From the Barrio to Washington: An Educator's Journey

14: Back to the Seat of Power, 1978–83

✩ 141 ✩ C h a p t e r F o u r t e e n Back to the Seat of Power, 1978–83 Running a community college was satisfying in so many different ways. It was certainly satisfying when the chancellor grudgingly admitted I’d done better than he had expected. But my relationship with the largely Latino community was probably even more satisfying. At one point there was a 50 percent increase in the number of local kids attending our community college than had attended before I took over. Education, more than anything else, is the key to opening doors beyond the barrio. I learned that from my own experience, and I was glad to help broaden the opportunities for more kids. While I was at ELAC, the multi-talented Bea, as always, was indispensable whether she was presiding over a gourmet dinner or helping me keep in touch with the students and their problems. She was especially helpful with the tennis teams. She had learned to be a top-notch player in Washington, and her skills came in handy on the courts of ELAC. Bea assumed an unofficial role as assistant coach and shared her knowledge of the game with the young ladies. In addition, she would go along on road trips as a chaperone. Best of all, as she adopted the tennis players, they adopted her. My job satisfaction didn’t end with my duties as president or the duties taken on by my wife. My extracurricular activities competed with my duties as an educator in so many ways. I learned from both, but as president I was primarily an educator. Helping maintain an art museum taught me more about art than I ever knew before. I 142 ✩   chapter fourteen learned to fake my way through a Japanese tea ceremony. I even had a nodding acquaintance with finance because of a short stint with the Federal Reserve Board. Ironically, it was one of those extracurricular activities that lured me away from the college and back to Washington. Like Americans of most ethnic groups, many Mexican Americans celebrate the national holidays of their ancestral home. Each September 16, the folks in East LA celebrate Mexican Independence Day, and the ELAC president is usually named chairman of the program. In 1976, an election year, we invited the men atop both of the national tickets, President Gerald Ford and his challenger Jimmy Carter, to participate. We weren’t sure how we’d handle it if they both accepted, but we knew it would be such a coup that whatever we did would garner us favorable publicity. President Ford took care of our problem. One look at the demographics convinced him he could get more votes elsewhere—not many Republicans in East LA. Our area did have lots of Democrats, but the trick was to get them to vote. Carter accepted our invitation, and we rolled out the red carpet. I had the opportunity to escort him to various functions and to have long, informal talks with the man who was soon to become the most powerful person in the world. The celebration was by all accounts a big success. I like to think that I once again helped elect a president. Some months after the inaugural, I heard from President Carter. A staff officer sent me a memo asking if I’d be interested in a position in Washington. I was flattered, but I had left Washington only five years earlier, and things were going well in East LA—my job was a heady experience. I sent a polite but unenthusiastic reply, thanking them for the offer, but saying, “No thanks this time.” I was still politician enough to leave the door open a crack. It turned out that I was fortunate I hadn’t slammed the door harder. A tax revolt loomed. One of California’s infamous propositions was in the works. Proposition 13 would roll back property taxes and make other tax measures difficult to pass. The proposition was still down the road, but the harbingers were in the air. By 1978 state funding of public facilities, especially schools, was sharply curtailed. Already there was a scramble for funds. It got personal and it often degenerated into the friend-against-friend stuff. Back to the Seat of Power, 1978–83 ✩ 143 About that time, I received another letter from the Carter administration . This time I...