It was not necessary the position for that he was waiting but nevertheless it expressed his gratitude. “I they am grateful to our Latin community for his support and his confidence, for voting for our candidate and now elect president”, affirmed the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson, on having accepted the nomination for Barack Obama to the Secretary's Commerce position on December 3. The disappointment was evident in the face on not having been nominated a Secretary of the State, a position for that he was longing and for which was highly qualified, but in the end senator Hillary Clinton was designated.

This last weekend, Richardson moved back from the nomination due to a legal investigation for a few negotiations done by his government in New Mexico. After the Richardson nomination, the Hispanic Congressional Assembly sent a letter to the office of transition of Obama with a list of names of possible Hispanic candidates for other positions in his administration. “We would be very disappointed if Richardson was the Hispanic only one, there will be many topics of interest that our community will have to face”, indicated the conferee for California, Joe Baca, president of the Assembly. He added that Obama would put in risk his agenda if it was not designating other Hispanics, reminding him to the elect president that it promised to have one of the offices of major diversity in the history.

Very well, it seems that that one turned out to be a promise that is still expiring before being sworn like president. In the middle of December Obama had already named several Hispanics to positions of high status in his administration, including three secretaries. In addition to Richardson in Commerce, it named the senator of Colorado, Ken Salazar, as Secretary of the Interior and to the conferee for California, Hilda Solís, like Secretary of Work. In the administrations of George W. Bush and Bill Clinton only there were two members of the office of Hispanic origin simultaneously.

Other Hispanics named in positions keys in the team of the House Blanca de Obama are Cecilia Muñoz, vice-president of the National Council of the Race, who will be a Matters director iIntergubernamentales; the ex-Secretary of the Army, Louis Caldera, will head the Military Office of the White House; Vice Alcaldesa of Los Angeles, Nancy Sutley, will be a chief of the Council of Environmental quality; and Moisés Vela will be the inspector of the new vice-president.

While national Hispanic organizations are pleased with the number of appointments of Latin Americans in positions fix for the administration of Obama, some of them say that the potential is even more big. “While they are still missing for filling important positions in the administration of Obama, we trust that the elect president and his team of transition will keep on looking between the long list of talented Hispanics to fill these positions”, mentioned Janet Murguía, the president of the National Council of the Race.

Undoubtedly there is a long list of talented Hispanics who have great that to contribute to the future administration of Obama but also there are million Hispanics with high expectations on what the next government will offer them. The Hispanics supported vastly Obama during the general elections with 67 per cent of his votes. And they were the Latin Americans those who took it to the victory in the key states like New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada and even in the Florida, where for the first time most of the Hispanics supported a candidate Demócrata.

Although the elect president is already doing history on having named the Hispanics' biggest quantity in positions of high level in the White House, he admits that some charges are still missing for occupying before his capture of possession on January 20 and we will have to hope that I hope Obama chooses another out-standing Latin American to replace Richardson. Perhaps he considers a few Latin Americans more in his administration that to represent the interests of 45 million Hispanics who take root in the United States and who helped him to come where he is.

(c) 2008 by Maria Helen Salinas.