By: Ernest Gurulé
The distance from Brownsville, Texas, and Denver is approximately 1,200 miles. But it may as well have been a light year for one of Brownsville’s own considering how far he’s traveled. Along the way, he got caught in a vortex that would spin him into a universe that not even he could have imagined.
For a lot of Brownsville kids—certainly back then—sticking around town, was not only a first option but one that carried neither complaint nor regret. It’s home.
But for former Denver Mayor and Cabinet Secretary Federico Peña leaving south Texas would be the start of an odyssey that would land him on the world stage. The adventure, ironically enough, that began with a quick setback that would be serendipitous.
The setback was at the University of Texas where the plan was to study accounting. But a ‘D’ in his first accounting class forced a quick detour into a whole other direction.
This self-deprecating story Peña shared at a recent lunchtime book signing and discussion at the University of Denver with DU President Dr. Jeremy Haefner got a good chuckle. But, Peña explained, the poor grade was fortuitous. It changed the arc of his life.
In his just released autobiography, “…Not Bad for a South Texas Boy,” Peña said his years in Austin—the
sixties—were rife with percolating social issues. There was the Viet Nam War, a simmering civil rights movement, assassinations—MLK and RFK—and growing demands for equality from women, the disabled and gay Americans. The country was simmering.
The times, coupled and an objective assessment of his accounting skills, helped Peña find his sweet spot: political science. Not only was it far more interesting than number crunching but politics ran in his family. His fifth great grandfather, Tomás Sánchez, founded Laredo, Texas, in 1755. Another relative, Santos Benavides, half-brother to his great grandmother, was mayor of Laredo in 1856.
Numerous other Peña relatives have also served their communities and their nation. The kid from Brownsville didn’t yet know it, but public service also coursed through his veins.
While not yet fully understanding the role he might one day play, he focused on school. But one particular instance, confirmed any doubts he had about the inequities pervasive in that time.
Still an undergraduate, Peña once got back an English paper. On it, along with a ‘C+,’ were seven words printed on it: ‘Not bad for a South Texas Boy.’ It was an English paper!
Didn’t the teacher think he could compose an English paper? The words still irk him to this day.
After earning his undergraduate and law degrees, he stayed in Texas practicing law. But a quick trip to Denver to visit his brother, Alfredo, also a lawyer, changed his life.
There was just something about the city. He stayed, and the brothers formed a firm. He had come home.
His practice was consumed with helping those who most needed it. The times were rife with claims of police brutality, unequal treatment of citizens in the streets, the courts and the schools. Things were particularly slanted against people of color. He worked for MALDEF, the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund. The money was lousy, the reward incalculable.
Now firmly entrenched in his new city, he found a platform along with a group of allies equally as focused.
Together, they would work to support the things he and they fought for and believed in. Witnessing how they worked through issues and periodically finding success in a decidedly tilted system, he found his next platform, elected office and the state legislature.
Getting there entailed non-stop door-to-door campaigning and pressing the flesh with countless northwest Denver residents. The payoff was huge. He won and soon rose to leadership, a perch where victories, though rare, were achievable. With newfound clout and a supportive caucus, Democrats passed bills once thought impossible, including one close to Peῆa’s heart, The Colorado Bilingual Bicultural Education Act.
His performance in the legislature also impressed a number of colleagues and others so much so that at a lunch meeting where they’d invited him, they dropped a bomb.
‘You should run for Denver mayor,’ they told him. Mayor?! Against a deeply entrenched, family-connected incumbent? Initially, it seemed almost ‘David vs. Goliath.’
To win against long time Mayor Bill McNichols would take organization, determination and inspiration. But “Imagine a Great City,” his campaign theme, swayed voters. Denver had its youngest and first Latino chief executive.
The idea of a young Latino mayor while thrilling some, repelled others. “A lot of people don’t know this,” he told the DU audience, “but the police had me wear a bullet-proof vest when I was sworn in.” In the end, his detractors were left to stew as Denver took off.
Over the course of his two terms the city landed the Rockies, transformed LoDo complete with Coors Field, launched light rail, built a new convention center, began work on a new library and, perhaps his biggest accomplishment, won approval for and began construction of a world class airport, DIA. Then, as suddenly as he began his mayoral run, he shocked everyone with the announcement that there would be no third term. But that ending only signaled a new political chapter.
When Bill Clinton won the presidency, he tapped Peña to be his Secretary of Transportation where he served from 1993-97. He answered Clinton’s call again serving as Secretary of Energy for a single year making him the first Latino to serve in two Cabinet positions.
In these positions, he dealt with both controversy—a given in a cabinet post—and triumph, a far rarer thing. He represented the U.S. in top level meetings with both world class adversaries and long standing allies. He served the nation just as his ancestors had served in their time.
The border town kid did his family, parents Gustavo and Ana and five siblings, proud. As his autobiography says, he helped those who often fell through societal cracks and served others in ways they might not even have known. He served without fanfare or expectation of praise. As his autobiography says, ‘not bad for a south Texas boy.’ “…Not Bad for a South Texas Boy,” is available on Amazon. www.amazon.com/Not-bad-South-Texas-boy/dp/0578925826.
