Raul Castro: 
Good morning to all of you and if I appear a little wobbly to you, it’s because I’ve been under the weather for about a month.  And now that spring is here, I’m ready to start jumping again.

Raul Castro:
I’m very pleased to be with you this morning and perhaps you’re wondering who the people are sitting next to me.  On my right here is Henry Zipp, he’s Mr. Republican and he was Barry Goldwater’s administration assistant and Henry and I go a long ways in law school and also Douglas, Arizona.  So he’s…we had practiced law together.  The young lady on the left is Maria Wolfinger, whose father was also a law school mate of mine for many years and she practiced law with me also for 12, 13 years.  So they are here to give me moral support. 

Raul Castro:
My background perhaps is a little different than most people who speak before you.  I was born in Mexico, came to this country as a young man and I can assure you that I can honestly tell you that the United States of America is still the land of opportunity and it’s the greatest country in the world.  I’ve covered the world since – and I’ve the opportunity to travel all over the world and there’s no question.  I’ve had opportunities to live abroad and etc. and I decided that when I retired, I wanted to come back to…to Arizona.  Many a day I spent living abroad and I would sit there and reminisce about the times I drove from Tucson to Phoenix to come to court, Supreme Court or otherwise, argue cases and practice law.  And I would look at the desert and the mountains.  I’m strictly a mountain man and a desert man.  Arizona is not today what it used to be.  Arizona today is a better Arizona. 

Raul Castro:
As a young man, of course, I had a lot of obstacles that had to be overcome.   Start number one when my father was born in Baja California, San Jose del Cabo, the tip of lower California.  Never went to school.  He became a deep sea diver, looking for pearls.  My mother was born in Santa Rosalea, Baja, California in Mexico.  She went to the 3rd grade and later on my mother taught my father how to read and write and my father left the tip of Baja, California, met my mother, they got married, crossed over Baja, California, the Sea of Cortez, ended up in Guymas and they heard there were a lot of jobs available in Cananea, Sonora, mining town.  So they went to Cananea.  That’s where all of us were born in Cananea.

Raul Castro:
My father was a big, robust man, about 6’2”, weighed about 240 pounds, very muscular, but he had inborn leadership qualities.  I remember we moved from…when we were in Cananea, he became a leader in the mining union and established the mining union in Cananea.  They de – went on strike.  They lost the strike, so the Mexican government declared my father as…charged him with the crime of holding a…a wildcat strike.  He was put in prison in Hermosillo, Mexico and I remember that my mother and my sister, the only girl, was the only way we had to communicate with him.  Being a woman, she was not bothered too much at the entrance to the prison and would take notes, notices and information to my father. 

Raul Castro:
Finally my father got amnesty and came into the United States of America, going through Naco.  Naco, Arizona which is about 50 miles from Cananea, it’s the American side of the town.  And how vividly I recall when the immigration man got through with our documentation and papers and he said, “Castro family, you are now in America and the rest is up to you.  You’ve…It’s gonna be up to you to decide what you want to do.  You can be a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker, but it’s up to you.”  In those days, no relief, no welfare, nobody paid our fare, etc. 

Raul Castro:
We moved to a town called Porterville, about 5 miles out of Douglas, northwest of Douglas.  A town of about 3,000 people, mostly Mexican families in the mining business.  My father got involved in the smelter, worked in the mining business.  So did my brothers and I recall that my most members of the community would come to my father and call him Don Poncho, seeking advice and my father was sort of an advisor.  Here’s a man not educated, but he had common sense.  Then we got prosperous and moved from Douglas…Porterville to Douglas, Arizona. 

Raul Castro:
But ladies and gentlemen, here’s a dilemma we start with, adversity.  In the periphery of Porterville, Arizona, there were a lot of families, Anglo families, and the school system in Douglas would send a bus on the edge of the town where I lived.  Pick them up and take them to school in Douglas and we Mexican kids would walk from Porterville to school in Douglas.  The bus would pass us Mexican kids, the American kids would wave at us and in my mind I asked myself, why is it?  Is this right?  Why should they get rides to school and we walk?  It didn’t make any sense.  Again, it was the first challenge as a young man in this country.  But on the other hand, I also picked up another adage that I kept with me all my life.  There’s a saying in Spanish, “Hablandos entienda la gente.”  Through dialogue people understand each other. 
     
Raul Castro:
When I came to this country, I had a feeling that the American youngster was against me, was gonna fight me, he was my enemy.  Not so.  I soon learned that when I played with American children, they became my friends.  We trusted each other.  We loved each other.  Because of the dialogue.  It’s the parents that had the animosity.  The parents would say, “Don’t bring that Mexican kid over to the house.”  And this is the thing that you learn as a father later on as…as an adult with new parents, with children.  And I felt that perhaps, it’s very true, that through dialogue, there is understanding.

Raul Castro:
Being a border community, of course, I…mother would always take my hand and we’d go walk from Porterville to Agua Prieta, the Mexican side, because fruit was cheaper, tortillas and the meat, panocha and all kinds gadgets, but as we crossed the border from Douglas to Agua Prieta to Douglas, the immigration inspector was there and he would ask my mother, “Senora, donde nacio ustedes?”  “Ma’am, where were you born?”  She would say, “Santa Rosalea, Mexico.”  “Y el nino, the child, where was the child born?”  “Cananea, Sonora.”  I detected a certain hostility on part of the immigration inspector upon asking those questions.  As we walked away from the border, I would ask my mother, “Mother, what were – why was that man angry at us when he found out we were born in Mexico?”  And as typical a mother would say, she…no mother wants to instill hostility on a youngster, she would say, “Son, Mexico is one country, the United States is another country.  He wants to be sure that none of the immigration laws are violated.”  But I didn’t buy it.  I didn’t like it.  I didn’t like the way the things were approached.  Another adversity I felt, should be taken care of. 

Raul Castro:
And ladies and gentlemen, these are the things in the…in those days, I’m going back 80 years, 85 years.  I’ll be 91 in June, 91 years of age and as I started growing up and I would notice that my brothers were working in the mines and the smelter, coming home sweaty and dirty and filthy and I would ask myself a question, what future is there for me?  Am I subjected the rest of my life to be like my brothers?  To work in the mining business and be…live this miserable life?  None of us spoke any English, of course, and then my mother – no one, we never spoke English at home.  We didn’t know it.  And I would look around, I’d even see the mail carrier, going delivering the mail and I…what’s it like to be a mail carrier, to be anything.  I would watch the banker [inaudible].  President of the Bank of Douglas with a dark suit and a fancy hat, opening the bank and I’d see the man from J.C. Penney opening the store and I would think to myself, what could I do to be like him and not just be forever trying to be a laborer. 

