Ernesto Nieto

In Third Reality: Crafting a 21st Century Latino Agenda, Ernesto Nieto chronicles the long and faith testing trials that he experienced during the early creation days of the National Hispanic Institute (NHI). Although the incorporation of NHI took place in 1979, Nieto refers to the true birth to have taken place sometime between 1903, the year of his father's birth, and 1940, the year Ernesto was born. He states in his book, "Third Reality is partly a confession to my father and mother, my way of admitting that the counsel they gave me as a young man growing up in Houston was correct in the final analysis. It's an account that's not unfamiliar to many of us as young Latinos growing up in the barrios back then thinking that having the opportunity to gain a little more education than our parents made us smarter, better prepared for life. Nothing could be farther from the truth", states Nieto (Third Reality Press). In essence, the National Hispanic Institute is the manifestation of the work laid out and lessons taught by his parents starting in the early 1940s, lessons which would not be fully realized and understood until later in his life.[3]

Each chapter tells of how Ernesto, and Gloria de Leon, his lifelong friend, and wife, were forced to re-organize and discover their beliefs in order to create what we know today as NHI. How they went from struggling new non-profit to a nationally (internationally) recognized Institute; from 90 high school students per year to over 4,000 high school and college students a year.[3]

The last chapter of the book, Ernesto discuss the process in which one begins to see one's community as a resource of immense equity, a place full of opportunity, what he calls the "Third Reality". He gives in detail his personal struggles to begin to re-construct his manner of thinking in order to begin the plan the principle the National Hispanic Institute has in the shaping of the Latino community.[3]

In his article, Nieto outlines how all healthy, growing, and robust communities and organizations require ready access to a plentiful supply of skilled and educated leaders on whose shoulders invariably rest the future of others. He argues that the organized sectors that comprise U.S. Latino life, the availability of these individuals is not only in critically short supply, but is occurring during a modern, information-age that demands high accessibility to multidimensional talent in order to remain competitive.[4]