Politician, college professor, cabinet member, and network executive, Henry G. Cisneros (born 1947) was elected mayor of San Antonio in 1981, the first Hispanic mayor in Texas, and became by the mid-1980s the nation's most prominent and publicly visible Hispanic leader.

Born in 1947, Henry Cisneros was the eldest of five children of Mexican-American George and Mexican-born Elvira Cisneros. Henry was raised in what was later described as a model home environment for an upwardly mobile ethnic family. His father, a civil servant at a nearby military base, and his mother were keenly ambitious for their children, prescribing piano lessons, Scout memberships, visits to the opera and symphony, and limited television viewing only after their homework and family responsibilities had been fulfilled.

The Cisneros family switched from Spanish to English use in the home when the children were born because the language of the schools was English and home use...