Raúl Héctor Castro

This article is about the former Governor of Arizona. For the President of Cuba, see Raúl Castro

Raul Hector Castro
14th Governor of Arizona
In office January 6, 1975 – October 20, 1977
Preceded by	Jack Williams
Succeeded by	Wesley Bolin
11th United States Ambassador to El Salvador
In office December 11, 1964 – July 17, 1968
President	Lyndon B. Johnson
Preceded by	Murat W. Williams
Succeeded by	William G. Bowdler
11th United States Ambassador to Bolivia
In office September 3, 1968 – November 3, 1969
President	Lyndon B. Johnson Richard Nixon
Preceded by	Douglas Henderson
Succeeded by	Ernest V. Siracusa
20th United States Ambassador to Argentina
In office November 16, 1977 – July 30, 1980
President	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	Robert C. Hill
Succeeded by	Harry W. Shlaudeman
Personal details
Born	(1916-06-12) June 12, 1916 Cananea, Sonora, Mexico
Political party	Democratic
Education	Northern Arizona University
Profession	Lawyer, diplomat, politician

Raul Hector Castro (born June 12, 1916) is a Mexican-born American politician. He has served in both elected and non-elected public offices, including United States Ambassador and the 14th Governor of Arizona (1975-77). He was the first Mexican American to be elected governor of Arizona. At the age of 108, he is the oldest living United States governor, since October 10, 2011 after the death of former Washington Governor Albert Rosellini at the age of 101.

Castro lived in his native Mexico until 1926, when he moved to the U.S. state of Arizona and later became a United States citizen. Through grueling physical labor and self-denial, he saved enough to enter Arizona State Teachers College at Flagstaff, from which he graduated in 1939. He worked for five years for the U.S. State Department as a foreign service clerk at Agua Prieta, a border city in his native Sonora, but he never forgot his dream of becoming a lawyer. Accepted by the University of Arizona College of Law, Castro earned his Juris Doctor degree and was admitted to the Arizona Bar in 1949. After practicing law in Tucson for two years, he became deputy Pima County attorney. In 1954 he was elected county attorney and served in that capacity until 1958, when he became a Pima County Superior Court Judge. His national stature grew over the years, and President Lyndon Johnson appointed Castro as U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador in 1964. After four years there, he served as Ambassador to Bolivia until the end of 1969.

Returning to Tucson, Arizona in 1969 to specialize in international law, Castro continued to rise to the top in Arizona Democratic politics. Seeking state office for the first time in 1970, he won the Democratic nomination for governor, but narrowly lost the general election to Republican incumbent Jack Williams. In 1974, Castro was elected governor, ending eight years of Republican control. In 1977, after two years as governor, he was selected by President Jimmy Carter to be ambassador to Argentina. Castro held that post until 1980.

In 2007, Castro's alma mater, now known as Northern Arizona University, named the home of the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences in his honor. As a student, he competed in track and boxing for the school; he was inducted into the Northern Arizona University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1988.

On June 12, 2012, Castro was detained by U.S. Border Patrol after they detected traces of radiation on his vehicle. After explaining that the radiation was due to a medical procedure from the previous day, the ex-governor was released after a short detention.

Additional sources

• Goff, John S. (1983). Arizona Biographical Dictionary. Cave Creek, Ariz.: Black Mountain Press. OCLC 10740532.
• Interview with R.H. Castro for the newspaper Clarín of Buenos Aires, Argentina, 20 December 1998 concerning the Beagle conflict: Clarín.

Links

• The Raul Castro Collection at the University of Arizona UAiR Collection