Richard Nixon's Hispanic Strategy: Latino Appointees and the 1972 Campaign

Latino voters are a growing force in American elections, and the National Archives marked Hispanic Heritage Month with a reminder of an early chapter: the "Hispanic Strategy" of President Richard Nixon, whom the post's author called, a little provocatively, the first "Latino" president.

President Nixon and the President of Mexico review troops at the White House, June 15, 1972. National Archives.

Appointments

In 1969, his first year in office, Nixon created the Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for Spanish Speaking People. Over his presidency he appointed more Latinos to office than any president before him, John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson included, a record that stood until Bill Clinton's presidency in the 1990s.

The 1972 campaign

Running for re-election, Nixon reached out to Latino communities in Texas, California and the Southwest, promising funding for education, health, small businesses and other programs, an approach some called the Nixon Hispanic Strategy. Hispanic Americans, the archives' post argued, had never before held so much power in a presidential campaign. Some of his most prominent Latino appointees campaigned with him:

• Henry Ramirez, chairman of the Cabinet Committee;
• Ramona Banuelos, Treasurer of the United States;
• Phillip Sanchez, head of the Office of Economic Opportunity.

By most estimates, Nixon won about 40 percent of the Latino vote in 1972.

Nixon takes the oath of office at his second inauguration, January 20, 1973. National Archives.

A lasting mark

Later presidents, among them Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, made major efforts to win Latino voters. Even so, the post concluded, Nixon's historic appointments deserve a recognition of their own. The archives' photographs also show him welcoming Latin American presidents to the White House, Colombia's in 1969 and Mexico's in 1972.

The arrival ceremony for the President of Colombia, July 12, 1969. National Archives.

Sources

• Idaliz Marie Ortiz Morales, National Archives Office of Strategy and Communications, "President Nixon and the Hispanic Strategy," Pieces of History blog, published in English and Spanish; rewritten in hubnx's own words. Photos from the National Archives.