Raul Castro:
You know, in the…under those circumstances in those days, schools were segregated.  Thirty-five, forty to a classroom.  We all had language problems and any time you come from a Spanish speaking country, in Spanish the vowels only have one sound, it’s an easy language.  The A is always ahh and the O is always ohh and the I is always eee and the E always ehh, it’s Mesa, instead of Mesa.  And, you know, in English, learning English is very difficult.  So, the teacher would put the word fat on the board, F-A-T, fat, and then next to it, father, F-A-T-H-E-R, one is eeh and the other is ahh, why?  I don’t know. 

Raul Castro:
You know, these were – it’s difficult.  And we would always say Columbus had three ships, S-H-I-P, ships.  We couldn’t pronounce the I.  The I was in Spanish for eee.  Sheeps.  Columbus had three sheeps.  We couldn’t say it.  Instead of saying Miss, we’d say, meese and I recall vividly giving a graduation speech at Douglas High School at the Grant Theater and again, with an accent, Spanish acc – it was a Spanish accent, people would laugh and I didn’t want to be laughed at ‘cause I felt, well this…I was embarrassed.  I had more pride.  And I felt the only way to learn the language is to repeat it and work hard at it which I have done [inaudible].

Raul Castro:
But let me give you one other coincidence of life.  Fact of life.  Back in 1926, that’s 80 years ago, so…as a youngster I heard there was gonna be a political rally at 10th Street park in Douglas.  Now, that park is named Raul H. Castro park, no longer 10th Street park and that the main speaker was a fellow by the name of …the first Governor of Arizona, I’m having a senior citizen moment now.  And I remember they were giving free hot dogs and hamburgers, etc. and that’s what I was interested in, as a child.  Three of us went to the park having free hamburgers and hot dogs.  The time came for -- George W.P. Hunt was the first Governor.  The time came for the ceremonies to start, they rang a bell and we all moved in towards the bandstand and I leaned on the bandstand and here’s this odd looking man, wearing a white linen suit, a pith helmet, like an African hunter…hunter, thick glasses and a mustache like a walrus.  So that attracted my attention and I kept staring at him.  Time came up to give the speech.  He got up and said, “Ladies and gentlemen of Arizona in this border community, one of these days, fortunately in this great country of ours, one of these barefooted Mexican kids will be governor of this state.”  He pointed towards me. That’s 80 years ago.  I didn’t know what the word governor meant.  I cared less, had no idea.  All I cared was that the hot dogs and the hamburgers were good!

Raul Castro:
Forty or fifty years later, I did become Governor.  But, you know, as time goes by and in those days there weren’t…in the professional world, nobody of Mexican ancestry worked in an office.  There was no way I could work in an office anywhere, except a laborer.  That’s all there was to us.  I graduated from high school and I wasn’t…I wasn’t the dumbest kid in class, I was a pretty good student.  And as the line was formed to give the names for graduation, to get our diplomas and every American youngster, Anglo kid had a middle name, John William Jones and down the line.  I did not have a middle name.  I was embarrassed.  We all want to be part of the mainstream.  Want to be something and I didn’t want to be different, so the principal asked me, “Raul, what is your middle name?” and I said, “Hector.” I could have chosen a better name, really.  Why that name, I don’t know.  It’s been with me since then. And here’s the reason.  There was a center in the basketball team in Douglas High School by the name of Hector Miranda, a Mexican boy.  A very good player.  He was my idol.  He was my role model, so his name was Hector, so I said, “Raul Hector Castro.” 

Raul Castro:
Time came for me to move on and the principal and everybody told me, Raul, whatever you do…he gave me a letter, I wish I could find that letter.  Someone in my family took it, saying Raul Castro was so such a number in his class, is a good student and anyone that hires him would do well, etc.  But the principal of high school told me whatever you do, don’t go to college, because you’re wasting your time.  Mexican kids just can’t get jobs in Arizona.  It’s hard to place them.  Well, I thought this rather cruel, but that’s a fact of life.  They sent me to the Superintendent of Schools, a fellow by the name of J.E. Carlson, same story.  Don’t go to college ‘cause you’re wasting your time and money.  Well, I was able to get a job at the [inaudible] store washing windows.  And one day I was washing windows and a man tapped me on the shoulder.  He said, “My name is Ralph Osborn.”  Funny how I remember names and I can’t remember what I had for breakfast!

Raul Castro:
My name is Ralph Osborn.  I’m an industrial arts teacher in Arizona State Teacher’s College in Flagstaff.”  He said, “I’m here, I want to give you a football scholarship as a quarterback.”  I was quarterback on the football team.  I weighed 140 pounds. 

Raul Castro:
I thought about it, I said, well, that’s…that’s an idea.  I will go home and tell mother about it.  So I did, I went home and I said, “Mother a man came in and wants to give a football scholarship.”  In those days, that meant that I worked in the kitchen in Flagstaff with Mother Hanley, washed dishes three times a day – that was my football scholarship.  Nowadays they give you football scholarship, they get you a girlfriend, a car and you name it!

Raul Castro:
But you know the…I am a sort of frustrated school teacher.  ‘Cause that was my first degree, a school teacher.  And teachers can do a lot towards youngsters.  There was a fellow by the name of Pop Wilson who taught English in high school, journalism and drama, whatever may be, he later came and taught at Phoenix High School, Union High School.  He said one day, “Raul, why don’t you take journalism?”  I said, “Mr. Wilson, I’m a football player.”  The old macho complex, you know.  “I’m a football player, journalism?”  Well, he finally convinced me though to take journalism.  I took journalism, I became the editor of the Border Bulldog.  That was the high school paper.  Then later on as high school went on, he again came over to me, he says, “Raul, why don’t you take drama?”  “Drama!?  Mr. Wilson, please! I’m an athlete!”

Raul Castro:
By that time I was running a mile and the whole works, well, he convinced me again and I took drama and they had a play called All Lady 31.  And I got the leading role in the play, Lady 31.  It’s unusual for a Mexican kid to get a leading role, but I did.  I got the leading role and the substance was that there were 31 women living in a nursing home and I was the only man in the nursing home and I was sort of the…you know…guy that took care of everybody.  One day in this nursing home the…I disappeared, the 31.  The number 31 and the women were all concerned what happened to our man, he’s gone?!  Well I went out on a binge as part of the play.  I was – came home finally about 12:30, 1:00 o’clock in the morning and I remember one of the girls, May Ream, had a sofa that they gave to the high school to put on, I was supposed to come at 1:00 o’clock in the morning, lean on the sofa and then they’d find me in the morning.  And everybody’d…a big celebration ‘cause they found me.  Well, being a football player, and not a very good actor, apparently I came home at 1:00 o’clock in the morning, I had the sofa, instead of doing…going to bed quietly, nicely, I jumped on the sofa and one of the legs broke loose and I fell in the orchestra pit. Well, all the audience thought that was part of the play, that that was the…it may have made the play a success.  But that’s…that was my role as…as a drama student. 

