By Kai Curry
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY
As a child, Salvador “Sal” Mungia saw the look on his Japanese mother’s face when she encountered racism—and it stayed with him.
“It was seared in my memory, the look of both anger and hurt when she knew she was being taken advantage of and there was nothing she could do,” Mungia recalled to the Asian Weekly. This early experience with injustice, and an ingrained instinct for truth and equality, led Mungia from an early age to a career in law, and now to vying for a seat as a Justice of Washington’s Supreme Court in this year’s elections.
The time is right.
“I’ve been asked a couple of times in the past…this time I said yes.” A chair of the Board of Directors and Managing Partner at Gordon Thomas Honeywell, Mungia has spent most of his career “advocating for access to justice…making sure that people who can’t afford a lawyer get access to the legal system.” He has actively spent years working “to advance diversity issues and equity issues. Trying to move the ball forward.” In addition to himself, Mungia has watched his “friends and colleagues” who are judges “advance the ball” and, at 64 years old, he’s ready to join them as a state Supreme Court judge.
“Timing is everything.”
Mungia has never kept to the sidelines. He has been integral in Washington state in the fight for equality and access for people of color. He was part of the group convened by ACLU Washington to look into the bias against people of color in jury duty selection. This led to the adoption of Washington’s General Rule 37.
“We’ve had a problem, not just in this state, but across the country, of preventing people of color from serving on juries because of both explicit bias and implicit bias.” Thanks to the efforts of Mungia and others, Washington’s Supreme Court was the first in the United States to incorporate a rule addressing this problem.
Mungia is often called upon when matters arise related to race and discrimination. A few years ago, he was asked by Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards to participate in efforts to make Tacoma an “anti-racist” city. This was a “huge mandate” about “systemic racism” and much is left to be done, but Mungia helped move the ball. Look around and you will find, in addition to an impressive portfolio of work in personal injury, medical malpractice, and more, Mungia has kept up a presence in legal journals and newspapers writing on topics of diversity and equality, such as what it’s like to be a child immigrant from Mexico, or the dilemma transgenders face when using a public restroom. He has a fire in his heart for the underdog and for the downtrodden.
“I’m the son of immigrants,” Mungia said. His father, Salvador “Salie” Mungia, came to the U.S. from Mexico. “Both of my parents did not like talking about their childhoods.” After a difficult border crossing, Salie lost his parents who returned to Mexico to retrieve a younger sister and never came back. Then he lost his older brother to unclear circumstances. At a shockingly young age, Salie was taken in by a white family in Ohio who, although from a conservative small town, were inspirational in their insistence upon equality and acceptance of diversity. Mungia recalls a trip sometime later to “a little square” with a memorial of people from that area who had served in World War II. His father, who had been in the Army, wasn’t on there. Mungia’s aunt “went to them and made a ruckus. She said, ‘Salie’s name needs to be on there.’”
Mungia’s mother, Sumiko Mungia (who also took an Americanized name, “Susie”), met when Salie was in Japan with the U.S. military. Inter-racial marriage was frowned upon in the U.S., and so the couple was at first married by a Japanese official. Mungia’s mom was even more close-mouthed about her background than his dad, although he knows that a grandfather of his worked for the Japanese railroad in Korea before war between Korea and Japan started. Eventually, Salie and Susie wound up at Fort Lewis, and the family, comprised of Sal and two older brothers, settled in Pierce County for good. After leaving the Army, Salie worked as a cook at a café called “Our Store” at Western State Hospital.
“No one makes a better burger than my dad made at ‘Our Store,’” said Mungia, and he saidSusie worked as a seamstress until she got a job at Hancock Fabric.
One thing Mungia learned from his parents was hard work.
“No one worked harder than my parents,” he told the Asian Weekly. “They didn’t take vacations.” A vacation for his dad was “berry picking with me and my older brother” (still work); and a vacation for his mom was “painting the house” or some other to-do list item. Sunday dinner together as a family was so important that Mungia continued to return home as an undergrad.
“I tell people I’m a Tacoma boy and they say, ‘no, you’re a Lakewood boy,’” Sal laughed. As a youngster, he loved watching law shows such as “Perry Mason” and he competed in debate. After high school, he attended the illustrious Georgetown University Law Center, and then came right back.
“This is home.”
Mungia now has his own kids, and is a proud grandfather.
“That’s my favorite topic to talk about,” he says when you ask. As he describes his kids, it’s clear Mungia has passed on his passion for justice and diversity. Oldest son Alex and his wife (parents of Mungia’s grandson) are both attorneys with the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and live in Steilacoom. Oldest daughter, Kyra, is “amazing” and works in California as an executive director for “a non-profit that has one part of its mission providing affordable housing for teachers…with the goal of increasing the diversity of schoolteachers.” Youngest son, Nicholas, lives with his wife in South Lake Union doing tech work for a startup that “of course, I don’t quite understand”; while youngest daughter, Audri, in upper school in Tacoma, lives half of the time with her dad.
“I tell people that being a dad is the best part of my life—and I really do mean that.”
Mungia intends to do “whatever I can do to win this election, so that I can serve on the court driving systemic changes.” The visibility that being a Justice on the state’s Supreme Court will afford him is crucial to raising awareness amongst the public about issues vital to people of color. “One thing that I believe I’m very good at is being unbiased, being fair, not trying to favor one side or the other, which is so important for serving the high court, but I think also, you can do things individually as a Justice because you’re asked to present at different forums.”
To date, Mungia has been endorsed by “around 60 judges, at all levels, including 10…of our state Supreme Court justices—six [who are] active members of our state Supreme Court. The legal community who knows my work knows my commitment to the legal profession and knows my commitment to justice. I think that’s the bottom line…[to be] fair, impartial, and look out for those who have been marginalized for so long. To be a voice for that community.”
Kai can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.