to most of his hearings.

Practice areas

The firm’s practice is intentionally narrow and deep: personal injury, criminal defense, family law, and immigration. Since opening the doors he has represented more than two hundred families in serious-injury matters across Starr and Hidalgo Counties, defended hundreds of clients in misdemeanor and felony cases, handled contested divorces and custody modifications in the 229th and 381st District Courts, and filed family-based immigration petitions on behalf of mixed-status families on both sides of the river. Specific outcomes are confidential and past results do not guarantee future ones.

Bar admissions

• State Bar of Texas (2009)
• U.S. District Court, Southern District of Texas (2010)
• U.S. Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit (2014)

Languages

• English (native fluency, professional)
• Spanish (native fluency, RGV Mexican variant)

How the office works

The firm operates on one rule: every client meets the attorney. There are no call centers, no junior associates passed off as the lawyer in charge, no contracts signed by paralegals. When you call (956) 317-1167 or message the 24/7 WhatsApp line at (956) 500-1371, the file lands on the attorney’s desk. The phone is answered in the same language the family lives in.

Civic involvement

• Board member, Starr County Bar Association
• Active member, Hispanic Issues Section of the State Bar of Texas
• Volunteer, RGV Pro Bono Asylum Project
• Annual career talk at Rio Grande City High School and Roma High School
• Free bilingual Know Your Rights workshop, Rio Grande City Public Library (annual)
• Parishioner, Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, Rio Grande City

Personal

On a personal note: he is married to a school counselor who works for the Roma ISD, is the father of two, and still drives the same stretch of US-83 between Roma and Rio Grande City he learned on as a teenager.

When Valley families ask why they should trust the firm with the most serious moment of their lives, the answer is simple. The attorney grew up here. He went away long enough to learn the work and came back to do it. He answers his own phone. He speaks the language of the family. And he prepares every case as if it might end in front of a jury, because some of them do.