PRESIDENT'S COMMITTEE ON MEXICAN AMERICAN AFFAIRS

Now I was a full-fledged civil rights advocate. It is almost unbelievable some of the things I did and the places I got myself into. There were times when I had to pinch myself to make sure I was not dreaming. Everything that affected the Hispanic community in the United States of America was my concern. I somehow managed to get involved in a number of grassroots movements.

I got myself appointed to the Planning Committee of the National Health Forum to be held in New York in early 1969. While there, I organized the National Spanish Speaking Health Organization and got it going on a permanent basis.

The excuse that most employers gave for not having even a minuscule of Hispanic representation on their rolls was, "There just aren't any that are qualified." So I attacked that idea. I put together lists of Hispanic College graduates, emphasizing those graduating in 1969 and had Sandia Corporation publish the database in an organized form. This effort led to my placing particular emphasis on increasing the number of Hispanics in Science and Engineering and we had a Symposium at New Mexico Highlands University to create a dialogue on the matter. This was the predecessor of MESA (Mexican Americans in Engineering and Science in America)

The one thing I learned during this tour was how to get things done in the Nation's Capitol. I wrote a bill which was introduced in the House of Representatives by Congressman Joseph M. Montoya to extend the life of the President's Committee on Mexican Affairs. As Executive Director I testified before Congressman Flood's Labor Committee. I also learned how to get things done through pure political muscle. Our Committee was funded by contributions from the various Departments such as Labor, Agriculture, Health Education and Welfare, Commence, etc. The Agriculture Department was overseen by the House Appropriations Committee which was headed by a Southern gentleman named Jaime Whitton who did not like Mexican Americans and in particular hated Puerto Ricans. He referred to all of us as "Porto Rican Negras," and would not allow the Ag Department to contribute its share. I faced laying off some people unless I could get that money. Vicente through Cliff Alexander, Chairman of the EEOC, got me to sit down to discuss my problem with Joe Califano the President's Chief of Staff over lunch at the Sans Souci, a Washington DC center of decision making over a gourmet lunch. He said, "I'll get the Budget Director at Agriculture to write a Non-reimbursable detail transfer of the necessary funds. You go back to your office and make a list of all your employees and their salary and provide it to this guy in my office." Well I did so and we got our money. A "non-reimbursable detail" is a document that says we owe this money because you detailed all these people to work on one of our projects. The objecting Congressman was non the wiser. My lesson was, "Where there is will there is a way."

So when Nixon got elected President it did not bother me. Through Cliff Alexander I had already gotten my assignment to a position in Technical Assistance at the EEOC but I actually was serving as Executive Director of the President's Committee, a Schedule C position from which I would be removed at will by the incoming administration. As a matter of fact Dan Moynihan, now Senator Moynihan of New York, was on the Nixon White Staff and when he sent one of his aides to take over the Committee I was ready and waiting. I gave him the keys to the car that had been assigned to me and I asked him to drive me home and he could have the keys to the office as well. They call this CYA, i.e. Cover Your Ass.

Another signal and unique event that I had a hand in organizing was a National Employment Conference in conjunction with Plans for Progress (PfP) which was held in the summer of 1968 at the Western Skies Hotel here in Albuquerque where the concept of a Job Fair first originated. Plans for Progress was an organization of corporate giants who were committed to affirmative action. It was Vice President Hubert Humphrey's brain-child but we at the President's Committee on Mexican Affairs worked hand-in-hand with PfP and even got Sandia Corporation to loan an Executive for duty in Washington DC to work nationally with Corporate America to increase the employment of Hispanic Americans, Native Americans and other minorities.

A project that I single-handedly undertook was the exchange of the Trinchera Ranch in Colorado owned by John Simms; former Governor of New Mexico; for urban, more saleable, properties in Los Angeles. Isabel, Dolores, Cissy and I spent a few days at the Trinchera ranch as guests of John Simms. He flew us from Albuquerque to the ranch in his twin engine Apache and took us all over the ranch so that I could sell the idea to the Forest Service in the Department of Agriculture. We got the exchange approved and today the Trinchera ranch is part of the Forest system and is available for hunting and fishing to the general population. It particularly benefits the Spanish speaking people of the San Luis valley of southern Colorado.

Some other events from these days that occupy a special place in my memory involve people. One in particular I remember. I brought a number of Brown Berets from Los Angeles to attend a Civil Rights Conference at the Capitol Hilton in DC, that is I found the funds to have them travel from Los Angeles and to pay for their stay in DC. I was nervous until I met the various representatives of the Brown Berets, then I realized what a group of winners they were. They made a significant and lasting impression on that conference with their military bearing and demeanor. One of them David Sanchez, Minster of Security later went on to become Chairman of the Department of Mathematics at the University of New Mexico. One of these days I may find out what some of the rest did with their lives. Did some one say, Do not judge a book by its cover?

Those were heady days, but there would be more. Even more unbelievable, such as I detail in the chapter dealing with my assignments to the White House under Nixon. But first read about some millionaires we made along the way!

Read On! Enjoy!