40 Fun Facts About Henry Cisneros

Which religious leader drew enormous crowds to San Antonio in 1987, when Henry Cisneros was mayor?

Pope John Paul II celebrated an outdoor Mass there for hundreds of thousands of people, a crowd often described as the largest in Texas history.

Where did HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros spend a night in December 1994 to understand a top-priority problem?

A homeless shelter in Minnesota's Twin Cities was his bed after an evening walking the streets and talking with people who had nowhere to live. The next day he announced $7.3 million for local projects.

Mayor Henry Cisneros helped attract which famous theme park brand to San Antonio, where it opened in 1988?

SeaWorld opened its San Antonio park in May 1988, billed as the largest marine-life theme park in the world, and 75,000 people came to the opening.

Which stadium did Mayor Henry Cisneros persuade San Antonio voters to pay for, his signature accomplishment?

Alamodome doors opened in 1993, four years after he left office, at a cost of $186 million. Cisneros chaired the committee that advised on its construction.

Henry Cisneros was named after which relative, who made the request from his own deathbed?

His uncle Henry, a younger brother of his mother Elvira, died of Hodgkin's disease as a teenager after asking that his sister give his name to her son.

San Antonio paid Mayor Henry Cisneros a stipend of under $5,000 a year, so how did he add to his income?

Teaching college classes at Trinity University, along with paid speeches, topped up one of the lowest salaries of any big-city mayor in the country.

Which president chose Henry Cisneros in 1993 to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development?

Bill Clinton had leaned on him as an adviser during the 1992 campaign, and later called Cisneros a brilliant public servant.

After leaving government in 1997, Henry Cisneros became president of which Spanish-language TV network?

Univision was the largest Spanish-language broadcaster in the United States and had grown into the fifth most-watched television network of any kind.

Even as mayor of San Antonio, Henry Cisneros kept living in a small west side house once owned by whom?

His grandfather had lived in the modest house, and after his years in national government Cisneros and his wife moved back to that same inner west side neighborhood.

As a student in the Corps of Cadets, Henry Cisneros commanded which large uniformed group on campus?

The marching band he led as combined band commander, with more than 400 cadets, is known as the largest military marching band in the United States.

Which university, famous for its Corps of Cadets, did Henry Cisneros enter in 1964 and later serve as a regent?

Texas A&M gave him a bachelor's degree in English in 1968 and a master's in urban and regional planning two years later.

As head of a federal department from 1993 to 1997, Henry Cisneros was a member of which body?

The Cabinet is made up of the heads of the executive departments, who advise the president. Cisneros was the tenth person to hold his post since the department was created in 1965.

Which body voted unanimously in January 1993 to confirm Henry Cisneros as a department secretary?

The US Senate has to approve a president's picks for these jobs, and not a single member voted against Cisneros, who was sworn in on January 22, 1993.

Henry Cisneros, who spoke at a 1984 national convention in San Francisco, belongs to which political party?

Democratic leaders saw him as a rising star, and that same summer the mayor was a finalist to be the nominee for vice president.

The family of Elvira Munguía, mother of Henry Cisneros, left which country in 1926 and settled in San Antonio?

Mexico was in upheaval after its revolution when her father, a well-connected printer and intellectual, moved the family north.

Mayor Henry Cisneros sent over $200 million to San Antonio's west side, easing which long-standing problem?

Flooding and poor drainage had plagued the long-neglected Hispanic west side, so the money went into streets, gutters, libraries and parks.

Henry Cisneros created the nonprofit Our Pledge to help which people take a fuller part in American life?

Immigrants were encouraged by Our Pledge to sharpen their English and to take part in civic activities and military service.

After returning to San Antonio in 2000, Henry Cisneros founded a company, later called CityView, to build what?

Affordable homes for people such as police officers, nurses and city workers were the aim of the firm, which was first named American City Vista.

Mary Alice Perez, who married Henry Cisneros in 1969, had been his sweetheart since which stage of life?

High school sweethearts, the two built a life in politics together: Mary Alice Cisneros later held his old San Antonio city council seat from 2007 to 2011.

HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros took a leading role in the cleanup after a 1994 earthquake struck which city?

