The night before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, the president visited with Mexican American civil rights leaders at a League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) gala in Houston, Texas. Historians believe this was the first time a sitting president ever met with or acknowledged Latinos as a new voting block.
Russell Contreras, an Associated Press reporter based in Albuquerque, N.M., recently published a story that includes interviews with historians and Latinos who were at the LULAC gala.
On Election Day in 1960, Kennedy won 85 percent of the Mexican-American vote.
But during Kennedy’s first months in office, Latino leaders expressed dismay that the president had failed to appoint Hispanics in his administration. Chavez even openly criticized Kennedy for