THOMAS ARANDA, JR., FILES, 1976-77

Thomas Aranda was appointed Special Assistant to the President for Hispanic Affairs on July 29, 1976, three months after Fernando De Baca resigned the position. Working in the Office of Public Liaison (OPL) under the direction of William J. Baroody, Jr., Aranda provided liaison to Hispanics during the 1976 campaign and the last six months of the Ford administration. In the remaining weeks after the election, he sought to promote opportunity for Hispanics in the military and individual projects in his native state.

Aranda's mission was prescribed by OPL's mission to provide citizens and interest groups access to government. The bulk of thee material throughout all series indicates a routine and selective referral service to government agencies for Hispanics with requests for aid, employment or complaints. His "Accomplishments" folders consist of successfully channeled requests with agency responses. Telephone logs and notes suggest possible activity related to the Hispanic Republican vote but this is not well documented in the collection.

Correspondence between Aranda and Hispanic leaders in the Hispanic Organizations series is formal and routine. Material related to meetings between them is sparse. Aranda arranged for several meetings between Hispanic leaders and businessmen and the President before the election, but only one is documented in the collection. In addition, Aranda organized the President's signing ceremony for National Hispanic Heritage Week.

Important material is present in the Hispanic Issues series and in scattered documents expressing disagreement between interest groups and government on legislation related to equalizing Latin American with European immigration quotas, and proof of citizenship requirements for employment. Also present is material Aranda received from OPL's Reynaldo Maduro and Cuban-Americans on a heated controversy among Miami Republicans over the director of the Cuban Refugee Project, and on a pre-election presidential meeting with Cuban-Americans. Aranda and Maduro occasionally worked together although it is not well- documented in the collection. Aranda was particularly involved with Mexican- Americans, Maduro with those of Cuban or Puerto Rican heritage.

Aranda's files were originally accessioned as a joint collection with De Baca's 1974-75 files, but they were easily separated during processing. Aranda incorporated occasional items from his predecessor's files into his own files. Aranda's files also include the 1975 Domestic Council Committee for Illegal Aliens files of OPL's Special Assistant for Human Resources Theodore Marrs. Aranda presumably acquired the files from Marrs, who resigned in June 1976. While there is evidence Aranda acknowledged his role on the committee, there is no documentation of his participation in the collection.

Related Materials (November 1989)
Related material is found in the collections of his predecessor Fernando E. C. De Baca, Deputy Special Assistant for Hispanic Affairs Reynaldo Maduro, White House Operations Staff Assistant Foster Chanock, in the Domestic Council staff files of James Cannon, Richard Parsons, and Lynn May. Additional materials may appear in the unprocessed files of William J. Baroody, to whom Aranda reported.

Additional related material exists in White House Central Files categories:

Federal Government: FG 6-11-1/Aranda

FG 6-11-1/De Baca

FG 6-15 Domestic Council

FG 17 Justice Department (OA 9281)

FG 21-17 Office of Minority Business Enterprise

FG 145 Cabinet Committee on Opportunities for

Spanish Speaking Persons

Human Rights: HU 2 Equality

HU 2-2 Employment

HU 2-4 Voting

Immigration: IM Immigration and Naturalization