Third Reality
By Nieto, Ernesto '64

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Third Reality:
Crafting a 21st Century Latino Agenda

In the small town of Maxwell, TX, Ernesto Nieto is busy planning or putting the finishing touches on upcoming programs developed, sponsored, and produced by the National Hispanic Institute, (NHI). Today he sits as the Institutes Co-founder and Executive President, but twenty-two years ago it was a different story. At age thirty-five, Ernie, as he is most commonly known as, found himself at a crossroads that would change his life and the future of the Latino community.

In Third Reality: Crafting a 21st Century Latino Agenda, Nieto chronicles the long and faith testing trials that he and the other NHI founders experienced during the early creation days of 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 (Chapter1, Legacy of Family). "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 1940's, lessons which would not be fully realized and understood until later in his life.

Each chapter tells of how Ernesto, and Gloria de Leon, his life-long 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. "The book is a complete anthology of the stories told to NHI participants of the 'early' years of NHI. We were only told the quick versions, but now knowing the whole story one's respect for NHI-Ernie, Gloria, and all those who have aided in its growth-can only grow stronger and deeper", states an NHI alumna.

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. This is 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.

The days were dark, yet there was the faith of a few that stood tall and pushed on to become who they are today.  This book captures the spirit and faith on one family's legacy, one man's dream, a representation of the millions unheard in the Latino community.