Roots, Resilience and the Law: Jesús Cuza
Holland & Knight's Diversity Council and Hispanic Affinity Group are proud to celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month and honor the generations of Hispanics who have enriched America's history and continue to shape its future. We are pleased to present the 2025 video series, featuring meaningful conversations from across our community. We hope the stories shared in these episodes inspire those exploring their roots and shine a light on the contributions Hispanics bring to the legal profession and beyond.
Miami Partner Jesús Cuza traces his journey from Miami to Puerto Rico and back to the U.S., becoming the first in his family to earn a law degree before practicing at Puerto Rico's largest law firm. He reflects on his Cuban heritage and explains how his parents' immigrant story – from scarcity to his father's global success at MetLife – forms the foundation of his values. Mr. Cuza shares how faith, family and language shape his life at home, from bilingual traditions such as singing happy birthday in English and Spanish to celebrating Nochebuena with lechón and coquito.
Jesús Cuza: I was born in Miami in 1964, and when we were 7, we moved to Puerto Rico. I was in Puerto Rico until finishing high school, and then I came back to the U.S.
I was the first in my family to actually go to law school and to obtain a degree. After graduating, I went back to Puerto Rico and I practiced law. Started practicing law with the largest firm in Puerto Rico. I litigated in Spanish and English.
I think about my family, I witnessed the challenges. My father, who didn't have enough, he never had a college degree. Worked for MetLife, and ended up ranking top 25 in the entire world.
As a Hispanic, religion is really important. Family is really important. Things that we cherish from growing up that we have continued to share with our children, what we have done with our children consistently is making sure that the Spanish, right, the language is consistently used at home. My wife and I, we're speaking Spanish all the time, but we don't speak English to each other unless the kids are there.
On birthdays, we start with happy birthday in English and then we go to feliz cumpleaños in Spanish. And we celebrate nochebuena, right? We go to church together every December 24. We're eating traditional Latin food: lechon – pig, pork. And we're drinking some traditional Spanish drinks. My wife does every year what's called coquito, which is [coconut] with rum.
I think we're all fortunate to be part of a firm that is so people-oriented. And Holland & Knight has actually given all of us very diverse people a home.