Raul Castro:
Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll tell you one thing that Arizona has changed.  And all these adversities that we’ve had, are greatly improved.  I…I wouldn’t have it otherwise.  Side to…finally, I worked in the…I couldn’t get a teaching job, ‘cause I was told we don’t hire Mexican-Americans to be school teachers.  State of Arizona.  Here I have a teaching degree, I assumed that everybody would flock and give me a job ‘cause I was quite a good student.  No one.  They just wouldn’t hire me as a Mexican teacher.  So I told mother, “Mother, I’m leaving you.  I’ve got to go, I can’t get a job.”  And at first mother was concerned ‘cause it’s…you know, she needed my support.  I went and got a freight train and moved all over the country and I had been a boxer in Flagstaff, undefeated middle weight boxer in university.  So, in my bumming highways and trains, I did some boxing, professional boxing.  Carnivals, whatever, to give me some money and I also worked in Montana, Idaho and Oregon as a farm grower, as a farm worker.  And I recall I was working as a farm worker where they gave me a little hoe at 5:00 o’clock in the morning and I got paid very little.  From 5:00 o’clock until the end of time.  And one day, in [inaudible], Oregon, I recall very vividly, in [inaudible], Oregon, a man came in and he says, “Castro, you’re being fired.”  “Why?”  “You’re not using our commissary.”  All the workers had a commissary.  They…you bought your food at the commissary, you bought everything.  You got paid and they took your money in the commissary.  I wanted some money, I didn’t want…there you hire a prostitute at the commissary and buy marijuana at the commissary.  That’s not…that wasn’t my goal.  So I left and I felt that those experiences – my brother said one time, “You got your degree and now you’re a bum, you’re a hobo.  You’re all over the place.  I’m gonna drop out of school.”  I had a brother, two years younger than I and later on, he became a teacher in Flagstaff, high school.  I didn’t want that to happen, so I returned to the border.

Raul Castro:
I was able to get a job at the consulate in Agua Prieta, in the American Foreign Service.  They were glad to have me.  I was bilingual and etc. and had taken languages, Italian, Portuguese and French, German, you know, what else.  I worked there five years and did a lot of reporting… writing, economic reporting and checked the banks and the merchants and etc.  Immigration work and protection work, getting the soldiers out of jail and that type of thing.  That was my first exposure to the legal system in Mexico, was dealing with lawyers and judges. 

Raul Castro:
One day, there was a consular inspection, border post.  Fellow by the name of William Blocker, out of Juarez, that’s where the consular general was and checking the post in Agua Prieta and he said, “Raul, come over here I want to talk to you.”  And I said, “Yes, sir.”  He said, “My comments to you to day are not hostile, I want to help you.  I’ve seen your work.  I’m impressed with it.  I think you have potential and have ability.  And you’re wasting your time working with the United States State Department in Agua Prieta.  You’ll never get anywhere.”  So I said, “Why?”  He said, “Number one, you’re born in Mexico of Mexican parents.  And number three, you are a graduate of Arizona State Teacher’s College.  That’s not Harvard, that’s not Yale, that’s not Princeton, that’s not Brown.  It’s not an ivy league school.”  In those days, the diplomatic service was pretty much ivy league.  “I would recommend you could do better on the outside world.”  It was a hard blow.  I had to accept it, so I thought about it and again, had to go to mother and said, “Mother, I’m leaving you.”  And of course mother – my father died when I was 12 years of age and left mother with all these kids.  Mother became a full time midwife.  She delivered every Mexican kid, probably in Douglas and Porterville.  I used to help her.  Came in very handy when I got on the horse farm, too.  Later on…race horses…and I told her why and she understood, I said, “Mother, I want to go to law school at Tucson at the University of Arizona.”  “But you don’t have any money.”  I said, “Mother, I can find a way to go to law school.  Somewhere down the line I’ll be able to make it.”

Raul Castro:
So I did.  I left…fellow by the name of David Wolf who was a captain at the Air Force and…out of boredom in Douglas, nothing to do for single men, I was single, 23 years of age, I decided to give free Spanish lessons at night at the YWCA.  I taught Spanish.  And everybody in town, the Mayor and the City Council and people who wanted to learn Spanish came to my classes.  And among that was David Wolf who was a captain at the Air Force at the Douglas Air Base.  And we’d have a drink after the session was over and he said, “Raul, I’m leaving the Air Force.  I want to go to Tucson and become a lawyer, go to law school.  Why don’t you come with me?”  Well, I…thought about it and I did decide to quit my job, submit my resignation and go to the University of Arizona and go to law school.

Raul Castro:
So I…first when I…went to law school there.  I needed a job.  I couldn’t afford to…to go to law school without some outside help.  In the meantime, I had talked to the language teachers at the university and a fellow by the name of David Kincaid who was in charge of student help, he helped students get a job.  I said, “Will you help me get a job?  I want to go to law school.”  And he looked at me.  I had met him in Flagstaff, he said, “Raul, you know better than that.  Mexican kids can’t get a job on the border here.  Why don’t you go see the Mexican Consul?” I said, “Sir, I’m an American citizen.  I am an American, sir, I’m naturalized.  I’m an American citizen.  Why should I see the Mexican Consul?”  I walked up, slammed the door and went.  I went across the street to the liberal arts building.  A fellow by the name of…Harvel, Dr. Harvel was then dean of liberal arts.  I walked in and I said, “Dr. Harvel, I think I can do some good for this university.”  “What do you mean?”  I said, “I think I can teach Spanish at this univer – properly.”  “What background do you have?”  I said, “I was born in Mexico.  English is my second language.  I have a degree in languages in that sense of the word.  I’m quite familiar with it and I have seen – I’ve spoken to your faculty in the language department.  They have beautiful degrees from all the ivy league schools, but they’re accent in Spanish is terrible!  Horrible accent! And the students at the University of Arizona are entitled to have one teaching the language with the proper accent.”  He looked at me, he says, “You sound very confident.”  I said, “I am.”  “Can you prove it?”  I said, “Yes.”  I reached into my pocket, got my transcript.  He looked at it and his eyes rolled.  He said, “You know, on Friday Dr. Blufa, one of my Spanish teachers got married, so he can’t be here on Monday.  Classes start on Monday.  I need a Spanish teacher badly.  You’ve got a job.”  So he hired me on the spot.  I signed the contract.  Very happy that I got a job.  Now my job is to go to law school.  That’s where I wanted to -- it was my primary objective. 

Raul Castro:
On the way out, I ran into the fellow at the labor…the students…the one that hired the students.  Kelly, that was his name, Victor Kelly.  And he said, “Raul, how are you doing?”  “Fine.”  I said, “Dr. Kelly, you and I are colleagues.” He said, “What?”  “You and I are colleagues.  I start teaching at the University on Monday.”  “I don’t understand that.”  “Well, you never asked me anything.  All you told me was you’re a Mexican kid who can’t get a job, go see the Mexican Consul.”  Well, he was embarrassed and I walked away.  So I walked…went over to the law school and there was a – as I started to walk in, a black fellow, heavyset, muscular guy, spoke to me in Spanish.  He was from – had lived in Nogales.  His father was a Buffalo Soldier from Ft. Huachuca and Florida and also wanted to go to law school.  And we became the best of friends.  He became the first black to practice law in the state of Arizona.  Got on the City Council of Phoenix, became a magistrate and is now dead and the Black Bar Association is named after him.  And he was a good friend and everything.  And talk about Arizona changing…he and I would practice…would sit together for practice for…review the bar exam, to pass the bar exam or semester examinations in law school.  At 12:00 o’clock we’d get hungry.  Where do we go eat?  We couldn’t go anywhere because he was black. 

