TIME

October 24, 1988 12:00 AM EDT

If U.S. Hispanics have had a political folk hero lately, it has been bright and handsome mayor Henry Cisneros of San Antonio. So high had his star risen during four much admired terms in office that in 1984 Cisneros was considered a potential Democratic vice-presidential candidate. But last week the mayor, 41, took a dive off his pedestal into the sort of public mess that swallowed up Gary Hart. Cisneros confessed, in an off-the-record interview with columnist Paul Thompson, published by the San Antonio Express-News, that he has been entangled in a two-year love affair with a 39-year-old married campaign worker, Linda Medlar. Said Medlar, wife of a local jeweler, in the same article: “He’s the love of my life . . . We hope to be able to live out the rest of our lives together.” The mayor had admitted unspecified marital “difficulties” in his 19-year marriage to high school sweetheart Mary Alice. They have three children, including a son born last year with a heart defect. The stunning disclosure came after months of rumors about his extramarital love life and only a month after Cisneros declared he would not seek a fifth term. As observers were quick to point out, in a constituency with a Roman Catholic and Hispanic majority, his revelations about Linda, an Anglo, could make his retirement permanent.

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