A Latino Governor in Arizona is not my fan fiction it is our neglected history.

His name was Raul Castro (no, not that one), and his election was noteworthy because in those days, Arizona actually was something of the image that it is depicted as by opponents of the controversial immigration law today. And Castro himself was the subject of a moderate degree of discrimination in his early years.

So  yes once upon a time they had a Latino Governor. Who surprise, surprise had to overcome a lot. Besides race, religion, personal issues he also had funny local politics to contend with.

In early 1977, Castro was chosen by Jimmy Carter to be Ambassador to Argentina, which meant that, somewhat against his wife’s wishes, he’d be moving again. And with it went the Governorship, which he surely would have lost had he chosen to run again in 1978. His rockiness may have been one reason that Bruce Babbitt won the ’78 election with a surprisingly narrow 54% against weak opposition.
Some of you might know him for the last time he was in the public media eye:

Castro, who had been out of the public eye in Arizona gained perhaps his most notoriety when at the age of 96, he was detained by the U.S. Border patrol agents. Castro had a pace-maker put in the day before and lingering radiation apparently set off a sensor.

So now what should Arizona do?

“You can’t expect voters to go to the polls if there’s not something in it for them,” Pollster Earl de Berge of Behavior Research Center said. “Voters vote their perceived self-interest.”

Young people are not willing to engage in a system they believe has been created to keep them out. So they opt out. This is why we need to create a rallying point beyond Arpaio.

“That’s what gets people fired up,” State Sen. Steve Gallardo “That is the tool that’s been used to get people active in our political process.”

Arizona what do you need to do to wake up the Latino giant in your midst? You have elected a Latino Governor before, you cna do it again.

http://themoderatevoice.com/181467/hard-to-believe-arizona-elected-latino-governor-in-1974/

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/arizona/politics/article_5e7a355e-b9b4-11e2-b2f0-0019bb2963f4.html