Henry Cisneros - Political Career Beginnings

Political Career Beginnings

When Cisneros arrived back home, he discovered the old order, stagnant political arena in San Antonio was falling apart and now experiencing a growing socio-ethnic discontent. Since the 1950s, the Anglo-dominated Good Government League (GGL) had run the city where council members were elected at large and the majority came from wealthy ZIP codes in the Anglo populated north side. The Mexican American community believed they had been neglected for too long by a government who paid more attention to city growth in their own residential and eight months since returning to San Antonio, Cisneros at age 27 was elected the youngest city councilman in the city’s history in 1975, the same year his second daughter Mercedes Christina was born. (Cisneros was the youngest councilman at the time until Chip Haas' election in 2003 at age 26.) Now entrenched in city politics, Cisneros assumed a hands-on approach to governing that he promised in his campaign. He set himself on a plan to know all he could about life in the city firsthand by emptying gae cans to learn the problems of the sanitation department, walking a beat with a police officer and administering first aid with ambulance attendants. Cisneros also visited families in public housing units, and promised that their problems would no longer be ignored.

As a city council member, Cisneros took assorted populist positions on such issues as dealing with labor, water, education, and housing, among others. All the while he endeared himself to the Latino community, especially in the city’s predominantly Mexican American poor neighborhoods on the west side, and where he resided.

Because of the GGL’s continued authority, the city council was still roundly criticized for not being representative. During the civil-rights furor of the 1960s, the Voting Rights Act signed into law in 1965 required that racial groups be given direct representation by political districts to assure the election of a member. Significantly, in a split vote on the city council on whether to accept a Justice Department order to establish an election plan that would provide more access to the Latino community with direct representation, or challenge the order in court, Cisneros voted to accept the order. San Antonio thus moved to single-member directly represented districts in 1977. This led to the beginning of the end for the GGL and all efforts to rationalize all-city rule.

Cisneros was re-elected twice more to the city council in 1977 and 1979 as a representative of San Antonio Council District 1.

During his time on the city council, Cisneros formed a relationship with Communities Organized for Public Service (COPS), a powerful grassroots Latino advocacy group founded in 1973 whose focus was to push for development funding into the city’s Latino communities. His attention to the needs for infrastructure to the lower income Mexican American neighborhoods further elevated Cisneros’ standing in the Latino community. Yet at the same time, Cisneros also looked forward to building a greater San Antonio and the socially redeeming power that comes with economic growth. As a city councilman from 1975 to 1979, Cisneros had an ability to form a political bridge between the pro-growth business interests and an underrepresented Mexican American community. He “enjoyed the resources and visibility of the GGL establishment without being confined to its agenda,” and “built an image of an articulate, smooth, Harvard and MIT educated man.” Cisneros also was a local grown home boy who “cared about the problems of the common person.”

He served for six years (three terms) on the City Council before being elected Mayor of San Antonio in 1981.