Hispanic Heritage Month - Sep. 15 - Oct. 15, 2007

Federico Peña

Federico Peña

Nationality: American
Ethnicity: Hispanic American
Occupation: Legislator, Lawyer

BIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY

Federico Peña is a noted Hispanic American public official who served two terms in the Colorado General Assembly and two as mayor of Denver, Colorado. In 1992 he became U.S. Secretary of Transportation under U.S. president Bill Clinton. In this capacity, he has been responsible for several notable and controversial rulings and decisions.

Peña was part of the "new generation" of socially-conscious Democrats who joined the administrative branch of the Federal Government after President Clinton's election. As with so many other politicians beginning to make their mark nationally, he felt that his role was not merely to keep the system going, but to influence its direction and power in a manner that reflected his personal ideology.

In a March 1993 speech quoted in Nation's Cities Weekly, two months after joining Clinton's cabinet, Peña said: "My responsibility as the new secretary of transportation is a very simple one; to bring a new perspective to transportation that says that transportation investments are more than simply building bridges and viaducts and building highways--it's trying to bring in the concerns of the environment as we balance our transportation programs. It is also investing in high technology like high-speed rail, as other nations are doing."

Born on March 15, 1947, to Gustavo Peña and Lucia Farias, in Laredo, Texas, and raised in Brownsville, Federico Fabian Peña was the third of six children, the final three being triplets. The Peña family was stoutly middle-class: Gustavo was a broker for a Texas cotton manufacturer, and both parents taught their children their own hard-won values of respectfulness, loyalty, and perseverance. The Peña children were expected to achieve, and they did. All completed college; two became lawyers, two became teachers, and one a comptroller.

Federico attended St. Joseph's Academy, a local Catholic high school, from which he graduated with honors in 1965. After graduation, he entered the University of Texas at Austin. This was a highly charged time to be a college student in the United States. College campuses across the country were heavily politicized by radical faculty and student organizations, and Austin was no exception. This period of Peña's life seems to have set the pattern for his lifelong political leanings. While studying for his degree, Peña joined demonstrations against the Vietnam war and campaigned for liberal candidates for state offices. He graduated in 1969 and promptly enrolled in the University of Texas School of Law.

In 1972, the year he received his Juris Doctor, Peña moved to Denver, Colorado, where his brother Alfredo was already practicing law. From 1972 to 1974, he worked as a staff lawyer for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, where he litigated police brutality and voting rights issues. He later became a legal adviser for the Chicano Education Project, where for four years he worked for bilingual education in the public schools and better school funding in Hispanic neighborhoods. In 1973, the brothers Alfredo and Federico opened their own law office.

Begins Political Career

In 1978 the 31-year-old Peña successfully ran for a seat in the Colorado General Assembly. He held the position for two terms, during which he served on the House judiciary, legal services, rules, and finance committees. During his first term he was named outstanding House Democratic freshman by the Colorado social action committee.

Peña ran for mayor of Denver in 1983. He was thought to have little chance: his opponent was a 14-year incumbent, and Hispanics made up just 18 percent of Denver's population. An early poll gave him only three percent of registered voters. But the sitting Mayor, William McNichols Jr., had a scandal-ridden administration and was locked in a seething controversy over the way the Mayor's office had responded to a paralyzing snowstorm. Peña ran a positive campaign and put together a coalition of advocacy groups and intellectuals who campaigned him into office by a narrow victory.

Peña's first term was tempestuous. Unaccustomed to public office, he found it difficult to adjust to public criticism. He proposed an ambitious policy of new construction and public investment. One proposal was a new convention center at Denver's Union Station, but it was ultimately defeated by vigorous opposition and a major downturn in the city's economy.

By the end of his first term, Peña's popularity in the polls was extremely low; at one point his Republican opponent in the 1987 campaign led by 22 percentage points and received the endorsement of both of Denver's major newspapers. It was only after waging an extremely negative publicity campaign that Peña, with his strong base of support in the black and Hispanic communities, was able to eke out a victory by a two-percent margin.

