HispanicVista Columnists

Latino Congressional Representation (1960-2005)

HISTORY

By John P. Schmal/HispanicVista.com

 

Hispanic Representation Up To 1960

With the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, we are reminded that Latino Americans and African Americans have endured a long and difficult struggle to obtain fair political representation in the U.S. Congress. 

 

Before the signing of that Act, such representation was rarely achieved.  Because of the illegal methods utilized to limit minority participation in the political process, Latino representation to the U.S. Congress from the contiguous forty-eight states had rarely been achieved before 1960 and, in fact, did not improve significantly until after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 

 

From 1900 to 1960, seventeen Hispanic Americans served in Congress.  However, nine of these representatives were Resident Commissioners of Puerto Rico, who did not have voting privileges.  Seven more delegates represented New Mexico.  Not until 1936, did the first American-born Latino serve a full term in the U.S. Senate.  Dennis Chávez, a Democrat, represented his New Mexico constituency for 27 years until his death in 1962. 

 

The Tide Changes in California

By 1960, the number of Hispanics living in the United States had reached 6.9 million, which represented roughly 3.9% of the total population of the country.  However, while the Hispanic population of most American states, was still relatively small, California was a different story.  In 1960, California had a total population of 15,717,204 persons. This new figure increased California’s representation in the U.S. Congress from 30 seats in 1950 to 38 seats.  Roughly 1.5 million Hispanics made up more than 9% of the California population, but 20% of these Hispanics were foreign-born, many of who were not naturalized and, as a result, were not eligible to vote. As a result, none of California’s 38 seats in Congress was held by a Chicano representative.

 

As the new decade commenced, there were still no Chicanos in the California State Senate, the Assembly or in the California Congressional delegation. There was no representation of the Mexican-American population in any part of California, primarily because of political fracturing of Chicano communities. In the early 1960s, the Chicano community of East Los Angeles was fractured into six separate Congressional districts and, before 1962 none of these districts sent a person with a Spanish surname to the House of Representatives.

 

However, the redistricting that took place in 1961 did create a Congressional district, which would pave a way for Edward Roybal to run for Congress. The newly created district included Boyle Heights and Downtown Los Angeles, which were already part of the district he represented in the Los Angeles City Council. The district also included parts of Hollywood, the Wilshire District and southwest Los Angeles to Exposition Boulevard. The 30^th District’s 179,737 registered voters were a healthy mix of Anglos, African Americans and Mexican Americans. After completing a survey of the district, Roybal decided to run for the seat.

In the June 1962 Primary Election, Roybal defeated Loyola University Professor William Fitzgerald and three other candidates to win the Democratic nomination for the 30^th Congressional District. In November, he defeated the Republican candidate for the 30^th District, Gordon McDonough, by procuring 57% of the vote.

 

In the November 6, 1962 General Election, Roybal defeated Loyola University Professor William Fitzgerald and thus became the first Hispanic from California to be elected to Congress since the 1879 election of Romualdo Pacheco to California’s 4^th Congressional District.

 

Edward Roybal took his seat in the House of Representatives on January 3, 1963 at the start of the 88th U.S. Congress. He would serve for twenty years from the 88th Congress to the 102nd Congress, retiring on January 3, 1993. From 1963 to 1975, Representative Roybal represented the 30th District. From 1975 to 1993, he served in the 25th District.

 

Texas Representation

Up to 1960, Congressional redistricting and reapportionment in the State of Texas had been very unfavorable to Tejano and African-American representation. In 1965, a Federal Court held Texas’ Congressional Districting act to be unconstitutional and stated that the Texas Legislature must redraw the Texas Congressional Districts in compliance with Wesberry v. Sanders. This would set the stage for a new era of Tejano representation to Congress.

 

Henry B. González

In 1958, Texas State Senator Henry B. Gonzáles (1916-2000), a native of San Antonio, had ran for the office of Governor in the Democratic primary, but lost.  However, in 1961, Congressman Paul Kilday, a Democrat, was appointed to the federal bench by President John F. Kennedy.  This left his congressional seat with the 20^th District vacant.  In 1961, Henry B. González was elected in a special election to fill this position and won by a margin of 10,000 votes, becoming the first Mexican-American representative to the U.S. Congress from Texas since statehood.

