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In 1962, Richardson (seated, second from left) played high school baseball in Concord, Mass.
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Richardson, meeting with Kim Sanchez-Rael from his board of
finance, has been touted as a possible presidential candidate.
TIME magazine senior writer Joe Klein says it is too early to
determine what sort of presidential candidate Richardson would
be. He is a very personable guy; he has a lot of foreign experi
ence, Klein says. “We’ll see whether he can summon the kind of
seriousness and gravitas necessary for president."
Born in Pasadena, Calif., raised in Mexico City and educated
at a Massachusetts prep school, Richardson has spent his entire
life existing between two cultures. His father spoke to him in
English, while his mother addressed him in Spanish. He spent
his afternoons on Mexico City baseball fields in good-natured
competition alongside some of the poorest children in the city
before moving to Concord, Mass., at age 12 and joining his
wealthy classmates on the Middlesex School baseball team. He
earned a master's degree in international affairs at Boston's Tufts
University in the early 19705.
“He’s bicultural, and that gives him an insight into dealing with
people, especially in tough situations," says his wife, Barbara. “If you
can't do it one way, let’s kx>k at another way to achieve a goal. He points
out that you have to walk in that person's shoes and know what it is that
person needs when you are in negotiations.”
Between worlds
Richardson’s cultural duality had a downside as well. “Nei
ther side accepted me," says Richardson, who describes his
experiences in the 2005 book, Between Worlds: The Making of
an American Life. “Man, 1 had a comfortable life, and I’m not
complaining. Buc at the same time, Mexicans didn’t accept me
because I had this Anglo name, and when I went to school in
the United States, the Americans called me Pancho and I didn't
quite fit in and I didn’t relate to anything."
His mixed ethnicity helped Richardson develop a strong sense
of self, a passion for fairness and a drive to help those who don’t have
a voice in any language. It taught him that almost every dispute can
be talked through—it’s always worse not to talk, he says—and that
American Profile
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Photo: joke Schoellkopf
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he can find something in common with almost everyone. He used a common
love of baseball as an icebreaker with Cuban leader Fidel Castro in 1996.
In other high-level diplomatic negotiations around the globe, Richardson
says he often sensed that, across the table, “they liked the fact that I was a
minority and that I could relate to another culture," he says. "It gave me an
advantage because they thought, He’s an American, but he's got other cul
tures and we think he’s able to relate better to us.’”
But he stresses that he is an American first, albeit one who cherishes his
Hispanic heritage. "I don't want to be known as a professional Hispanic, that
everything I do is because I’m Hispanic or I only serve Hispanics,” says Rich
ardson, who says he dreams in English but reverts to speaking Spanish after
periodic vacations in Mexico. "I serve a broad constituency: Native Americans,
Anglos, Hispanics, progressives, Republicans. I don't compromise my values,
but I never liked to highlight my Hispanic-ness."
His political advisers once suggested that he use the name Bill Richard
son-Lopez because his mother’s maiden name is Lopez. “I said, ‘That’s not me,"
(Continued on page 17)
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