Raul Castro:
There was one restaurant on Main Street and 3rd owned by a black, a black couple.  That’s the only place we could go eat because blacks could not be allowed to eat anywhere.  How things have changed and when I speak to people in Arizona, they say, “No, not Arizona, not Tucson.”  Well, c’mon!  Get off of it?  Where do you think I’m talking about.  When I was at the University of Arizona, I rented a room across from Coconino Hall.  Teaching and going to law school both at the same time.  A lady that – my landlord, the one I rented from, said one morning, “Mr. Castro, can I speak to you?”  I said, “Yes.”  “Are you Jewish?” I says, “No, I’m not.  If I were, I’d be very proud of it, but I’m not Jewish.”  She said, “Thank the Lord!  We don’t rent apartments to Jewish people.” Now this is Arizona back in those days.  Things have – do have changed. 

Raul Castro:
Now let’s get back to the nitty gritty of in the legal…judicial system.  I was a deputy county attorney and later on I decided to run for County Attorney.  The members of the Hispanic community in Tucson thought it was crazy.  They’d sit around corners in the streets and complain about discrimination, etc., and I said, “I’m running for County Attorney.”  They said, “You’re crazy!  Who’s gonna vote for you?”  “Why do you say that?”  “Well, you’re born in Mexico, who’s gonna vote for you?”  I said, “Have you tried it?”  “No.”  “You?”  “No.”  “Well, I’m gonna try it!  Then I’ve got a right to complain.” I did run for County Attorney and was elected.  The first Hispanic County Attorney in the State of Arizona, first judge of the Superior Court of the State of Arizona.  Those days, we ran – the whole state.  Judges ran for office.  Elected twice, Judge of the Superior Court. 

Raul Castro:
What I’m trying to tell you is that it’s very easy to complain and criticize, but to make it a better world, we have to participate.  It’s our obligation and responsibility to do something about it.  To move on.  And it’s a small world.  When I was having one day, a meeting in the YMCA in Douglas, and there was the High Wy boys, they had a club who had a meeting at the YMCA.  At the end of the meeting, one of the boys said, “Let’s go swimming at the YMCA.”  I said, “Fine.”  So we all got up and started going to the door and sort of a…have a button and you open the door.  We started to go in, the man, a fellow by the name of Doug Deeming, I remember names in those…I don’t remember my name in the morning, but I remember those names!  It was just part of adversity that I tried to overcome. We started going in, the door slammed on my face.  He said, “Castro, you can’t go in.”  “Why not?”  He said, “Mexican kids can only swim on Saturday mornings.”  That was during the week when the water was clean, everybody can swim, but on Saturday when the water is dirty, Mexican kids can go swimming.  I stepped back and saw the sign “YMCA”  Young Mens Christian Association.  What is Christian about it?  Another hurdle to overcome, I thought to myself, here’s something else.

Raul Castro:
What did it do?  Well, I…when I moved to Tucson, in that part of the world, and I got out of law school, a single -- in my 20’s, early 20’s, whatever it was, I would go to the YMCA and play basketball and swim and box and teach the kids from the south end of Tucson how to swim, how to box, etc.  I’d spend my time with kids.  One day a member of the board of directors of the YMCA died.  A fellow by the name of Ed Lopo, who now lives in Scottsdale, was then the director of the YMCA, said, “Look, there’s a Mexican kid coming who just got out of law school, he works with the kids every night of the week here, why don’t we put him on the board?”  YMCA board.  That’s exactly what I wanted.

Raul Castro:
I was placed on the board, now I can set policy and now I can work within, become part of the establishment.  Not breaking windows, not setting fires, not demonstrating.  But being part of the board and setting policy.  I wanted to get a priest to come in and talk to my young boys.  I called the priest up in the foothills, Father Murphy.  He said, “No I can’t do it, Raul.”  “Why not?”  “It’s a YMCA.”  “Well, what’s that got to do with it?”  “Well, the YMCA and Catholics, we don’t speak to each other.”  Well, that’s another – we’ll take care of that business.  And the Mormons.  Mormons didn’t…weren’t part of the church.  So I was able to get every – on the…the council of churches got together and every thing’s fine and dandy and it worked out.  Ladies and gentlemen, that’s the…that’s the theme.  Adversity.  And I think that’s the thing -- this country has adversity.  The playing field is not even.  Never will be, but on the other hand, you can’t just give up and quit.   

Raul Castro:
Bill Matthews was editor of the newspaper and owner of the newspaper, Daily Star, in Tucson, come in one day and said, “Raul, you are always very critical of the Arizona educational system.  You’re part of that system and you’ve done all right.  Why are you so critical?”  I said, “Mr. Matthews, don’t judge the rest of the state by me.  I’m different.  If I get offended, get hurt, instead of giving up, I want to move forward to work on that obstacle.” 

Raul Castro:
And I wasn’t the brightest kid in the schools in Douglas.  But now, I go back….they’re bums, they’ve been in prison, they’re winos and drunks because they gave up.  Society just crumbled in.  So the answer is our education system has to be changed.  Large classes, as a teacher, that doesn’t work.  Repair the buildings.  In those days, it was common, it’s policy that if you got a job, first job in the system, you would send the teacher to a minority school, to a Mexican-American’s kids.  The teachers I ever had in the lower grade were from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa who had never seen a Mexican kid in their life.  Had no idea about the culture.  So they were lost in that sense of the word.  And that was wrong.  I think that was really wrong.  And of course, the other aspect was – and this I approve, they weren’t allowed to speak Spanish on the playground or anywhere else, which…I think that helped learn the English language.

Raul Castro:
So these are the things that…towards governorship that I was looking at on the sense of being Governor.  You know, the…I got to know the state of Arizona quite well.  As a Superior Court judge I was a visiting judge.  Every county in Arizona, except La Paz County, it didn’t exist in those days, picked juries, I was able to determine the morays of the community, the attitudes from the community, etc., I could pretty well size it up, so I do believe I know Arizona well, in that sense of the word, every county.  But, as I say, Arizona in those days were not what is today, fortunately.  And I said,…people ask me constantly, what endeavored you or sort of pushed you on to run for Governor of the state of Arizona.  Well, I had already met the first Governor of Arizona, George W.P. Hunt in Douglas.  And I looked around and felt that things had to be done.  The school system I wasn’t satisfied with.  The unemployment, the racial thing that existed, I had a horse farm and later became a – in the horse business in River Road and Dodge in Tucson.  I had a hundred head of horses and ponies and dogs and peacocks.  Linda Ronstadt’s father, Gilbert, gave me some peacocks, much to the dislike of neighbors ‘cause they’re very noisy. And much to my dislike because every time I’d come home late, the peacocks would start squawking and my wife would meet me at the front door.  And say, where have you been? 

