San Juan native waits for confirmation to U.S. Ambassador post

A national Hispanic advocacy group is calling on the U.S. Senate to speed up the confirmation process of San Juan native Rául Yzaguirre as the new U.S. Ambassador to the Dominican Republic.

Yzaguirre, a Hispanic civil rights leader who got his start in the Rio Grande Valley, was nominated to the post by President Barrack Obama in late November.

“There’s a backlog and, of course, politics is involved. That’s the daily bread here in (Washington), D.C.,” said Rafael Fantauzzi, president of the National Puerto Rican Coalition. The coalition also called for the speedy confirmation of Mari Carmen Aponte for the ambassador post to El Salvador.

“As an organization that has worked with both Raul and Mari Carmen, we wanted to be very vocal and send a message to members of the Senate that the Hispanic community expects these nominations to happen because these are outstanding leaders of our community,” Fantauzzi said.

Yzaguirre could not be reached for comment Thursday. Many nominees for federal government posts are advised to stay silent and above the political fray during the confirmation process, Fantauzzi said.

Fantauzzi met Yzaguirre, 71, on the board of the Hispanic Association on Corporate Responsibility several years ago and said he is “honored to shake his hand because he’s such an outstanding leader.”

Yzaguirre, a Pharr-San Juan-Alamo High School graduate, was the founder and long-time president of the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights organization, the National Council of La Raza, until 2004.

He built the organization starting in 1974, leaving it six years ago with 35,000 members and a budget of $28 million.

But before he was a political and civil rights heavyweight in Washington, D.C., Yzaguirre was a passionate advocate for Tejano rights in South Texas, said Juan Maldonado of San Juan.

At age 15, Yzaguirre organized the American G.I. Forum Juniors, a branch of the American G.I. Forum, an Hispanic veteran’s organization.

“He and some World War II veterans could not believe that having sacrificed (overseas) they came back and still saw the injustice and discrimination against Latinos in South Texas,” said Maldonado, who knew Yzaguirre growing up.

“Even at that age, I recognized that he was a special leader,” Maldonado said. “In high school, I remember his buddies kept gigging him saying, ‘Hey, man, you need to hang out instead of sitting there reading all of that stuff.’”

Yzaguirre is a professor at Arizona State University, though he still has family in the Valley.

He was nominated to the ambassador post Nov. 30 and is among 37 other nominees still waiting for their hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, according to a list provided by the U.S. Senate Web site.

Maldonado said he and the rest of San Juan will be watching the nomination process closely.

“I’ll guarantee you that everyone is excited and want it to happen because he’s one of our native sons that we’re all proud of,” he said.

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Nick Pipitone covers McAllen, PSJA, the Mid-Valley and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4446.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.