HispanicVista Columnists

Chicano Representation: Coming into their own (1975-1984)

By John P Schmal/HispanicVista.com

July 18, 2005

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POLITICAL HISTORY

The 1960s and early 1970s were the beginning of a new era for Chicano representation in California.  For the first time since the 1870s, Hispanics were able to send delegates to represent them in both Congress and in Sacramento. But, the tentative grasp that Chicano legislators had on power was uncertain and very unstable.  Most of the processes that had denied them power for so many decades were still intact.  Redistricting in East Los Angeles continued to fracture the large Chicano voting bloc. But a steadily increasing population in parts of California seemed to indicate that sooner or later, more representation would follow.

 

In January 1975, Chicano representation in Sacramento amounted to four members in the Assembly and two in the Senate:  Senator Ruben S. Ayala represented the 32^nd District, while Alex P. García served in the 24^th District.  In the Assembly, the four representatives were Richard Alatorre (55^th District), Art Torres (56^th District), Joseph Montoya (60^th District), and Peter Chacón (69^th District). Two years earlier, the Chicano Legislative Caucus had been founded in the hopes of promoting the political empowerment of the Latino communities of California.

 

Councilperson Snyder and East Los Angeles

In the Los Angeles City Council, Councilman Art Snyder continued to represent East Los Angeles’ largely Latino Fourteenth District. Serving since July 7, 1967, Arthur K. Snyder held onto his position by winning 11,514 votes (57.84%), while his opponents, David López Lee and Edward Avila, won only 3,958 and 2,860 votes, respectively. 

 

During the 1972 reapportionment, Chicano political activists had lobbied for the creation of two Hispanic Councilmanic districts, in the hopes of giving that community a new voice in the Los Angeles City Council.  No Latinos had served on the Council since Edward Roybal’s departure in 1962, this in spite of the fact that by 1970, Hispanics had come to represent 18.3% of the total population of the City of Los Angeles.

 

The pleas of Chicano activists were ignored by the Council, and Councilperson Snyder was given representation of an Eastside district that was 64% Hispanic.  Snyder made the best of this situation by learning Spanish and hiring an effective Latino staff to help him serve his constituency.  Although Snyder’s district was dominantly Latino, he held the support of many Chicanos and maintained his base of power, winning regular elections and surviving two recall votes until his retirement in 1985. 

 

Councilperson Snyder’s 14^th District included the communities of Boyle Heights, Lincoln Heights, El Sereno and Highland Part, where significant numbers of Latinos lived.  However, Snyder also enjoyed the backing of a powerful block of conservative Anglo voters in the Eagle Rock neighborhood.  At election time, the support of Snyder’s Eagle Rock constituency considerably outweighed the voting influence of the other districts, which had larger numbers of non-voting immigrant residents.

 

The 1978 Elections

In the 1978 Primary Election, Alex P. García won 32,377 votes (71.9%) against four other Democratic opponents in his second race for the 24^th Senatorial District.  Then came the General Election of November 7, 1978: In the General Election, Alex P. García received 51,075 votes in the race for the 24^th Senatorial District against the Republican Loyal A. Weaver, who received 19,340 votes.

 

In the Primary election of 1978, Richard Alatorre won 13,743 votes, winning 71.7% against his two Democratic opponents, Joseph R. Chavez and Sally Acosta, in the battle for the 55^th Assembly District.  In the General Election, Richard Alatorre easily defeated his Republican opponent, John M. Feliz, by 27,081 to 18,510 votes.

 

In 1978, Joseph Montoya moved from the Assembly to the State Senate. However, a Latino did not win Montoya’s Assembly seat in the 60th District when he advanced to the State Senate. 

 

In the 1978 Primary Election, Congressman Edward Roybal easily defeated his Republican opponent, Robert K. Watson, by 38,699 votes to 11,289 in the battle for his 25^th Congressional District.  By this time, Congressman Roybal had served his constituency for almost 16 years, having taken his seat in the House of Representatives in 1963.

