Ambassador Ortiz: Lessons from a Life of Service [SIGNED]

Ortíz, Frank V.

ISBN 10: 0826337120 / ISBN 13: 9780826337122

Published by University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, 2005

About this Item

First Edition, First Printing. Hard cover 8vo in blue cloth w/copper spine titles. Fine and unmarked book in Fine DJ. INSCRIBED, SIGNED AND DATED IN YEAR OF PUBLICATION BY AUTHOR on title page. 208pp; illustrated in photos. 216 p.

Seller Inventory # 044630

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Ambassador Ortiz: Lessons from a Life of Service [SIGNED]
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM
• Publication Date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0826337120
• ISBN 13: 9780826337122
• Binding: Cloth
• Edition: First Edition.
• Printing: 1st Printing
• Condition: Fine
• Dust Jacket Condition: Fine
• Signed: Inscribed, Signed and Dated in Year of Publication
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Western Americana
  • Non-Fiction
  • History

About this title

Synopsis

Ambassador Ortiz's memoir is as fascinating as has been his career over four decades in the United States Foreign Service. An Air Force veteran of World War II, Ambassador Ortiz's first assignments were in the Middle East and Ethiopia. His most significant diplomatic work was done in Latin America. There, he took on missions in Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, the Caribbean, Panama, Guatemala, and Argentina. He held posts in Washington, D. C. at the very center of U.S. power.

Ambassador Ortiz reflects on the hazards and challenges of diplomatic life; he was falsely accused of being a top CIA agent. He recounts a little known aspect of the Cuban missile crisis. His assignments in Peru, Uruguay, and Guatemala exposed him to the terrorism of Marxist guerrilla groups.

Ortiz served under six U. S. presidents, worked directly for Henry Kissinger, and shares many intimate moments, including a remarkable meeting between President Jimmy Carter and Sir Eric Gairy, the prime minister of Grenada, who regularly spoke to God and the crews of flying saucers.

From Bill Richardson's Introduction

"Ambassador Ortiz's autobiography, to which I contribute these lines, is [a] collaboration in which we share a commitment to the coming generations by inspiring them to reach for the stars. In writing his autobiography, Ambassador Ortiz, an 'ordinary but curious kid from Santa Fe,' as he would have it, tells us how he made that stretch. We have faith that our joint aspirations will again be fulfilled as new generations rise to the challenges our world presents."

About the Authors

A thirteenth-generation New Mexican, Ambassador Ortiz, 1926-2005, resided in Santa Fe.

Don J. Usner is a professional photographer and the author of Benigna's Chimayo and Sabino's Map. He lives in Santa Fe.