Raul Castro:
So, these are the things that sort of I spotted on…on running…for, possible run for Governor.  When I ran for Governor, again, people thought I was crazy.  Who in the devil is going to vote…especially Maricopa County.  It was very conservative, still is conservative…I’m not a wild eyed liberal in that sense of the word, far from it, but I did believe that this is the United States of America, that everyone has an opportunity if you want it.  There’s no handout.  I didn’t want a handout.  I didn’t want anyone to give me anything.  I didn’t want people to…to invite me to their homes, one motto I’ve always had, I don’t want to be loved, I want to be respected.  And where there is respect, the rest follows in. 

Raul Castro:
So, I…decided to run and a fellow by the name of Loper, from YMCA and John Malloy met me at the airport coming from Bolivia after President Nixon told me to come home.  And they met me at the airport, he said, “We want you to run for Governor.”  I said, “Look, I been away from Arizona for years now, people don’t know me, they’ve forgotten me.  It’d be crazy.”  He said, “No.  You’re wrong.  Run for Governor.”  So they convinced me that I should run for Governor.  So I did run for Governor and one of those people moving was Henry Zipp who was Mr. Republican on the…sitting here, he was on my side, asked me to move and etc. down the line and I did run and of course, I lost by 4,000 votes the first election.  But I didn’t give up.  I’d go to Sun City, which you know, Sun City is…is not a wild eyed liberal community.  Far from it. And opened the door and they slammed the door on me.  I’d say I’m a Democrat running for Governor, they thought I was crazy.  I didn’t give up.  I kept going back.  Finally, those people realized that I was sincere and believe you me, I did quite well in Maricopa County.  People supported me.

Raul Castro:
And I…I can tell you today that this is…people are looking for character nowadays, not issues.  They are looking for character in the individual.  And I recall being in Mesa one day, 2000 women in the room.  Running for Governor.  And John Driggs was then Mayor of Phoenix and he was one of the opponents running for Governor and I knew what the first question would be.  I got on the podium, “Mr. Castro, what are your views on abortion?”  That’s a no win.  That’s a…you can’t win on that one.  No more than immigration and…I said, “Ladies and gentlemen, ladies, no gentlemen, ladies, I am a Roman Catholic.”  In those days I was rather churchy, not anymore.  I’m sort of now cooled off a little bit. “Roman Catholic and I think…I’m against abortion.  I hope you respect my views.  I know in this room, a lot of you are Baptist, Methodist, Mormons or otherwise.  I respect your religion.  If I get elected Governor of Arizona, I don’t intend to impose my Catholic views on you.  I respect your views and whatever the majority feels, that’s gonna be it.  But I…I do respect religious views in every sense of the word.”  Here comes my opponent taking the floor, the podium, same question.  He says, “Well, that’s a very difficult subject, so therefore what I’m going to do is form a committee. And have the committee study especially abortion then I’ll have an answer for you.” 

Raul Castro:
You know what the women said?  Baloney Mr. Candidate.  We want your personal views now.  What are your views on abortion?  Not your committee.  The women would go to the beauty shop the next day and start talking.  I went to the meeting last night, I heard Raul Castro.  I don’t believe everything he says.  I’m not supportive of what he says, but I know he’s got convictions.  I think he…he means it.  I’m for him.  They’d go home and get on the phone and start talking and the male [inaudible] will give you a check for a hundred dollars.  I done my duty, goodbye that’s it.  Not the woman.  You cannot win an election without a woman’s support.  Let me tell you.  That’s my personal observation.  Because they do…they’re workers, they get on the phone.  And that’s how I did fairly well in Maricopa County which is, in those days, forbidden territory for somebody from Pima County and certainly of my ethnicity. 

Raul Castro:
When I took over the Governor’s office, the budget had gone – increased 79% that year.  I had a lot of dreams of doing things.  I couldn’t do them, the bud – the money wasn’t there.  I called every banker in town to meet with me and said we may need some money, do you have money in reserve.  Can I meet the payroll?  I don’t think I was able to meet the payroll in the State of Arizona as Governor.  We’ll have to borrow some money and go on a voucher system.  I called every agency in Arizona, I want you to reduce the budget 10%, start cutting down on fringe benefits.  They did so and fortunately, we did not have to borrow money, but neither could I do anything as Governor either.  I couldn’t do much because it wasn’t there.  

Raul Castro:
The only thing that I thought of substance that I could perform was create a tourist department.  Department of Tourism.  There was no tourism department.  I got Mona Smith then to be the director of tourism.  Being Arizona with sunshine and a lot of copper and a lot of cactus and climate, tourists coming in, this was the way to go and get some revenue.  So we established the tourist department.  It did quite well.  Been a money maker since then.

Raul Castro:
I’m gonna quit now ‘cause I’m – you’re gonna want to ask me some questions.  Let me tell you about Jimmy Carter. I’m embarrassed when I think about it.  I’d just gotten elected Governor, I had an apartment on 24th and…not Grant, I’m thinking of Tucson now…Thomas and…the phone rang and said, “This is Jimmy Carter.”  I didn’t know who Jimmy Carter was.  I’d never heard of him.  He said, “I’d like to talk to you.  Could I see you?  It’ll only take 10 minutes.”  I said, “Well, I have an appointment at 5:30 in the afternoon to dedicate the plumbers union.”  To me that was vital as I’d just been elected.  “I don’t think I’ll be able to see you.”  He said, “Oh, I promise you, it won’t take more than 10 minutes.”  “If it doesn’t take 10 minutes, I’ll see you.”  Ten minutes later the bell rang, and here’s Jimmy Carter with another man who later became Secretary of Commerce from Georgia.  He said, “I’m Jimmy Carter.”  He walked in and I had just gotten out of the shower and getting dressed.  He said, “I’m Jimmy Carter, I used to be Governor of Georgia.”  Well, fine, he’s Governor of Georgia.  Then his second sentence was, “I’m running for President of the United States.”  I said, Oh, another nut!  My God!  Jesus!  I wasn’t very courteous.  I opened the door, pushed him aside, “Good-bye Mr. Carter.”  He did not give up.  I took over the Governor’s office, he kept calling me, etc., da, da, da.  “I want you to help me.”  So I agreed to help him.  I…he had a plane called Peanut #1.  That was the plane.  I went to Kansas, Iowa, Chicago, all over the place, campaigning for Jimmy Carter.  My last airplane trip with him was from San Francisco to Los Angeles with Loretta Scott King.  The three of us were on that plane, Jimmy Carter, Loretta Scott King and myself.  And he looked at me and he said, “You know, when I get sworn in on the 20th of January as President of the United States, I want you to be my Latin American Advisor.”  I thought, this guy is nuts.  I been covering the whole middle west.  I don’t think I could count 10 votes for Jimmy Carter.  I didn’t think he could get elected.  But he had a lot of faith.  He believed in himself.  He said, “When I get sworn in as President…”  And he was.  He got elected. 