 

In 1978, Senator Ruben S. Ayala was reelected to the 32^nd Senatorial District, putting together 79,837 votes, against John Ridley’s 48,415 votes.  Art Torres won 17,582 votes in the primary election for Los Angeles’ 57^th Assembly District.  In the 56^th Assembly District race, Art Torres won 23,086 votes against J. Raul Blacksten’s 5,512 votes.

 

The 1980 Elections

In 1980, Matthew “Marty” G. Martinez, a Monterey Park Councilman, was elected to the Assembly. Before entering politics, Martinez ran an upholstery shop in Monterey Park.  However in 1974, he won election to the Monterey Park City Council.  In 1980 Democratic Primary Election, he defeated the 16-year incumbent, Jack Fenton, who had initially defeated John Moreno.  This victory was engineered with money and support from Representative Howard Berman of Panorama City, who had hoped to oust Fenton in order to win the Assembly Speakership. A resident of Monterey Park in Los Angeles County, Martinez had been born in Colorado and served as Mayor of Monterey Park for several years. The political expertise and financial support of Berman was crucial in bringing Martinez into the Assembly.

 

In the November 4 General Election, Richard Alatorre, the Democratic incumbent for the 55^th Assembly District of Los Angeles, won 33,819 votes (67.4%) against his two opponents.  At the same time, Art Torres easily won reelection to Los Angeles’ 56^th Assembly District, receiving 24,848 or 81.4% of the votes in his run against two opponents.

 

Assemblyman Peter Chacón won reelection to the 79^th District (San Diego) with 42,844 votes (62.1%) against the Republican Bailey, who received 25,447 votes (or 38%).  In the 25^th Congressional, District, Roybal easily won reelection with 49,080 votes, or 66% of the total in his race.

 

After the 1980 elections had ended, California Chicanos were represented by two senators (Ayala and García), five Assemblymen (Alatorre, Torres, Chacón, Martinez, and Montoya), and one Congressman (Roybal).

 

The 1982 Elections

The year 1982 became an important year for Chicano representation in the State of California.  The State Legislature, under the direction of State Assemblyman Richard Alatorre, had reapportioned political districts through the State. As Chairman of the Assembly’s Reapportionment Committee, Alatorre had played an important role in creating two new Latino Congressional Districts.  As a result of this reapportionment, two Latinos Marty Martinez and Esteban Torres were elected to Congress and joined longtime U.S. Representative Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles), who had been the only Latino in the state's congressional delegation since 1962.

 

In a special election on July 13, 1982, Marty Martinez, the Democratic Assemblyman from Monterey Park (who had joined the Assembly after the 1980 Assembly election), was elected as the Representative of the 31^st District to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of George E. Danielson (who had resigned to become an appeals court justice).  Martinez then defeated the Republican John Rousselot, a Congressman who had lost his district through reapportionment in a very heated campaign.  Marty Martinez would eventually be reelected to nine succeeding Congresses, serving from July 13, 1982 to January 3, 2001.

 

Esteban Edward Torres, the Democratic Assemblyman from La Puente, was elected to serve as the U.S. Representative to Congress from California’s newly created 34^th District, which included the East Los Angeles business district, Pico Rivera, Whittier and Santa Fe Springs, and other environs of the San Gabriel Valley.   He would serve in this capacity to 1999.

 

State Senator Richard Alarcon, representing Sun Valley, was elected to represent the 20^th Senate District, which included the greater San Fernando Valley. Alarcon, who narrowly defeated Assemblyman Richard Katz in June's primary election, won the general election by garnering more than 66 percent of the vote.

 

In the meantime, Montebello School Board member, Charles M. Calderon, gained Martinez’s vacated Assembly position.  Charles Calderon, a Democrat from Alhambra, was elected to serve the 59^th Assembly District, which included Alhambra, Monterey Park, South El Monte, Pico Rivera, Montebello and parts of South San Gabriel, Whittier, El Monte and the City of Industry.  Assemblyman Calderon would serve in this capacity from November 1982 until April 1990, when he was elected to the Senate to represent the 30th Senate District.

 

Also in 1982, Assemblyman Art Torres challenged the incumbent State Senator Alex Garcia in a bitter primary battle for the 24^th Senate District and won. The 24^th Senate District included South Pasadena, East Los Angeles, Eagle Rock, Vernon, Maywood, Commerce and Bell Gardens. 

