The Daily Lobo sat down with Christine Sierra, professor of political science, to talk about Attorney General Alberto Gonzales's resignation and how it will impact future Hispanic politicians in the United States. Gonzales, the first Hispanic to serve as Attorney General, announced Aug. 27 that he will step down Sept. 17.
Daily Lobo: Do you think Gonzales stood for a lot of issues that are important to the Hispanic community?
Christine Sierra: Gonzales was not in office to represent people. He was to enforce the law for the public good. His political troubles can be traced to that he decided to represent the president as attorney general, and to many people, crossed the line as to whose interests were being served. His harshest critics saw him as really trying to get through the Bush agenda, such as on limits - or nonlimits - of torture, such as what to do with the prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay and the whole issue of surveillance and counter-surveillance, particularly of American citizens.
So, he was endorsed by Latino organizations when Bush was considering him for cabinet positions and also when there was some sense that he may be selected to be on the U.S. Supreme Court. But nevertheless, he did have some endorsements from Latino organizations that were rather deathly silent when Gonzales started to get into trouble with the surveillance and torture issues. You can be sure that Bush appointed him so that he could be a symbolic representation of Hispanics. And by that, I mean that Bush wants to show that he understands the importance of Hispanic representation in his cabinet and appoint a Hispanic to his cabinet.
DL: Was Gonzales's term as Attorney General a disaster for Hispanic political ambitions?
CS: The problem about being under-represented in government is that you have very little wiggle room to make mistakes. And so, while there have been other disasters as cabinet secretaries, or other people who have had to resign out of controversy, especially white people, they are not looked at as the end-all be-all of that particular race of people. So, Alberto Gonzales should not either. However, because Hispanics are so under-represented in government, some will maybe consider him a failure, and that reflects on the Hispanic population. He should not be considered that way. The only thing that perhaps would have avoided that kind of judgment is if Hispanic organizations had spoken out much more clearly in criticizing him for the job that they thought he was doing poorly. So, Gonzales's legacy now, at least amongst legal scholars and among people who study presidential cabinets, is very tarnished. But I don't think it will be a tarnished legacy as part of being Hispanic. It's a tarnished legacy as being part of the Bush administration.
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DL: Why do you think Hispanic organizations were hesitant to speak out against him?
CS: Well, there is something sad about seeing someone make very bad political blunders, or exercise bad political judgments, when you feel that he is symbolizing your disenfranchised group. He does have a very admirable from-rags-to-riches kind of story that Americans love to hear. So, it's very disheartening to see someone fall from grace in that respect. It's very hard to acknowledge that he was just not performing the job that those Latino organizations thought he might when he was first endorsed.