Raul Castro:
Well, as fate had it, he wanted me to be ambassador to Mexico.  Thought that would be a natural.  I said fine.  Then one day I was in the State Department on the 9th Floor and the former Governor of Florida came in and he said, “Raul, we have some changes to make, the former Governor of Wisconsin, his wife is quite sick and he was scheduled to go to Argentina as ambassador, but the wife has to be close to American hospitals and American doctors.  Would you consider changing with him and you go to Argentina and let him go to Mexico to be close to the United States?”  I said, “I’d love it.  I have too many relatives in Mexico that’d be mad at me.  I don’t want to be close to them.”

Raul Castro:
So that’s how I went to Argentina on the…in those days there was a human rights issue, of course, in Argentina.  There were people being kidnapped, children killed, mother…mothers murdered and etc.  I go to the beach and I’d see heads and hands and torsos all over the place, there was a human rights that…Jimmy Carter was imposing, relations between Argentina and the United States weren’t good.  They weren’t on speaking terms.  I was able to establish a personal relationship with the President and members of the cabinet, so I was able to have some type of communication with them.  It’s a…it wasn’t an easy task because my room was like a fortress.  I had six months supply of food and water in my room, in the closets.  I had to keep $3,000 in cash, in case I had to leave at 3:00 o’clock in the morning with my pajamas because we…you never knew.  Every day I took a different route, etc. and when I went anywhere, there’s a car in front of me…two policemen with machine guns.  It was yellow, it looked like a taxicab.  It wasn’t a taxicab.  They were in touch with my driver.  Behind me another car, also with machine guns telling us which way to turn, left, right, looks dangerous…so those were the trying days as diplomatic service.  People think there’s all drinking and coffee and tea.  Believe you me, it wasn’t.  So it’s…it’s one of those things that I enjoyed diplomatic service.  I felt that I could do some good for my country.  Instead of representing just the state of Arizona, I felt I could represent the United States of America and try to do a good job.  I had been to Bolivia before in the Che Guevera days.  I’d been in El Salvador before and I fell like I could assist and help out and bring about better relations.

Raul Castro:
I’ll leave you with this feeling.  I think we have somehow failed in the last few years in maintaining good ties with Latin America.  I’m fearful Latin America is going too much to the left.  Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Nicaragua, Argentina.  We can’t afford to lose.  They’re our neighbors.  We gotta maintain this possibility.  Keep in mind that I’ve been on the Mexican-American border all my life, for 91 years of age, except in my foreign service duty.  I lived on this border.  I’ve seen it.  I’ve seen the tourists, we didn’t have any walls or anything else.  And I think we need more dialogue, more…more talking to each other.  Build jobs…but create jobs in Mexico.  Let the people stay there.  They’d rather be there with their family, their own religion, their own culture than risk their life in coming over here.  We haven’t done enough of that and I think it still can be done, hopefully it will be done.  Ladies and gentlemen, I want to ask…be glad to answer your questions.  Thank you very much. 

Raul Castro:
 Let me put my hearing aide on.  Any questions?  Yes sir?

Audience Member: 
Sir, what can be done about Bolivia, from an American perspective?    

Raul Castro: 
Bolivia?   

Audience Member: 
Yes, sir.

Raul Castro: 
You know, I lived in Bolivia three years.  It’s a very difficult country.  When I was with Lyndon Johnson, he was visiting El Salvador for a week.  We were in a limousine.  He looked at me and says, “Mr. Ambassador, the time has come for you to move.”  I said, “Mr…Mr. President, I’ve been here five years, time for me to move.”  “I’m sending you to Bolivia.”  I said, “Mr. President, I don’t think you’re happy with my service.  Bolivia is a desolate country, poverty stricken country, high altitude.”  He said, “No, I need your services.  You speak Spanish, the language, you have a political background and Che Guevera’s raising cain.  There are demonstrations every day of the week.  People are being killed.  80% Indian indigenous people, gotta have you in Bolivia.”

Raul Castro:
And what can be done with Bolivia?  Number one, we’ve gotta change our techniques in this business.  As a diplomat of 14 years, I was sick and tired of having someone from the State Department come over to Argentina or Bolivia, El Salvador with an agenda.  And they’d always start by saying people of Argentina or Bolivia, we’re partners, but when you’re partners with somebody, you have an exchange.  You have a dialogue.  You have views.  You give and take.  We start by saying we’re partners and then we start saying these are 10 items, you do these 10 things, we’ll be able to help you.  Well, I would take a different theme.  Even though our mind…our mind is made up, let the people of Bolivia talk and say, Mr. Secretary these are our dilemma, these are our problems.  We have coca leaf, industry here.  We want something done.  We want your help.  We need your help.  Let those people believe that they’re…that they’re allowed to talk.  That we’re listening to them.  And then say, this is what we can do for you.  We don’t do that.  We impose.  These are the 10 things.  Do these or else.  And to me, that’s not diplomacy.  That’s dictatorship. 

Raul Castro:
So, what can we do with Bolivia?  I believe now we’ve got Morales there, Hugo Morales, first indigenous, first Indian president of Bolivia.  Bolivia is about 80% Indian.  The Spanish language is a second language, it’s their own dialect.  Aymara and Quechua.  That’s what they speak.  They’re second, third class citizens in Bolivia, they’re nothing.  They’re not taken into consideration.  The ruling class is a different story.  They rule themselves.  They accommodate for themselves, but not for indigenous people, so we’ve got to consider those people are human beings and alive and try to create jobs for them.  See what can be done to assist them, and education.  The educational system is horrible.  Until we do those things, Bolivia will not be changed.  Same as Nicaragua.  Nicaragua we have a problem there. 

Raul Castro:
So Bolivia is a very difficult country.  It’s education, and dialogue with them, help them out and they do have a tremendous problem of the…cocaine.  They use cocaine.  They chew on it because it kills their appetite.  You chew on the coca leaf, it kills your appetite, you’re not hungry.  I think I was the fattest man and the tallest man in Bolivia when I was there.  And I’m not very big.  And that’s the reason and I think the average age then was about 41 years of age.  At 41, people died.  No food.  They’re at the mercy of…the heavens.  So, it’s a country that needs a lot of help.  I don’t think we’ll be able to do much with what we have now with…they have a president who is very difficult at this point.  He’s being stubborn and we have to try to do the best we can with a little more diplomacy.  Okay. 

Audience Member: 
What would be your recommendation with regard to…

Raul Castro: 
I didn’t quite hear…I’m a little hard of hearing so you’ll have to…

Audience Member: 
What would be your recommendation in regard to the immigration problem in this country?

Raul Castro:
What’s my views on immigration? 

Audience Member: 
Yeah.

