One in a series on local judges.
by Sean McManus
Staff Writer
He told the story this way:
“My father had a small lumber processing business in Camaguey [Cuba] and one day when he showed up for work there were new locks on the doors. He broke them open, did a day’s work, and then went home. The next day a military jeep pulled up in front of our house and the police arrested him.”
That was in 1961, the same year as the Bay of Pigs. His father was released, but given a choice. He could either work at the same shop as an employee of the new government or he could relinquish his business entirely, at risk of going to jail if he didn’t. He refused to work for Fidel Castro’s government and immediately started taking the necessary steps to escape.
“Except getting out wasn’t that easy,” he said. “Once you announced you wanted to take a trip, they cataloged all your belongings. Then it took at least two years to get the visas. At the end of the two years, all your belongings had to be accounted for. If things were intact, then you could leave — for a while — but you were only allowed two changes of clothes and no money.”
At that time only three countries in the Western Hemisphere maintained diplomatic relations with Cuba: Costa Rica, Venezuela and Mexico.
In 1965, the family left for Mexico City. They lived on $800 that his father had sent to friends in Miami when the revolution began. The friends wired it back to the family in Mexico. His family stayed at what was the equivalent of a bed and breakfast for the four months that it took for them to be granted entrance into the United States. A week after they did, he turned 12.
When the family arrived in Miami, his father took a job at a furniture factory for minimum wage. They stayed with friends at first and he and his sister started public school.
The next year, then-President Lyndon Johnson started the Freedom Flights to get refugees safely out of Cuba. With the influx of of immigrants into South Florida, the Dade County public school system started parallel Spanish curriculums. He was bused to Coconut Grove Junior High where he took classes in Spanish, and learned English at the same time. He attended Miami Senior High School and Miami-Dade Community College before transferring to Florida International University, where he graduated in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He left for law school at Ohio State the next year and had his degree by 1981.
So when Roberto Arias, now a Duval County court judge, talks about personal responsibility, it carries a little extra weight.
“A lot of people come into court with a myriad of excuses for why they can’t do something. Look. If I can do it, you can do it,” said Arias.
His inspiration to practice law started early. His uncle is a lawyer in Cuba, although he works in a different capacity under Castro’s government. But growing up, Arias saw how well his uncle was treated by the rest of his family and by the community.
“I wanted to achieve the same level of respect as my uncle,” said Arias, whose cousin is a law professor in Cuba.
When Arias returned to Miami after law school in Ohio, he felt like “a stranger in paradise.” He looked around for jobs in other parts of Florida and received an offer from Public Defender Lou Frost. Arias worked in the office for three years before venturing out on his own.
“As an out-of-towner, it was hard to generate a clientele,” said Arias, who practiced federal and state criminal defense. He ran for county judge, but was defeated by Mack Crenshaw. In 1995, he decided to apply for a county judgeship.
“I felt like my life experience could be easily applied as a judge,” said Arias, who was appointed to the bench by Gov. Lawton Chiles later that year.
As for legal theory, Arias calls himself a strict constructionalist.
“I’m not going to read into the law things that were not meant to be read into,” he said. “I’m a strong believer in personal liberties and freedom from government intrusion and I think liberty needs to be nurtured, but a lot of responsibility comes with that.”
Arias said that as a judge, he’s pretty demanding, which he defines as “expecting people to perform to their abilities.”
That’s the same test his wife Donna applies to her husband’s boat, a 17-foot Boston Whaler.
“I guess I should say I’m the keeper of the proud future owner of a Boston Whaler,” said Arias. “Donna thinks I should sell it since we hardly ever use it. I bought it so that the family could enjoy the natural surroundings in Jacksonville. We fish sometimes but rarely catch anything.”
Arias and Donna, a CPA who is an accountant for The Bridge of Northeast Florida, live in Atlantic Beach with their two children, Mathew, 13, and Megan, 11.
Through the years, Arias has had a couple of opportunities to return to Cuba, but both times an international incident made it too risky. Arias thinks that if Castro wanted to make an example of someone who fled the country, a Florida judge might be near the top of the list.
“If I knew the people of Cuba would benefit by a lifting of the embargo then I’d be all for it,” said Arias. “But just like Haiti, corrupt politicians would make sure the people would continue to be repressed.”
Palo Seco, and the neighboring town of Camaguey where Arias grew up, is about as far away from Havana as you can get and still be in Cuba. Arias even remembers visiting Orienté as a child. That was where the revolution began.
“Cuba’s got everything,” he said. “Beaches, mountains, countryside. I’d like to go back and visit . . . one day.”