Ironically, Peña became the target of a recall campaign shortly after the election over the same issue that had ruined his predecessor. While he was vacationing in Mexico in December 1987, Denver was immobilized by a blizzard. The city failed to clear the snow in many areas; parts of Denver were still unsafe for travel as late as February. Peña was a natural target for the rage of citizens' groups with whom he was already unpopular. The recall petition fell 2,000 signatures short of forcing a new election.

During his second term, Peña's public works program began to make progress. He tirelessly promoted the idea of constructing a new airport as a way of making Denver into a major regional center of trade. The new airport met with much opposition from groups who complained that it was unneeded and--at a projected cost of $1.7 billion--too expensive. Denver's existing airport, Stapleton, was a major hub for United Airlines, which opposed the idea on the grounds that a new airport would bring additional expense and unwanted competition. Stapleton, critics argued, was underutilized at the time, and a new airport was simply unnecessary.

But Peña had his way, and construction on Denver International Airport began on 53 square miles of prairie 20 miles out of town. At the same time, Peña's renewed efforts for a new convention center found success. He also fought for and won a public bond issue which raised $330 million for various infrastructure repairs and new public works. Here he showed his interest in low-pollution transportation issues, promoting the use of deoxygenated fuels in city motor vehicles.

Buoyed by his successes and an improvement in the general economy, Peña's popularity improved. However, he did not seek a third term, citing a desire to spend more time with his family. In May of 1988, he married Ellen Hart, a world-class distance runner and fellow attorney whom he had met four years earlier. They eventually had two daughters, Nelia Joan and Cristina Lucila.

After leaving office, he founded the financial management firm Peña Investment Advisors, which became known for hiring top-notch Hispanic legal talent and was also involved in a legal consultancy. He also served on a Colorado state panel that drew up a long-term statewide transportation plan with emphasis on mass transit and bicycles.

Appointed Secretary of Transportation

In 1992, after Clinton won the presidential election, Peña joined his "transition team" for transportation issues, and was later nominated to be Clinton's Secretary of Transportation. Clinton was reportedly impressed by Peña's success with the Denver International Airport and his suitably liberal theories of transportation policy had become well-known. Clinton had also promised an ethnically diverse cabinet and Peña was by this time one of the most prominent Hispanic Democrats in the country.

At Peña's confirmation hearing, he won boosters in the airline industry and critics in the automotive industry by opposing airline reregulation and advocating policies that would boost domestic airlines in the global marketplace, while favoring higher fuel economy regulations, stricter automotive safety standards, and mass transit. He was confirmed without serious opposition, endorsed even by some former critics who applauded his conviction even though they had opposed him on specific issues.

Peña was one of the most visible and often-reported secretaries of transportation in the history of the office. He was involved in several high-profile aviation issues, including foreign investment in USAir, formal complaints against Japan and Australia for restrictions on U.S. air carriers and advocacy of tax and loan guarantees for the major airlines. He also promoted air safety issues such as an investigation into Boeing 757 wing turbulence. At the same time, Peña earned the unending enmity of the automotive industry by pushing a piece of legislation called the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act, which encourages long-range municipal plans for alternate modes of transportation such as mass transit, bicycling, and walking.

In 1994, Peña overrode the recommendations of his own department's engineers and issued a finding that General Motors ' C/K-model pickup trucks--which had been built in great numbers over some 15 years with side-mounted fuel tanks--constituted a safety hazard in side collisions and should be recalled. General Motors fought the finding with all the resources at its disposal, including a personal lawsuit against Peña. The other two U.S. automakers--Ford and Chysler--publicly backed GM.

The highly charged issue was brought to an end by a settlement in which the Department of Transportation dropped its finding that the trucks were defective, and GM agreed to pay some $51 million, matched by $27 million from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for a program of research and investment in unrelated automotive safety issues, including fire safety, public education, and drug and alcohol-related driving issues.

Peña was also kept in the news by the continued efforts to open Denver International Airport. Peña's name was tied to the airport, and although he had nothing substantial to do with its construction, its technical problems--as well as its vast expense--became a source of nationwide amusement and skepticism. The airport eventually opened in early 1995, more than a year behind schedule and billions of dollars over budget. Many critcs concede, however, that the facility is state-of-the-art.

SOURCE: Dictionary of Hispanic Biography. Gale Research, 1996.