Nixon, Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for the Spanish Speaking & Ramirez…

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How are you?

I'm glad to see you.

I'm glad to welcome you here.

Pleasure to meet you.

Good to see you.

Yes, sir.

Thank you.

Well, we have to get an official picture of the girls here.

I think we're going to take it inside instead of right here.

Right, right.

I had heard that story for 48 years.

I remember right across the street, a building that had a lot of people in their area.

So, it was a copycat.

We got help.

That's right.

Well, we've got our, uh, our

And I told everybody that I am just tired of seeing the total emphasis in the minority field almost exclusively on, say, the black problem.

Now, I could say about the black problem.

You're concerned about the black problem.

But my God, our Latin American was always used to remind me.

He said that when you look at Watts and you look at the area of oil science and so forth, he says the Mexican-Americans are behind

blacks in some of those areas and what they get.

And it's obvious why it isn't because of any superiority from the standpoint of national background, race, gender, and language problems.

We've got the, in addition to the discrimination and all that sort of thing.

And by God, it's going to stop.

On the other side of the coin, the extramarine has an enormous advantage over the blacks.

An enormous advantage in the sense that we would not

There's pregnancies and all that.

We all know that.

But the difference is that the minute you have the black problem, the black-white problem, you have everything from, you know, the intermarriage, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

You never feel that way.

You don't know when the next parent comes.

If you're talking about school integration or, you know, Woody or, you know, Yarko and Woody or East Woody and so forth, absolutely no...

At that time, it was a really wonderful relationship.

I remember years before, after I left for your high school, I met you.

In fact, you and I were one of the finest players you've ever seen in your life.

You were a great master, and a great friend of your high school.

You weren't there in the end.

And I know, one of my old friends, on the bench, obviously, over at IMS, Eddie Garoppolo told me that Eddie Garoppolo was a fine judge.

And I told him that he's...

It's going to take the effective, vital cooperation of the committee members

They're the ones that have the resources.

They're the ones that have the power.

They're the ones that have the authority and the ability.

My opinion is that unless we pick this up very quickly,

how we're feeling in relation to this ministry.

And very good at that basis.

Or good.

We will never really know where we are.

And we just have to find out how we are feeling.

Without it, we're gone.

We'll be gone.

Do this now.

I mean, what do you need?

What kind of backup do you need to get this?

In other words, you don't have to leave reports.

You know what my interest is.

You've got to do it with your staff.

You've got to see that if you're right, then why did I kill Frank?

Can you do that?

Yes.

All right, you do it.

That's a new job.

I'm not going to raise any questions.

I want reports as to what they're doing about these things.

What about jobs?

What about business opportunities?

What about financial problems?

What about discrimination?

What about appointments in government?

You come up with them, and if you think you're going to get in a fair shape, you just put them in grand defense.

You sit right there with the enemy.

That's what we expect.

And I know it's tough.

It's going to be tough.

You see, here's the thing.

justice.

Another reason is that everybody in the media and within the Negro communities, they're organized, and they just raise the devil about them, and as a result, they've got a congressional lobby.

And frankly, I said to a lot of my friends, you know, of course, I figured you were in California, I said, you fellas, you just sat too long.

Now, of course, you've got the Chicago's and all that.

and that'll stir people up a bit.

But the responsible people like yourself, you have got to really get organized and just raise as much hell as they do, and that'll come.

I'm just confident.

That's what I think.

I mean, you know, our background is certainly religious, right?

Family-oriented, very kind of religious, right?

It's not really conducive for an awful lot of these experiences.

That's right.

Go on.

You shouldn't be penalized for not being a bunch of mock jurors.

Well, one of the things is I've analyzed the situation.

The cops are asking me to make a study from my husband's perspective on the science speaking issue.

And one of the things I came up with, of course, is we have to become an integral part of the fabric of our country and of our government.

And that's what I said.

But that's a beautiful objective and a necessary objective to become an integral part of the fabric.

Now, in government, how does that happen?

It happens by being in positions of authority.

It happens not by being advocates of a Spanish-speaking office or a Spanish-speaking affairs, because that just puts you outside the mainstream.

But to be inside, also, there are consuls here, domestic consuls.

This is a very...

terribly vital, important area, this area of the Spanish-speaking issue.

If there was a way that we could get plugged into that, so we could have an agenda, and not wait until we come up with a domestic agenda.

Yes, I mean, you see how we're moving.

If that could be incorporated into the domestic council, Mr. President, you know, we'll talk a little bit more today.

I think that our chances of being in

for a long time, and turning the direction of democratic control of other people is very right.

I'm talking to you realistically on grassroots.

Well, it's captured.

It's just got to be done.

Well, listen, in this conversation, the main point that I want you to know is that I want you to give the message of your nation, raise hell.

That's my witness.

And I'm going to tell this bunch here, if you have the people that I expect to do it,

Nixon, Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for the Spanish Speaking & Ramirez…

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on August 5, 1971

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