Armando M. Rodriguez, a Mexican immigrant and World War II veteran who served in the administrations of four U.S. presidents while pressing for civil rights and education reforms, has died.
Christy Rodriguez, his daughter, said Wednesday her father died Sunday at their San Diego home from complications of a stroke. He was 97. He had been ailing from a variety of illnesses in recent years, she said.
Born in Gomez Palacio, Mexico, Rodriguez came to San Diego with his family as a 6-year-old in 1927. But he was forced to return to Mexico after his father was deported during the mass deportations of the 1930s during the Great Depression. A young Rodriguez lived in Mexico for a year before the family could return.
FILE - In this May 5, 1969, file photo, Armando Rodriguez, foreground, director of the Office of Education, part of the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, lead demonstrators in front of the Columbia Broadcasting Company's Washington studios protest what they called "the mass media's continued discrimination and demeaning characterizations of Mexican-Americans." Rodriguez, a Mexican immigrant and World War II veteran went on served under four American presidents while pressing for civil rights, died Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019. He was 97. (AP PhotoBob Daugherty, File)
"He barely spoke Spanish," Christy Rodriguez said.
After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, some of his Mexican immigrant friends fled to Mexico to avoid military service. Rodriguez, however, joined the U.S. Army. "It was not a difficult choice," Rodriguez told the Voces Oral History Project at the University of Texas in August 2000.
Following the war, Rodriguez graduated from San Diego State University and worked as a teacher and joined the Mexican-American civil rights movement after witnessing his fellow Latino veterans being denied house and facing discrimination.
He led Southern California's Viva Kennedy campaign, the effort to increase Latino voter support for John F. Kennedy's presidential run in 1960. Rodriguez founded a chapter of the veterans' American GI Forum civil rights group in San Diego as a junior high school teacher.
President Lyndon Johnson appointed him chief of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare's Office of Spanish Speaking American Affairs. President Richard Nixon later named him assistant commissioner of education in the Office of Regional Office Coordination.
Rodriguez returned to California to become the first Latino president of East L.A. College. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter appointed him to serve on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Rodriguez continued to serve on the commission under President Ronald Reagan until stepping down in 1983.
Later in life, Rodriguez continued to advocate for educational opportunities for Latinos. But Rodriguez told the Voces Oral History Project that he had always wished he has been able to do more.
"The legacy you leave is what you were worth while you were here," Rodriguez said.
Associated Press Writer Russell Contreras is a member of The Associated Press' race and ethnicity team. Follow Contreras on Twitter at http://twitter.com/russcontreras
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia on Wednesday vetoed a U.N. resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space.
The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13 in favor, Russia opposed and China abstaining.
The resolution calls on all countries not to develop or deploy nuclear arms or other weapons of mass destruction in space, as banned under a 1967 international treaty that included the U.S. and Russia, and to agree to the need to verify compliance.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said after the vote that Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, but that the country's veto raises the question of what the government may be hiding.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council is set to vote Wednesday on a resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. It is likely to be vetoed by Russia.
The resolution calls on all countries not to develop or deploy weapons of mass destruction, like nuclear arms, in space.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield told a council meeting on March 18 where she announced the resolution that “any placement of nuclear weapons into orbit around the Earth would be unprecedented, dangerous and unacceptable.”
Russia’s deputy U.N. ambassador, Dmitry Polyansky, retorted that Moscow’s initial impression was that the resolution is “yet another propaganda stunt by Washington” and is “very politicized” and “divorced from reality.”
The announcement of the resolution followed White House confirmation in February that Russia has obtained a “troubling” anti-satellite weapon capability, although such a weapon is not operational yet.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared later that Moscow has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space, claiming that the country has only developed space capabilities similar to those of the United States.
The draft resolution says “the prevention of an arms race in outer space would avert a grave danger for international peace and security.”
It urges all countries carrying out activities in exploring and using outer space to comply with international law and the U.N. Charter.
The draft “affirms” that countries that ratified the 1967 Outer Space Treaty must comply with their obligations not to put in orbit around the Earth “any objects” with weapons of mass destruction, or install them “on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space.”
The treaty, ratified by some 114 countries including the United States and Russia, prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit or the stationing of “weapons in outer space in any other manner.”
The draft resolution emphasizes “the necessity of further measures, including political commitments and legally binding instruments, with appropriate and effective provisions for verification, to prevent an arms race in outer space in all its aspects.”
It reiterates that the U.N. Conference on Disarmament, based in Geneva, has the primary responsibility to negotiate agreements on preventing an arms race in outer space.
The 65-nation body has achieved few results and has largely devolved into a venue for countries to voice criticism of others’ weapons programs or defend their own. The draft resolution urges the conference “to adopt and implement a balanced and comprehensive program of work.”
At the March council meeting where the U.S.-Japan initiative was launched, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned that “geopolitical tensions and mistrust have escalated the risk of nuclear warfare to its highest point in decades.”
He said the movie “Oppenheimer” about Robert Oppenheimer, who directed the U.S. project during World War II that developed the atomic bomb, “brought the harsh reality of nuclear doomsday to vivid life for millions around the world.”
“Humanity cannot survive a sequel to Oppenheimer,” the U.N. chief said.
FILE - U.S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield speaks on Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Tokyo. The U.N. Security Council is set to vote Wednesday, April 24, 2024, on a resolution announced by Thomas-Greenfield, calling on all nations to prevent a dangerous nuclear arms race in outer space. It is likely to be vetoed by Russia. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, Pool, File)
