“I like to motivate them and say, ‘Look, this is the land where anyone can accomplish whatever they want to accomplish,” Castro told The Associated Press in a 2010 interview.
Castro’s success in politics was unlikely for a Mexican-American in the 1970s.
Arizona’s Hispanic community was sizeable but not active in politics. Despite deep nerves, many voted for the first time when they cast a ballot for Castro, he said.
“From then on they became more engaged, they became active participants, they became part of the state,” he recalled.
Castro’s races for governor were two of the closest in state history. He lost to Republican Jack Williams in 1970 by 1.5 percentage points. He fared better four years later, defeating Republican Russ Williams by less than 1 percentage point.
Castro, a Democrat, was governor for 2½ years before resigning when President Jimmy Carter appointed him ambassador to Argentina.
“The thing that bothered me the most when I resigned as governor, the Hispanic community felt that I had betrayed them, because they worked so hard to get me elected,” he reminisced decades later. “I had to convince them and persuade them that being an American ambassador was just as important as being a governor. I had more authority.”
As an ambassador and judge, Castro was used to having unquestioned authority; he struggled to adjust to the checks and balances imposed on a governor, said Alfredo Gutierrez, a fellow Democrat and legislative leader while Castro was governor.
“It was a very difficult beginning for him,” Gutierrez said in a 2010 interview. “It was quite an adjustment.”
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