Los Angeles was jolted by the magnitude 6.7 Northridge earthquake in January 1994, and three years later Cisneros moved his own family to the city.

Before Henry Cisneros won in 1981, who had been the last Hispanic mayor of San Antonio, back in 1842?

Juan Seguín, a veteran of the Texas Revolution, resigned in 1842, and 139 years passed before San Antonio chose Cisneros.

Which 1984 presidential nominee named Henry Cisneros a finalist to be his vice presidential running mate?

Walter Mondale, who had been vice president under Jimmy Carter, considered the young San Antonio mayor before choosing another running mate.

Henry Cisneros was a finalist for the 1984 vice presidential spot that went to which New York congresswoman?

Geraldine Ferraro became the first woman on a major party's national ticket, though that ticket lost in November.

Which Republican president named Mayor Henry Cisneros to a national commission on Central America?

Ronald Reagan reached across party lines for the 1983 panel, picking a big-city mayor still in his thirties to help study the region's troubles.

Young Henry Cisneros helped run San Antonio's Model Cities program, part of which president's Great Society?

Lyndon B. Johnson also signed the 1965 law creating the federal department that Cisneros would lead a generation later.

Which future governor of New York did HUD Secretary Henry Cisneros bring in as an assistant secretary in 1993?

Andrew Cuomo ran community planning and development under Cisneros, then succeeded him as secretary in 1997.

Which former Buffalo Bills quarterback preceded Henry Cisneros as HUD Secretary and later wrote books with him?

Jack Kemp was a Republican, yet he and Cisneros shared a 2005 Common Ground Award for working across party lines on national housing policy.

Which later mayor of San Antonio followed the path of Henry Cisneros by becoming HUD Secretary in 2014?

Julián Castro left the mayor's office in 2014 to run the department for President Barack Obama, then sought the presidency himself in 2020.

Which magazine named Henry Cisneros its Mayor of the Century in 1999, praising how San Antonio had changed?

Texas Monthly credited him with turning a poor and somewhat sleepy town into a culturally and economically vibrant model for urban America.

Which TV news program profiled Mayor Henry Cisneros of San Antonio, introducing him to a national audience?

60 Minutes was one of many national outlets drawn to his rise: The Wall Street Journal, Esquire and The New Yorker also ran features on him.

Henry Cisneros earned a master's in public administration at which university's Kennedy School of Government?

Harvard was one stop on a long road of study: he also did doctoral research at MIT, then turned down a professorship there to return to San Antonio.

Henry Cisneros completed his doctorate in public administration at which institution in the nation's capital?

George Washington University awarded the degree in the mid-1970s, by which time he had already moved back to San Antonio and entered local politics.

Which 1971 honor made Henry Cisneros an assistant to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare?

White House Fellow is a one-year post for promising young leaders, who work as paid assistants to top federal officials. Fewer than twenty are chosen each year.

While studying at MIT, Henry Cisneros also served as an infantry officer in which part-time military force?

Army National Guard duty in Massachusetts fitted around his graduate studies, and came after his years in a cadet corps as an undergraduate.

Before switching to city management as a sophomore, Henry Cisneros planned to major in which subject?

Aeronautical engineering lost out in his second year, and he ended up graduating in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in English.

Henry Cisneros was deputy chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank based in which Texas city in the early 1990s?

Dallas is the headquarters of the Federal Reserve's Eleventh District, which covers Texas and parts of two neighboring states.

Henry Cisneros oversaw which HUD program that replaced run-down public housing with mixed-income neighborhoods?

HOPE VI paid to tear down the most distressed projects and rebuild them as mixed-income housing, a sharp turn in public housing policy that began just before he took office.

Henry Cisneros succeeded which San Antonio mayor in 1981, who then returned to the office after him in 1989?

Lila Cockrell chose not to run in 1981 because of her husband's illness, then won a fourth term when Cisneros left office eight years later.

While Henry Cisneros was mayor, the National Civic League gave San Antonio which title for 1982–83?

All-America City is an award the National Civic League has given since 1949, and Cisneros later chaired the league himself.

Which record did Henry Cisneros set in 1975 when he won a seat on the San Antonio city council?

Youngest member ever at 27, he held the record until 2003 and learned the city by riding with ambulance crews and walking a beat with police.