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Latino Heritage Month in this Crucial Election Year, 2008

Recalling Pioneering Latinos in U.S. Politics, in a Year of Political Firsts

By Carol Amoruso, HAV Editor

The presidential elections this year brought to the campaign trail candidates who broke through race and gender barriers that long gave lie to the understanding that we are a truly pluralistic nation offering equal opportunity to all.  Whether the Republican or Democratic slate takes possession of the White House come January 2009, we’ll have either an African American or a woman in the highest or second highest office in the most powerful country in the world.  Although much of the world has passed us by, still, for us, it will be a significant landmark.

During the primaries Latinos made an admirable effort to share the precedent-setting when Bill Richardson threw his hat into the presidential ring.  The New Mexico governor make a formidable and principled go of his campaign and subsequently placed on the shortlist of eventual vice presidential contenders. 

In light of this historic election year, and with an eye to the future for Latinos, we’re devoting our commemoration of Latino Heritage to tracing the history of Latinos/as elected to national office. 

The House

Florida, New Mexico, and California, three states with significant Hispanic populations today, were the first states to send Latino elected officials to the U.S. Congress.  Joseph Marion Hernández, a brigadier general born in St. Augustine, was elected in 1822.  After a failed run for the Senate, he left Florida for Cuba where he lived out his days as a sugar planter.  José Manuel Gallegos, an ordained Roman Catholic priest, was elected to the House as a Democrat from New Mexico in 1853.  New Mexico was a territory at the time, having been annexed as part of the treaty following the Mexican-American war (1846–1848), with the provision that it would become a state.  Gallegos was held prisoner of war by the Texas Confederate Army during the Civil War, and elected again to Congress, in 1871.  Romualdo Pacheco, a sailor and farmer, holding first several state offices before replacing the sitting governor, in 1875, served as a Republican from California in the Forty-fifth Congress in 1877, moving on to appointments at several diplomatic posts in Latin America.

After the conclusion of the Spanish-American war (1895 – 1898), when the U.S. took control of Spain’s remaining colonies, including Puerto Rico, one delegate from the island (a territory that has never been on the statehood track) was to be elected to Congress.  That first delegate was Federico Degetau, taking office in 1901.   Degetau was also a writer, founding the newspaper, La Isla de Pueto Rico, which he used to advocate for his people with the colonialists to the North.

The Senate

Octaviano Larrazolo, after serving as Governor of New Mexico, became the first Hispanic U.S. Senator.  He was elected in 1928.  Due to illness, he served only 6 months, however.  In 1936, Dennis Chavez of Louisiana became the first Latino elected as a full-term Senator.   Chavez, who served continuously until his death in 1962, was known as an advocate for Hispanic and working and poor people’s rights.

In 1961, Henry Gonzalez became Texas’ first Hispanic Representative (a little late for the Lone Star State, one would think).  The Democrat, known for his progressive views, served for 36 years, and groomed his son to fill his seat, which Charlie Gonzalez did in 1999 and still holds.

New York’s first Hispanic congressperson, Herman Badillo, elected in 1970, was also the first Puerto Rican to sit in the House.  Born in Puerto Rico but raised in the Bronx, Badillo had a long, illustrious and at times capricious career in public service.  His early championing of bilingual education, for example, became in his later political life a bugaboo, and his overall politics have shifted from progressive Democratic to conservative Republican.

Badillo was a founder, in 1976, of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus along with Baltasar Corrada del Río (PR), Kika de la Garza (TX), Henry B. Gonzalez (TX) and Edward Roybal (CA).  The Hispanic Caucus serves to advocate for and monitor programs and legislation involving the Hispanic community.

The Latinas

Cuban-born Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was the first Latina Representative.  She has been elected since 1989 when she won a special vote to fill a vacant seat.   Ros-Lehtinen’s positions, as a Republican, mostly represent those of her old-guard Cuban-American Floridian constituents, although she is known to support gay rights.

In 1993, Lucille Roybal-Allard—daughter of Edward Roybal, the first Latino Congressman to serve from California since Romualdo Pacheco—was elected the first Mexican-American woman Representative.  Roybal-Allard is a former public relations careerist and fund-raiser for the United Way.  She is a still serving Democrat, and her strong suit is social legislation, advocating for jobs, health care, education and the environment.

In the same year, Democrat Nydia Velasquez came to the House from New York, the first Puerto Rican woman to be elected to Congress.  She’d previously been the first Puerto Rican to serve on New York’s City Council.  Velasquez is a strong advocate for women, the poor, and Latinos.

The round up, with room for improvement

In all, there have been six Latinos who have served as U.S. Senators, a list that is dismayingly paltry, especially since it contains no women.  Currently serving are Ken. Salazar (D - Colorado), Mel Martinez (R – Florida, and the first Cuban-American Senator) and Robert Menendez (D - New Jersey).  Twenty-three Latinos are currently serving in the House, with an additional two, Resident Commissioners from Puerto Rico and Guam, who have no voting privileges.