Nixon White House Tapes — Conversation 555-003
Date: Thursday, August 5, 1971 at 12:00 PM
Participants: Nixon, Richard M. (President); Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for the Spanish Speaking; Ramirez, Henry M. (Dr.); Rodriguez, Antonio; Cespedes, Louie; Marin, Eugene A.; Yturri, Edward M.; Martinez, Ted F.; Lozano, Ignacio E., Jr.; Buttari, Edgar A.; Giberga, Manuel R.; Tristani, Jorge E.; Gonzalez, Manuel A.; Hidalgo, Hilda A.; Oldaker, William C.; Sanchez, Philip; Ziegler, Ronald L.; Bull, Stephen B.
Recording device: Oval Office
Source: https://www.easynixon.org/tapes/555-003

This transcript was generated automatically by AI (WhisperX) and has not been reviewed for accuracy. Do not cite it as authoritative.

[0:23] How are you?
[0:50] How are you?
[0:50] I'm glad to see you.
[0:50] I'm glad to welcome you here.
[0:51] Pleasure to meet you.
[0:51] Good to see you.
[0:52] Yes, sir.
[0:54] Thank you.
[1:16] Thank you.
[1:16] Thank you.
[1:32] Well, we have to get an official picture of the girls here.
[2:00] I think we're going to take it inside instead of right here.
[2:05] Right, right.
[3:43] I had heard that story for 48 years.
[3:58] I remember right across the street, a building that had a lot of people in their area.
[4:00] So, it was a copycat.
[4:00] We got help.
[4:01] We got help.
[4:01] We got help.
[4:11] That's right.
[4:30] That's right.
[4:31] Well, we've got our, uh, our
[4:55] 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.
[5:19] Now, I could say about the black problem.
[5:19] You're concerned about the black problem.
[5:20] But my God, our Latin American was always used to remind me.
[5:22] 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
[5:25] blacks in some of those areas and what they get.
[5:42] And it's obvious why it isn't because of any superiority from the standpoint of national background, race, gender, and language problems.
[5:45] We've got the, in addition to the discrimination and all that sort of thing.
[5:47] And by God, it's going to stop.
[5:47] On the other side of the coin, the extramarine has an enormous advantage over the blacks.
[5:49] An enormous advantage in the sense that we would not
[5:56] There's pregnancies and all that.
[6:15] We all know that.
[6:16] 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.
[6:19] You never feel that way.
[6:20] You don't know when the next parent comes.
[6:20] 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...
[6:24] At that time, it was a really wonderful relationship.
[6:43] I remember years before, after I left for your high school, I met you.
[6:44] In fact, you and I were one of the finest players you've ever seen in your life.
[6:46] You were a great master, and a great friend of your high school.
[6:47] You weren't there in the end.
[6:48] 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.
[6:56] And I told him that he's...
[7:21] It's going to take the effective, vital cooperation of the committee members
[7:51] They're the ones that have the resources.
[8:15] They're the ones that have the power.
[8:16] They're the ones that have the authority and the ability.
[8:17] My opinion is that unless we pick this up very quickly,
[8:22] how we're feeling in relation to this ministry.
[8:43] And very good at that basis.
[8:44] Or good.
[8:44] We will never really know where we are.
[8:45] And we just have to find out how we are feeling.
[8:46] Without it, we're gone.
[8:46] We'll be gone.
[8:55] Do this now.
[9:03] I mean, what do you need?
[9:13] What kind of backup do you need to get this?
[9:14] In other words, you don't have to leave reports.
[9:15] You know what my interest is.
[9:16] You've got to do it with your staff.
[9:16] You've got to see that if you're right, then why did I kill Frank?
[9:18] Can you do that?
[9:18] Yes.
[9:18] All right, you do it.
[9:19] That's a new job.
[9:19] I'm not going to raise any questions.
[9:20] I want reports as to what they're doing about these things.
[9:21] What about jobs?
[9:22] What about business opportunities?
[9:37] What about financial problems?
[9:38] What about discrimination?
[9:39] What about appointments in government?
[9:39] 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.
[9:42] You sit right there with the enemy.
[9:42] That's what we expect.
[9:43] And I know it's tough.
[9:43] It's going to be tough.
[9:44] You see, here's the thing.
[9:54] justice.
[10:04] 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.
[10:18] 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.
[10:21] Now, of course, you've got the Chicago's and all that.
[10:23] and that'll stir people up a bit.
[10:43] 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.
[10:46] I'm just confident.
[10:47] That's what I think.
[10:47] I mean, you know, our background is certainly religious, right?
[10:48] Family-oriented, very kind of religious, right?
[10:49] It's not really conducive for an awful lot of these experiences.
[10:51] That's right.
[10:51] Go on.
[10:54] You shouldn't be penalized for not being a bunch of mock jurors.
[11:15] Well, one of the things is I've analyzed the situation.
[11:17] The cops are asking me to make a study from my husband's perspective on the science speaking issue.
[11:19] 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.
[11:21] And that's what I said.
[11:22] But that's a beautiful objective and a necessary objective to become an integral part of the fabric.
[11:42] Now, in government, how does that happen?
[11:44] It happens by being in positions of authority.
[11:45] It happens not by being advocates of a Spanish-speaking office or a Spanish-speaking affairs, because that just puts you outside the mainstream.
[11:49] But to be inside, also, there are consuls here, domestic consuls.
[11:51] This is a very...
[11:53] terribly vital, important area, this area of the Spanish-speaking issue.
[12:15] 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.
[12:18] Yes, I mean, you see how we're moving.
[12:19] If that could be incorporated into the domestic council, Mr. President, you know, we'll talk a little bit more today.
[12:21] I think that our chances of being in
[12:23] for a long time, and turning the direction of democratic control of other people is very right.
[12:40] I'm talking to you realistically on grassroots.
[12:44] Well, it's captured.
[12:44] It's just got to be done.
[12:48] 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.
[13:08] That's my witness.
[13:09] And I'm going to tell this bunch here, if you have the people that I expect to do it,