We’ll show you highlights from a memorial planned for former Governor Raul Castro, who passed away recently.
TED SIMONS: Arizona's first Hispanic governor was honored at a memorial service over the weekend. More than 100 people filled the old capitol rotunda to celebrate the life of Raul Castro who passed away last month.
DOUG DUCEY: Like most Arizonans I'll remember him best as our history-making 14th governor. Governor Castro epitomized the triumph of the human spirit and the hope of the American dream. He was born into humble beginnings, social and racial discrimination were daily obstacles. But he refused to remain oppressed.
DOUG DUCEY: Raul could be considered one of the first Dreamers, a child brought to this country with no documentation whatsoever, but with plenty of ambition and intelligence. And seeing the advantages offered by the country he seized a chance to be part of it. And did he ever succeed.
JAMES GARCIA: Governor Castro didn't just plop down in the world and become our governor. He worked his way up the ladder. He originally ran for Pima County attorney in the early 1950s, 1954 specifically, as he put it, it was an extraordinary year for him a great year for him because he was elected the first Hispanic Pima County attorney. At the time his wife also reminded him that was the year we got married, so you should make a note of that, as well.
ED PASTOR: I will never forget the lesson he taught me, that regardless of a person's state and life, that that person deserves respect. He wanted to make sure that his administration would be accessible to any person that needed to have advice or had a problem or was able to find some recommendation from a governor. In fact, I remember one time he had an open house to the public. And chaotic, but he had it.
DONALD DALEY III: Some of my favorite times with my grandfather were during the annual Sun Devils versus Wildcats Thanksgiving football games. My alma mater was Arizona State University, and of course one of his alma maters was our biggest rival, the other Arizona University. Over the course of his rich and wondrous 98 years on earth, he was known as a man guided by the belief, if you worked hard and lived a principled and dignified life, and if you always treated people with respect, that you could succeed. But more importantly that you would could earn the respect of others.
ALBERTO RIOS: He may be gone, but we are more because of him. He bridged countries, languages, years, jobs, and heart. He was the border and the center both. We have lost this man. But not what he has given. We have no way to say thank you except to live our lives with him still in it. To thank him by doing what he, too, would have done.
TED SIMONS: The service also included letters from Presidents Barack Obama and Jimmy Carter who appointed Castro as U.S. Ambassador to Argentina. It was one of three Latin American ambassadorships.