Raul Castro: 
Keep in mind that I came from Mexico over here.  I’m an immigrant, American citizen now.  That I lived on the border all my life and that I worked in Agua Prieta and I was in charge of immigration.  People coming – crossing the border would see me, I would…the border crossing guards and visas as permanent residents.  We’ve always had the dilemma of people crossing the fence, not like now.  Very few ever bothered to jump over the fence.  We started working on the…on the border with first with mules.  Customs inspectors on mules, checking the border.  Then horses.  Then dogs, then airplanes, then human sensors and that type of thing.  Nothing has worked.  Now we’re on the adage of walls.  My view on immigration is, as I deal with people in – with Mex – in Latin America that those people that we, whatever money we’re spending on walls, in our jails and in our hospitals and our educational system, if we use that money, invest it in Mexico to create industry, create jobs, have a living wage for those people in Mexico, they will not come here.  And I don’t care how high the wall is built, tunnels, don’t forget I live exactly 70 yards from the Mexico border.  Here’s the border, here’s my house.  I get on the porch and I see it.  People coming through.  Mothers, children, you name it.  And they find tunnels about every day of the week.

Raul Castro:
One way or the other, so we’ve got to weigh and find some system to keep those people from coming here and the only way will be to create jobs in Mexico.  I am mindful, it’s a twofold obligation.  We just can’t be…can’t be just this country picking up the tab.  Mexico has a responsibility, Mr. Calderone in Mexico, you have a responsibility.  You have the people living in your country that are coming to the United States, creating problems for us in the United States.  Therefore, why don’t we do something, you…your government to control it and patrol it and let’s create employment.  Let’s work together as a team and let’s do something to stop this movement of human beings.  Until that happens, nothing else will work.  The flow has always been there that I can see it.  The control of a border must be done with humane…humane circumstances.  Humane system. 

Raul Castro:
I was involved in human rights activities in Argentina with…with [inaudible] Peron and Evita Peron where they’re…and [inaudible] was in jail when I was in Argentina.  And I think my job was, of course, to be mindful that people were being disappeared and sequestered, that those people were treated humanely, that they weren’t abused.  That their human rights were respected.  I had members of my staff on DEA, I had a thousand member staff at my embassy, some from…I had FBI agents, drug administration people, they didn’t have those titles.  We gave them a title, either vice consul or something and I, once or twice I caught people from our embassy participating, being present when those people were being tortured.  And I’d call them in and I’d said, “Look, where do you think are Iowa or Kansas?  You’re in a foreign country.  It’s a sovereign country.  You have no business being present when people are being tortured or treated inhumanely.  That’s not your job as an American.  You’re here to do – to help, to assist, not to be part of a torture system.” 

Raul Castro:
And I think this is the…the border dilemma is a…is a loser at this point.  We’ve got to be able to communicate and I’m happy that President Bush and Calderone have gotten together in demonstrations and what have you, we’ll always have them and that something will be done about the…it has to be done.  The expense to this country is tremendous.  I was County Attorney in Tucson, the bill on the people in jail from Mexico was high.  Hospitals in Nogales…it’s very expensive to take care of people who are injured or wounded, illegal aliens coming in.  That money could well be spent in Mexico, in schools and what have you, to keep those people from coming in, so I think we need more dialogue, more in that sense.  I don’t see the immediate solution at this moment today.  It’s going to take some time.  Yes?

Audience Member: 
Governor, I gather from your remarks you felt that the misguided policies in Latin American were perhaps the result of our State Department.  If that is the case, what would you suggest that the State Department do to change our policies in Latin America? 

Raul Castro: 
I think number one, we have to recognize that when we as Americans go over to Argentina or Uruguay or Mexico, it’s a different country.  They have their own laws.  We can’t say that their laws are crazy.  They have their own banking system.  We’ve got to show some respect.  Now within the next three weeks, we’re going to have some problems.  Becomes the spring break at the universities.  Spring break you’ve got students from ASU, University of Arizona, Flagstaff all head for Mexico and all hell breaks loose.  The drinking, the commotion, violation of laws.  I was talking to some officials that say we don’t know what to do.  They come in here, they urinate on the streets, it’s a fracas.  We’ve got to do something.

Raul Castro:
So, I agree with you, I think it takes more understanding on this thing…it’s both ways.  Understanding in Mexico.  A…they were shocked when I went to Bolivia, El Salvador and Bolivia as ambassador.  They look at me and say why would they send a Mexican to Argentina to be ambassador of the United States of America?  They wanted to see a freckle-faced, red-blooded American.  Not me.  And I…and the answer was that I said, “Look, I’m an American.  I can hold any job in the United States of America, except being President and I speak the language.  I am part of…I am an American, I’m an American, I represent the United States of America.”  To them, that was a shock because in a lot of Latin American countries, if you are the son or daughter of an alien or foreigner who was born in Egypt or whatever in Beirut…you cannot vote, you cannot hold a public office.  You forever are a foreigner because your parents are foreigners.  And those things, we’ve got to be able to change slowly down the line, intermingling, having a dialogue with each other. 

Raul Castro:
And yes, you’re right the State Department has got to create a lot of changes in that sense of the word.  I don’t believe in a freebee, just giving money away, no.  Do something…we’ll help you, we’ll assist you.  And that’s…first to come and see what happens, but we haven’t done the job.  Let’s face it.  As a young man in Douglas I would look from Douglas to Mexico and I’d ask myself, so close and yet so far apart.  That’s 80 years ago.  Now I’m living in Nogales, exactly 50 yards from the fence.  I get up in the morning, look at my porch, look into Mexico and I ask myself the same question.  So close, and yet so far apart.  We don’t have an understanding one way or the other.  We’ve got to be able to…to improve it.  We’ve gotta get the focus away from Europe, Africa, the Middle East, have some focus established in Latin America.  They’re our neighbors.  We need them.  When I was living in Argentina and arrived there, their main thrust was Europe.  They all wanted to be European.  Wanted to send their kids to school in Europe, etc.  They wanted to be European.  It changed.  Now they all want to be American.  They want to come to the United States of America.  They want their children to come to the United States.  We were able to change it here, to come to this country rather than somewhere else.  But we’re losing it slowly but surely.  And that’s the thing we gotta focus on.  Yes, sir? 

Audience Member: 
Governor, how are we gonna get candidates of character to run for office? 

Raul Castro: 
Well, I think in this country, a lot of people with character…I always took the posture as somebody coming from the outside.  I always believed that Americans, per se, have a feeling of being fair and square.  And in my continuous battles, I’ve always felt if I’m able to convince the American public that I mean well, that I’m sincere in effort that I think I can make a – I offer something to the…the constituency, that they will help me and support me.  And believe you me, I…that still is my stand.  That I think 95% of Americans believe in being fair and just.  It’s the other five that you’ll never change.  But I feel convinced that…somebody has character and willing, I think they’re willing to…to go the way with them.  And I agree with you, too many people are running for public office that don’t have that character.  They take money on the side.  They’re corruption and what have you and…it’s…but character is [inaudible].  Now this campaign, character is the issue.  No question about it.  People will vote on the issue of character. 