 

The Rise of Gloria Molina

Torres' vacant Assembly position itself produced a bitter battle.  Thirty-four-year-old Gloria Molina had put together an impressive resume by working for various state and federal political causes. A native of Montebello, Molina went to Assemblyman Richard Alatorre –  who had already become a powerful local political figure – and asked for his endorsement in her campaign for the 56th Assembly District seat.

 

However, Alatorre had already picked his own candidate, Richard Polanco, for the position. Spurned by the Eastside political establishment, Gloria Molina took on their handpicked candidate for a State Assembly seat and won, even against great political odds. In defiance of the old-boy network, Molina defeated Polanco and would serve in the State Assembly from 1982 to 1987, becoming the first Chicana elected to the State Legislature and the first to hold a significant elective position in Los Angeles County.

 

By the end of 1982, Chicano representation had increased significantly from eight elected officials to ten.  In Sacramento, Ruben S. Ayala and Art Torres served as Senators, while five persons (Alatorre, Chacón, Montoya, Molina and Calderón) had seats in the Assembly.  At the same time, the number of Chicano Congressman had increased from one to three.

 

November 6, 1984 General Election

In 1984, all three Chicano Representatives to Congress were reelected to their positions. Edward Roybal won reelection to the 25^th Congressional District with 74,261 votes (or 71.7%) against the Republic Bill Bloxom and Libertarian Anthony G. Bajada. At the same time, Representative Marty Martinez won reelection to the 30^th Congressional District, with 64,378 votes (51.8%) against his Republic opponent, Richard Gomez, who won 53,900 votes (43.3%).  Esteban Torres also won the race for 34^th Congressional District with 87,060 votes (59.8%) against his Republican opponent Paul R. Jackson, who received 58,467 (40.2%).

 

Meanwhile, in the California State Assembly, Richard Alatorre won reelection to the 55^th Assembly District with 44,505 votes (70.1% of the total).  Charles Calderon, the Democratic Incumbent, won reelection to the 59^th Assembly District with 55,869 votes (67.1%).  Pete Chacón won reelection to San Diego’s 79^th Assembly District, winning with 52,898 votes (66.9%) against Shirley M. Gissendanner’s 23,420 votes (29.6%).

 

In 1985, seven Chicanos were seated California State Legislature, making up 6% of the total membership: Chacón, Alatorre, Calderon and Molina in the Assembly, and Joseph Montoya, Ruben Ayala, and Art Torres in the Senate. In the meantime, three Chicano Congressman continued to serve as delegates from California in the House of Representatives.

 

 

As California moved into the second half of the decade, Federal agencies and Chicano activists in Los Angeles began to chronicle a continuing practice of discrimination against the Latino community with regards to reapportionment.  At the beginning of 1985, no Latino sat on either the Los Angeles City Council or the County Board of Supervisors, even though the Latino population of Los Angeles County had been tallied at 27.6% in the census five years earlier.  Starting in 1985, a series of events would take place that would bring a great balance to the representation of Hispanics in both Los Angeles and the State of California.

 

To be Continued

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John Schmal was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.  He attended Loyola-Marymount University in Los Angeles and St. Cloud State University in Minnesota, where he studied Geography, History and Earth Sciences and received two BA degrees.  Mr. Schmal has been a life-long history buff and is also a skilled genealogist. His genealogical specialties including tracing lineages in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Southwestern U.S.A.  He is the coauthor of "Mexican-American Genealogical Research: Following the Paper Trail to Mexico" (Heritage Books, 2002).  He has also coauthored three other books on Mexican-American themes, all of them published by Heritage Books in Maryland. He is an Associate Editor of www.somosprimos.com and a board member of the Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research (SHHAR). Presently, in addition to writing weekly columns for HispanicVista.com (www.hispanicvista.com),  he is writing a book on the indigenous peoples of Mexico and on the ports of entry along the Mexican-US border.  Mr. Schmal has a passionate love of Mexican history and has been writing short histories of each state, which are being compiled at the following link:
http://www.houstonculture.org/mexico/states.html