LOS ANGELES — In the spring of 1980, Julian Nava found himself about to become a pioneer again.
The Boyle Heights native had gone through his life as a man of firsts. First Mexican American student body president at East Los Angeles College. One of the first Mexican Americans to earn a doctorate from Harvard. The first Latino elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District board of trustees. One of the masterminds behind a pivotal television series about the Chicano experience.
Now, President Jimmy Carter had appointed Nava as the first-ever Mexican American U.S. ambassador to Mexico.
