Gov Bill Richardson’s appointment (after having been derailed from becoming the first Latino Secretary of State)  for the Secretary Commerce demonstrates that President-Elect Obama will continue the tradition of appointing at least one Hispanic or Latino to the Cabinet. The first President to appoint a Latino to the Cabinet (Lauro Cavazos) was Ronald Reagan back in 1988. Actually, Senate Confirmation Appointees level Hispanics began in the Kennedy Administration with Raymond Tellez to be Ambassador to Costa Rica followed by Teodoro Moscoso as Ambassador to Venezuela. In 1967, the first Hispanic career Foreign Service Ambassador was John Jova (Ambassador to Honduras, OAS and Mexico). The first Assistant Secretary level appointee was under Gerald Ford when he named Alberto Zapanta to be Assistant Secretary at Interior in 1975. Carter named the first Hispanic Chief of Protocol, Lalo Valdez and the first service secretary, Edward Hidalgo as Secretary of the Navy in 1979. Several Federal Judges have been named since Reynaldo de la Garza of Texas was named Federal District Judge in 1961, yet none have ever been named to the Appeals or Supreme Court. Miguel Estrada, the Honduran American, was blocked from becoming a Federal Appeals Judge. As for additional Latinos in the Obama Cabinet yet to occur, speculation focuses on Federico Pena, former Mayor of Denver and later Clinton’s Secretary of both Departments of Energy and Transportation, Miami Mayor Manny Diaz is often mentioned, as is another prospect Mayor Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. ‘Tino’ Cuellar, Stanford Law Professor is being bandied as the new Immigration Director (CIS/DHS), which is at the Under Secretary level in Homeland Security.

It is interesting how the Obama transition team was feeling the heat to come up with more visible Latino appointees and readily announced NCLR Vice President Cecilia Munoz as Director of Inter-Government Affairs at the White House, as was also announced former Army Secretary under Clinton, Louis Caldera as the Director of the White House Military Office, which traditionally has been occupied by a high ranking military General. Caldera was viewed as having done a so-so job in the Army Secretariat, but many consider he bombed out of the Presidency of the University of New Mexico where he later was awarded a tenured position in is law school — probably to comply with the terms of the contract. Let us hope that both Munoz and Caldera get the official White House title of “Assistant to the President.”

On the National Security side, there are no rumors of a Latino at Defense, at least not in the Deputy Secretary slot or at the under secretary and assistant secretary level. At State likewise except for the strong rumor of Tampa lawyer Frank Sanchez  to be named Special Envoy to the Americas following the Clinton practice of having an envoy to Latin America. The substantive question here is: Will Frank Sanchez report to the President as Mack McLarty and former Florida Governor Buddy McKay did?…Or will he report to the Secretary of State or even worse to the Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America (a fourth rung bureaucratic level after Secretary, Deputy Secretary, Under Secretary)? Ideally, one would hope he will report to the President. Former Congressional Staffer Dan Restrepo is another name consistently heard in the Obama circles as the incoming NSC Director for Latin America.

Hopefully, Obama will improve on the career ranks of ambassadors and general/flag rank officers. The outgoing Bush Administration has a shabby record at State for having named only three visible Latino career foreign service officers as Ambassadors – the worst record in over three decades: Colin Powell only named one, Lino Gutierrez, Cuban American to Argentina now working for Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez as his top adviser on Cuba policy. Gutierrez like Mel Martinez (HUD)  was deliberately granted the gatekeeper role on Cuba and over-all Latin policy for the George W Bush Administration. Now that Richardson gets Commerce, will Obama follow the practice of having him (Richardson) be the lead on Mexico and US Latin American relations? Condi Rice named only two additional Latino career foreign service professionals to be ambassadors: Hugo Llorens (Cuban American) to Honduras  and the first female Hispanic (visible) career officer Carmen Martinez (Puerto Rican) to Zambia, where she was proclaimed by the local media as the best US Ambassador ever.

