THE NEW YORK TIMES

In a district where a third of the students are Hispanic, the resignation last month of one member of the all-white school board prompted civic activists to urge the remaining members to appoint Sis Obed Torres Cordero, a lawyer and civic leader, to fill the vacancy.

Mr. Torres Cordero, 57, the executive director of the nonprofit Council of Spanish-Speaking Organizations of the Lehigh Valley, was the only Hispanic candidate among five considered by the school board.

But he promoted himself only as “a citizen with qualifications” — as a lawyer, parent, community activist and trained practitioner of conflict resolution who could help reconcile the various factions that have divided the board in recent years.

“I wasn’t running as the ‘Hispanic candidate,’ ” he said in an interview. “Yes, I am Latino. But our mayor’s name is John Callahan, and nobody calls him the Irish mayor. He’s the mayor.”

But when the eight-member school board selected someone else on Tuesday night — a banker named Benjamin M. Tenaglia III — the local newspaper, The Morning Call, headlined the story with one simple idea: “Board Rejects Hispanic Candidate.”

READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/us/politics/28penn.html?em&ex=1206849600&en=beab5ce36230f3ad&ei=5087%0A

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