As the nation mourns the death of former President Jimmy Carter, his record of connecting with Latino voters, recognizing their growing population’s significance and elevating Hispanics to leadership positions form a vital part of his legacy.
A political outsider when he ran for the Democratic nomination, Carter was elected in 1976 with an estimated 81% of the Latino vote. He narrowly carried Texas, thanks in part to winning 87% of the state’s Latino vote.
During Carter’s era, the Latino population in the country was about 14.6 million, or 6.5% of the overall U.S. population, and his administration reflected the awakening of Latinos as a political force.
Blandina Cardenas, 79, a former president of the University of Texas-Pan American, worked on the Carter campaign and was appointed in 1977 to become the commissioner for children, youth and families in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
“I was so young, frankly, I didn’t have a lot of experience, and certainly not at that level. But I had the capacity,” she recalled. “There was a real community spirit back then, among us Mexican Americans. There was a commitment to politics for a purpose that would advance equality and help others.”
As part of her responsibilities, Cardenas oversaw the nation’s Head Start program and the child welfare program, work she described as immensely rewarding. “We were working 14-hour days, but you felt proud. It felt like we were part of something honest and caring.”
Record Latinos in federal government, judicial appointments
Carter did not just bring qualified Latinos to work with him; he also selected people who had been part of the grassroots political and civil rights movements, Cardenas said.
At the time, Carter brought in a record number of Hispanics to work for his administration. They were able to do so because they recruited leaders from the emerging Latino civil rights and advocacy groups.
In 1977, Carter appointed Leonel J. Castillo, the first Latino commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. He also appointed more Latino federal judges than any other president before him.
It was following Carter’s election that the Congressional Hispanic Caucus was formed, in December 1976. Its formation was tied to Latino participation in his campaign.
Arabella Martinez, who was from the San Francisco Bay Area, was nominated by Carter in 1977 as the assistant secretary for the Office of Human Development Services in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Martinez, now in her 80s, said the Carter administration was driven by a strong sense of ethics. “There was an expectation that there would be absolute honesty. There would be no corruption, it was very strict.”
She remembers her time in the administration as both exciting and challenging. “It was a little overwhelming at first. Everything was not easy or peachy. But I never learned so much in my life as in those years. I used to say that it was as if I’d got four Ph.D.s during that time. The work was so demanding.”
Carter was “a really down-to-earth man with no pretense, as honest as the day is long," she said. "The D.C. elites used to make fun of him as a country person, a rube, but he was an exceptionally decent human being."
Expanded educational opportunities, immigration reform
In his single term as president, Carter spearheaded policies that affected Latinos, especially on education, supporting bilingual instruction and expanding civil rights.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona praised Carter's work in a statement on Sunday.
"In the White House, President Carter organized vital federal education programs under one roof when he established the U.S. Department of Education, elevating equal access to education to the presidential cabinet level, where it belongs," Cardona stated. "Everything we do here at the Department to raise the bar for America’s students is part of President Jimmy Carter’s lasting legacy."
Cardona noted Carter expanded educational opportunities before he became president as governor of Georgia, where he enforced public school integration and other civil rights laws, "invested in Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and created scholarships for students of color."
Carter also increased the number of refugees eligible for admission to the U.S. and freed several Puerto Rican nationalists from prison on humanitarian grounds.
In 1977, Carter outlined an immigration reform plan that would have allowed some undocumented people to adjust their status. While this bill died in Congress, it can be viewed as a framework for President Ronald Reagan’s landmark ”amnesty" program in 1986.
As president, Carter wrestled with an energy crisis, inflation and unemployment. The Hispanic unemployment rate during his term ranged from 8.3% to 10.1%.
'Mistakes were made' and a 'damn good president'
Martha P. Cotera, 86, worked on the Carter campaign in Texas and closely followed his presidency.
“We were drawn to him because he promised to build on a strong civil rights, labor rights and social justice agenda that would have included full equality for women, for Latinas, and other groups,” she said.
Then affiliated with the independent Raza Unida Party, Cotera saw in Carter an opportunity to advance progressive goals, like the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.
But as Cotera observed the subsequent political tides, she knew that Carter was having trouble carrying out his policies. “I think he did his best to try and achieve what he believed in, but there were a lot of economic forces and pressure that he could not control. Mistakes were made,” she said. “I didn’t see how he could win again, with what was happening in the world and his being outside the D.C./Wall Street establishment.”
Carter was president as major developments took place in Latin America. In 1977, he signed the Panama Canal treaties, which ultimately relinquished U.S. control over the canal. In 1979, the Somoza regime in Nicaragua fell and the Sandinista government took power. In April 1980, Cuban leader Fidel Castro allowed those who wanted to leave the country to do so, leading to the Mariel Boatlift, when an estimated 125,000 Cubans fled the island.
“Had Carter been permitted to serve a second term, I think he would have been one of the great presidents, like Kennedy or LBJ,” said Gonzalo Barrientos Jr., 82, of Austin, who worked on his campaign. “I think he was a damn good president. People outside of the political arena don’t realize that, in order to accomplish things in government, it takes time, and compromise.”
Barrientos was active in Texas politics for decades, serving in the Texas state Senate and the Texas House of Representatives. “I came out of el movimiento — the Civil Rights Movement — and I felt that Carter wanted to support equity for Mexican Americans, like he did for African Americans in Georgia,” he said.
“It was an amazing time; when I was a kid, my family was being kicked out of restaurants for being Mexican migrant workers," he said. "By the 1970s, there I am, I am taking pictures with President Carter in the Rose Garden.”
“It is easy to go out and march and say power to the people,” Barrientos reflected. “And sometimes you have to do that. But once Carter made it, he was in power, and there was so much hard work to do. He deserves credit for his efforts.”
Post-presidency, Carter was known for the Carter Center, which has worked throughout the Americas to enhance democracy, as well as for Habitat for Humanity, which has helped build homes in the U.S., the Caribbean and Latin America.
Carter was ahead of his time, said Gretchen Sierra-Zorita, director for Puerto Rico and the Territories at the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.
“A key part of Carter’s legacy is that he introduced global human rights into American foreign policy; that had not been done before," Sierra-Zorita said. "And long before we were discussing climate change, he created the Department of Energy to diversify our fuel sources.”
Sierra-Zorita believes Carter should be remembered not only for his presidency, but also for his entire “rich, productive, and ethical life.” His efforts and endeavors after the presidency, in her view, redefined the role of a former commander-in-chief.
“He was the gold standard for an American ex-president," she said.