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Raúl H. Castro

Information on the Premier of Raúl H. Castro: Two Cultures, Many Challenges documentary.

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Honorable Raúl Héctor Castro, the first and only Mexican-American Governor of Arizona (1975-1977) was born in Cananea, Sonora, Mexico, June 12, 1916. and has served in both elected and non-elected public offices, including Pima County Attorney, United States Ambassador to El Salvador, Bolivia and Argentina.  The Center for Latin American Studies is proud to administer the Raúl H. Castro Scholarship Fund and to have co-sponsored a documentary on his life entitled Raúl H. Castro: Two Cultures, Many Challenges, directed by Sy Rotter and Luis Carlos Romero-Davis.

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, Arizona, 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. That four year service was followed by an ambassadorial assignment to Bolivia.

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. In 1977, when he had completed two years as governor, President Jimmy Carter selected him to be ambassador to Argentina.

Reference
* Goff, John S. (1983). Arizona Biographical Dictionary. Cave Creek, Ariz.: Black Mountain Press.