As for our Latinos in the military ranks, much remains to be remedied. Latinos comprise about 15 to 17% of the over 1.2 million active duty US soldiers and African Americans are about 25% of the active duty ranks, yet Latinos have only three general/flag rank officers, none with three or four stars. The African-Americans have 26 general/flag rank officers. The one Latino was LT GEN Ricardo Sanchez, who was slotted to be the first four star general in years. Only two Latinos have ever been four star officers: Admiral Horacio Rivero of Puerto Rico and Army General Richard Cavazos (brother of first Latino cabinet head Education Secretary Lauro Cavazos).  Sanchez took the hit for the disastrous torture episodes in Iraq while he was three star army commanding officer of US Forces, as they say in Spanish:  ’el perro flaco recibe las pulgas’  (the skinny dogs gets the fleas). Sanchez obviously had no real ’top cover’ because none of the other top rank officers paid the price like him, worse yet Sanchez had no ‘top cover’ from the Hispanic caucus in Congress nor does the Caucus as a whole appear to interest itself in these low promotion numbers of Latinos at State and the Defense Department.

In the Intelligence Community, it is rare to find any Latinos. Only two have ever risen to the highest circles of the Community (they remain nameless), and only one Latino was ever named to the prestigious and high powered  President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board (PFIAB), a former career Foreign Service Officer Ambassador Cresencio Arcos. He was named to the Board once by President Clinton and re-appointed by President George W. Bush. It should be noted that the Latino advocacy groups are rarely seen interesting themselves to check on the progress of moving Latinos up the career ladder. If they were to examine the ranks of SESers (Senior Executive Service)  in the Civil Service, the numbers may be even more appalling. The paucity of high ranking Latino career professionals is obscured by some glittering political (non-career) Hispanic appointment to the Cabinet or Embassies. Then again the rap on Latin Americans (ergo Latinos) is that we do not concern ourselves institutionally only personally…that is at the personal level.

The Pew Hispanic Center is reporting that Obama won 78% of the Latino vote in New Jersey, which is well above the 66% of the Latino vote that he took nationally. This makes me wonder if President-Elect Obama will involve a Puerto Rican in his cabinet as Seneca speculates, since New Jersey is one of the states with the largest Puerto Rican populations. He could also tap Senator Menendez (D-NJ) or Congressman Sires (D-NJ) for leadership positions as well, but those names haven’t been floating around. Both Menendez and Sires are both Cuban-Americans.

Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez caused a stir last week with her slate mailer for Democratic candidates, which was photographed at her polling place and later published in the Orange County Register. After the big stink she made about voting for Hillary Clinton in the roll call over the summer, I wonder if she even voted for Obama. Only she knows. But it was encouraging to see her holding a mailer that had Obama’s name on it in big bold print. Register readers were criticizing the photo implying that Congresswoman Sanchez was campaigning for Senator Obama at the polling place, which is illegal. I’m kind of surprised that she brought in a slate mailer instead of the actual sample ballot, but whatever floats her boat. Congresswoman Sanchez doesn’t strike me as a big reader, and maybe this was easier for her than cracking open the actual sample ballot to read the pros and cons of the initiatives and candidate statements. She did look nice in her “Nancy Reagan red” suit when she showed up to the polls though. And I have to give her props for co-sponsoring the Freedom of Choice Act, which would eliminate many state imposed restrictions on abortions.

The Democratic Party is now looking to invest resources in Texas. This is in part because of Latino population growth that is fueling multi-ethnic coalitions. As The Dallas Morning News reported a few weeks ago, the Latino baby boom will have big ramifications for the lonestar state. It would be an irony to send GWB back to a bluer Texas, especially as he grows old back in Crawford.

Last week Puerto Rico elected the island’s first Republican governor in forty years, Luis Fortuno. The previous governor has been indicted for campaign finance fraud.

And finally, Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez  (D-NY) is going to seek the Chairmanship of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. When Loretta Sanchez’s office heard about this, she expressed an interest in rejoining the group (most of us here remember how Congressman “Working Joe” Baca called her a whore and how she resigned thereafter). I don’t know too much about Congresswoman Velazquez other than she comes from higher education and that she has a documented history of clinical depression. I will only hope that Velazquez is leaps and bounds above Joe Baca in legislative ability and advocacy. Maybe she could also lessen the stigma of mental health issues in our community.

Photo Credit: EFE 102108, via La Opinión