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Happenstance crossword12/28/2023 of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, based in Los Angeles. “On campus, people tended to drink beer and be rowdy,” said Vargas, now the executive director of the National Assn. ![]() The son of Mexican immigrants-his mother grew up in Guadalajara and his father, Manuel, was born in Sacramento but raised in Tijuana-Becerra would become the first in his family to graduate from college.Ĭlose friend Arturo Vargas, who met Becerra at Stanford, said he “always had a clean-boy image, almost to a fault.” He didn’t know where the campus was until he and his mother drove there to enroll him in the fall of 1976. Becerra picked it up and, on a whim, filled it out. One day in high school chemistry class, a friend who had botched an exam tossed aside his application to Stanford University. While he gained command of some subjects with focus and diligence, chance also set him on his course to college. He became so good that years later, during a trip to Las Vegas with his parents, a casino offered him a job as a dealer. McClatchy High School, he made the varsity golf team.ĭuring high school, Becerra also mastered a very different hobby: poker. He cut the weekly golf tips column out of the Sacramento Bee. He went to the library and checked out golf books. So Becerra mastered golf much as he would tackle politics: by cramming. But he didn’t have enough to pay for lessons. When they grew older, they played at a small public course nearby, sharing a single set of clubs.įinally, Becerra’s father scraped together enough money to buy him a cheap set of Kmart clubs. The two boys putted around in the friend’s backyard after class. But an elementary school friend’s father was an avid player, and gave his son a set of golf clubs. It was not the obvious sport for the son of a construction worker growing up in a one-bedroom house. He helped his father do construction work as a teenager, quick to handle the heavy labor.Įven then, he succeeded with a combination of chance and by-the-books meticulousness. The only son among four children, Becerra always got good grades. “I probably didn’t want to go to a later Mass and miss football,” Becerra said recently, laughing. The entire truth about that Sunday may be a little less saccharine. He has come under fire for his role in President Clinton’s controversial commutation of a drug trafficker’s sentence. He has infuriated some Latino leaders who fear that he will split community support with fellow candidate and former Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa, preventing either one from winning. Even former allies such as County Supervisor Gloria Molina say they are puzzled that he is running.īecerra has been slow to develop a compelling message for his candidacy. The candidate once perceived as the “favorite son” among up-and-coming Latino leaders is jousting for recognition in a crowded field. The mayor’s race is testing Becerra’s political acumen and his sunny string of luck. This time around, however, happenstance and hard work may not be enough. Colleagues from both parties regard him as sharp and fair-minded. He won a plum assignment on the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, the first Latino so named. As chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, he forged strong relationships with Capitol Hill leaders and President Clinton.
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