Migrant Workers' Son Worked Way to Air Force Academy, Harvard, a Top Law Firm -- and Government
One Saturday afternoon this May, Alberto R. Gonzales addressed the 2004 graduating class of Rice University and talked about growing up in an impoverished household on the north edge of Houston.
(snip)
Like many of the president's inner circle who went to Washington, Gonzales is known for his loyalty to Bush. As general counsel to the then-governor, Gonzales went so far as to get Bush out of jury duty on a drunken-driving case in Austin to prevent him from being forced to answer under oath whether he had ever been convicted of driving while intoxicated.
(snip)
Bush's 1976 drunken-driving conviction eventually became public the week before the 2000 presidential election, and Gonzales has since acknowledged in published reports that he knew about the record and found a way to keep Bush from being forced to disclose it in the courtroom.
For a young man from humble beginnings, Gonzales has come a long way. He lovingly talks about his mother's homemade meals of beans and tortillas and how his father and uncles, unable to afford help, built the family house. But now, he told Rice's Class of 2004 in his commencement speech, he gets to enjoy "steak dinners or rides on Air Force One or weekends at Camp David."
Even his siblings -- three of the eight never finished high school, and Gonzales is the only one who went to college -- can hardly believe his life today.
more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29893-2004Dec27.html
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