Raul Hector Castro

Raul Hector Castro (born in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, June 12, 1916) is a Mexican-born United States politician. He has served in both elected and non-elected public offices, including United States Ambassador and Governor of Arizona. He was the first Hispanic to be elected Governor of Arizona.

Castro lived in his native Mexico until 1926, when he moved to the U.S. state of Arizona and later became a United States citizen. Through gruelling physical labor and self-denial, he saved enough to enter Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff, from which he graduated in 1939. He worked for five years for the US State Department as a foreign service clerk at Agua Prieta, a border city in his native Sonora, but he never forgot his dream of becoming a lawyer. Accepted by the University of Arizona Law College, Castro earned his Juris Doctor degree and was admitted to the Arizona Bar in 1949. After practicing law in Tucson for two years, he became deputy Pima County attorney. In 1954 he was elected county attorney and served in that capacity until 1958, when he became a Pima County Superior Court Judge. He earned a reputation as a man of keen mind and deep compassion for people during his six years on the Superior Court bench. His national stature grew over the years, and President Lyndon Johnson appointed Castro as U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador in 1964. After four years there, he served as Ambassador to Bolivia until the end of 1969.

Returning to Tucson, Arizona in 1969 to specialize in international law, Castro continued to rise to the top in Arizona Democratic politics. Seeking state office for the first time in 1974, he surprised the experts by winning his spirited campaign for the governorship ending eight years of Republican control. In 1977, after two years as governor, President Jimmy Carter selected him to be ambassador to Argentina.

In 2007, his Alma Mater now know as Northern Arizona University named the home of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in his honor.

References

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* Interview with R.H. Castro for the newspaper Clarín of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20 December 1998 concerning the Beagle conflict: [http://www.clarin.com/suplementos/zona/1998/12/20/i-01101e.htm Clarín] .