Audience Member: 
Yeah, how would you compare the issues that you dealt with when you were governor with the issues that the state faces today?

Raul Castro: 
How would I compare what?

Audience Member: 
The issues that you dealt when you – with Arizona, when you were governor, with the issues the state faces today?

Raul Castro: 
The issues that are today?

Audience Member: 
Yeah, how would you compare when you were governor with the issues today?

Raul Castro: 
It’s very different.  The immigration problem, the dilemma is far worse now than my days.  We didn’t have that problem when I was Governor in the immigration.  Oh, a few crept over down the line, etc., but you didn’t used to see those mobs on the corners…illegal aliens looking for jobs like you do now.  You drive by and the corner, there’s 50 or 20 looking for a job and next block the same way.  I was in San Diego, I couldn’t believe it.  Every block there was a group of people.  Aliens, waiting to be picked up for a job.  Now that didn’t exist in my tenure.  So I didn’t have the immigration problem.  The problem I had was the question of education.  We didn’t have the funding and I think they’re working on the kindergarten system now, is working.  Investing more money on the schools.  Better pay for teachers.  To me, I told you the…initially that I’m a [inaudible] school teacher because that’s where you mold character.

Raul Castro:
I spent – now I’m retired, people ask me, well, how do you spend your time?  I spend a lot of my time going to schools.  I go to Indian schools, black schools, predominantly, schools in Nogales, minority schools, talk to children.  I walk in, and I can size them up.  They’re depressed.  Either the father is a drunk, he didn’t come home that night.  The mother, they don’t care, the mother’s not interested in education.  Didn’t have a full meal.  They’re beaten.  And how do you get those children to motivate them?  You say look, fellow, look at me, I’m like you.  You do the job and etc. and you can do it.  Take it to juvenile court. 

Raul Castro:
I was a juvenile court judge in Tucson.  I recall very vividly one day a strapping black young man, about 6’2” weighed 200 pounds, husky kid.  Sat in front of me and he was surly.  He was not respectful to me as a judge.  I looked at him and I said, “Young man, you’re in a courtroom now.  You’re being disrespectful to me and you’re not being very well prepared as to how…what to do in a courtroom.”  I says, “What you ought to do is to go back to school.  Go to school.  Get an education and if you do, I can guarantee you, you can have my job tomorrow.”  He looked at me and he said, “Judge, if I go to school, I’m black.”  I said, “What’s that got to do with it?”  “Well, I’m black.  I go to school and I can’t get a job and etc., I get abused and mistreated.”  So, that…that was his feeling.  I said, “Young man, if you don’t shape up, I’m gonna take you back…”  And the thing I believe is this, I said, “Young man I’ve been a professional boxer.  I did a lot of boxing in my life.  I’m gonna take you back there and beat the whale out of you in two minutes unless you shape up.”  His eyes rolled.  Now that language he understood! That he understood…that type of language.  And he shaped up all right. 

Raul Castro:
On the other hand, the youngster coming in from the silk stocking district in Tucson on the east side with a mother who was playing cards, bridge all day long and never home and etc., they’d come in, committed some burglaries and some arson, I could not use the same tactics with that young man, or young girl as the case might be.  I couldn’t be rough and tough ‘cause they’d have a heart attack.  Discipline was not parted at home.  I would say, “Young man, you like your mother?”  “I love my mother.”  “You know what you’re doing to your mother?  You’re in court today before a judge.  You’re embarrassing your mother.  You’re embarrassing the whole family and why are you creating an embarrassment to the family if you love your family?  Do you think that’s the right thing to do?  Why do you hurt your family?”  The youngster would start crying.  Now that type of an approach, that type of youngster from that part of town, different than the tough approach towards the black kid.  And it would…it would work in that sense of the word. 

Raul Castro:
So, it’s…it’s knowing how to deal with these youngsters and I say, the school system is important.  You gotta pay teachers a…a better salary.  In those days…I don’t know now, but in those days, if you’re a school teacher in a small community, you’re supposed to dress well, dress properly.  You’re the idol, you’re the role of the student.  The student thinks the teacher knows it all and they look upon the teacher for guidance.  Let me tell you something that’s fascinating and interesting.  When I got sworn in as Governor of the State of Arizona, I received a telegram that morning from Seattle, Washington.  A lady by the name of Eileen Wright and this is the content.  Are you the same Raul Castro that I had as a student in 7th Street School in Douglas, Arizona?  Yes, I was.  And I’m sure that teacher was proud of me.  I was proud of her because that’s the one that told me, one day put an arm on my shoulder and said, “Raul, I think you’ve got some ability, but you’re being lazy.  You’re not doing your work.”  And on the way home that day, I thought to myself, that teacher must like me.  She thinks I can do better.  She thinks I’m a good stu—that I can do a…be a good student.  On the way back the next day, I was completely changed.  I didn’t want to embarrass her because she believed in me.  If she believed in me, I wanted to believe in her and see, too many times we parents ignore that the fact that students do have respect for the teachers.  And we’ve got to be able to get teachers that are qualified…that have character.  That are willing to do that and these are the things that education is all about, system of education.  Anybody else?  Okay.

Audience Member: 
We have one over there on the right.

Raul Castro: 
On the right, okay?  Oh, I’m sorry.

Audience Member: 
What is the secret of your longevity?

Raul Castro: 
What is the secret of my longevity?  You know, out of my family of 13, my father died when he was 45 years of age, mother died at 82 and nobody lived over 85 years of age in my family.  I’m the exception to the rule and why, I don’t know.  I…I never was a carouser, really.  I would take a drink of tequila now and then when company arrives, but other than that, I don’t smoke.  I was an athlete, boxing, track and etc.  Uh…I don’t…I don’t recommend this for you, I don’t like vegetables.  I don’t eat vegetables.  Never have eaten vegetables. Never.  So, I…I never drink any milk.  I don’t drink milk.  Never had milk in my life.  If I drink milk, I won’t make it to the front door, diarrhea. So…it goes to show that things vary.

Raul Castro:
And someone said about my wife, I married my wife, Patricia Norris, she’s from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a blonde, blue-eyed Irish German girl…I don’t see any Irish in her, it’s all Achtung!  You know?  She’s always giving the orders, but she…in that sense of the word…she said she loves me dearly when I left this morning she gave me a…or yesterday morning, gave me a…spinach sandwich for breakfast and then she gave me some peanut butter sandwich too.  So, you can see that I’m in trouble in that sense, who knows? 

Raul Castro:
When I was a youngster we had beans three times a day, frijoles.  I hated them ‘cause that’s all I ate.  Now, I love them.  Now that I can afford something else, I can enjoy beans three times a day.  I love them dearly.

Raul Castro:
Funny how life changes.  But that’s the answer to longevity.

Raul Castro:
Thank you.  Anybody else?  Thank you.