he stopped off at san juan capistrano. i believe it was actually on the way down. he also stopped off at camp pendleton. and there were a couple of marine corps guys throwing a football by the side of the road. this is all long before, you know, kind of population that exists in southern california today. so things were much more -- the roads -- yeah, the roads were different. so anyway, he tossed a couple of footballs with these guys in the marine corps. but yeah. i mean, i often wondered, was it an attempt to get the hispanic votes in southern california to have it known that you went to mexico on election day? >> didn't he write that he said -- >> he liked mexican food. >> -- he went with an aide who was catholic, and he said, you're my favorite catholic, and this is my favorite catholic place? >> i think that may be. that's one version. i mean, there are different versions of it. >> however, he did find, when he got to tijuana, a whole bunch of reporters doing other things other than having lunch. >> and please, nobody here go to tijuana. please stay around. we

he stopped off at san juan capistrano. he also stopped off at camp pendelton and there were a couple of marine corps guys throwing a football by the side of the road and this was all long before the population that exists in southern california today. so things were much more -- the roads were different. anyway, he tossed a couple of footballs with the marine corps, but yeah. i often wondered if it was an attempt to get hispanic votes in southern california to make it known that he went to mexico on election day? >> he went with an aide who was catholic and said you're my favorite catholic and this is my favorite catholic place? >> that's one version. they had different versions of it. >> however, he did find when he got to tijuana a whole bunch of reporters doing thin things ot than having lunch. >> please nobody here go to tijuana. we'll end this fine panel. let's give our panelists a hand. >>> this week on "american artifacts" we visit the center for education and leadership across the street from ford's theater where j

and on the way backstop at mission san juan capistrano to be the only candidate that set foot in the catholic church on election day 1960. is there truth to that? >> it is true that on election day richard nixon became the first maybe only candidate to run for president to leave the united states on election day. by having lunch in tijuana. and there may have been some political calculation in this, although the fact is that the election was all but over -- remember, we didn't have cable news in those days, so there's not a lot of news reporting -- in fact, it wasn't known he was in tijuana because he had managed to escape the press was the whole point. he was trying to get away from the media and went to tijuana because nobody would recognize him in a significant enough way that he could manage to have a quiet lunch. he did stop off at san juan. i don't know that he actually went into the church. he stopped off i believe on the way down. he also stopped off at camp pendleton and there were a couple marine corps guys throwing a football by the side of the road. this is all long befor