 

In his subsequent reelection bids, Congressman González faced very little opposition, usually winning at least eighty percent of the vote and running unopposed a number of times for his Bexar County district. Although he supported and initiated legislation for the welfare of Hispanic Americans, González avoided running on a Chicano platform.  He served as a Congressional Representative from 1961 to 1999 (the 87^th to the 105^th Congresses).

 

With the ratification of the 24^th Amendment on January 23, 1964, the U.S. Congress helped to bring an end to the Texas poll tax, which had been adopted early in the century. Stating that the right of citizens to vote “shall not be denied or abridged… by reason of failure to pay any poll tax,” the Amendment laid the legal foundation for ending the tax.  For two more years, the poll tax was still charged in Texas state and local elections. 

 

For this reason, different ballots had to be provided for voters qualified for all elections and for those voting only in federal elections. But, early in 1966, the Supreme Court held Virginia's poll tax to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. This ruling judicially invalidated the poll tax for all state and local elections.

 

The signing of the “Voting Rights Act of 1965” by President Johnson in 1965 took steps to eliminate any “standard, practice, or procedure,” including redistricting plans, which resulted in “denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.”  On a Federal Level, this Act made illegal the Texas redistricting policies of recent decades.

 

Kika de la Garza

After serving six consecutive terms as a representative in Austin, Eligio “Kika” de la Garza (born 1927) was elected in 1964 to the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Texas’ 15th Congressional District, which primarily included McAllen and Edinburg (Hidalgo County) and Kingsville (Kleberg County). 

 

When the 89^th Congress convened in 1965, Representative de la Garza took his seat as a Democrat, effectively ending a thirteen-year career in the Texas House of Representatives.  Kika would served in Congress from January 3, 1965 until the January 3, 1997 (the 89^th to 104^th Congresses).

 

Manuel Luján, Jr.

Manuel Lujan, Jr. (born 1928) was a member of a prominent and politically active family in New Mexico.  A native of San Ildefonso, Luján attended in college in Santa Fe and, after spending some time in his family’s insurance business, began his political career. In 1968, Luján was elected as a Republican candidate to the U.S. House of Representatives from New Mexico’s First District. He would serve his state in the Congress for two decades through the 91^st to 100^th Congresses (January 3, 1969 to January 3, 1989).

 

A New Decade (the 1970s)

The 1970s represented new opportunities for Chicano candidates.  The beginning of true Hispanic representation would be established during these years.  In 1970, California had a total population of 19,971,069 persons.  Of this total, 2,369,292 were Hispanics, who made up 10.8% of the state’s total population. 

 

Of the 2.4 million Hispanics living in California, 490,892 were foreign-born, making up 22.9% of the total Hispanic population. A significant number of the foreign-born residents had never been naturalized and were therefore ineligible for American voting privileges.  This represented a significant stumbling block in electing Chicanos to Congress. As a result, Edward Roybal represented the only Chicano sitting among the 43 California Representatives in Congress after the 1971 reapportionment.

 

In 1970, Texas had only two representatives:  Henry B. González represented Bexar County’s 20^th District, while Kika de la Garza represented the 15^th District of the southern border area.  Puerto Rico was represented by Resident Commissioner Jorge Luis Córdova Díaz, who served during the 91^st and 92^nd Congresses (January 3, 1969 to January 3, 1973). 

 

In New Mexico, Manuel Luján, Jr. served as Representative of the First District, while Joseph Manuel Montoya served in the U.S. Senate.  Senator Montoya would continue to serve his state as Senator from the 87^th to 91^st Congresses (November 3, 1964 to January 3, 1977).

 

During the 1970s, New York elected its first Hispanic Representative.  In 1971, Herman Badillo (born 1929) became the first Congressman born in Puerto Rico to represent a district in the continental United States.  A native of Caguas, Puerto Rico, Badillo had come to New York City when he was eleven years old and earned a B.A. degree from City College of New York. 

 

In 1970 Badillo was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York's 21st District in the South Bronx. He won with eighty-four percent of the vote and was reelected to the three succeeding Congresses, each time with an impressive percentage of the vote.  Congressman Badillo would serve as Representative for his district from the 92^nd to 95^th Congresses (January 3, 1971 to December 31, 1977).

 

In 1979, sixteen years after Edward Roybal had first entered the Congress, a second Hispanic representative was elected to represent his constituency in the House of Representatives.  Anthony Lee Coelho (born 1942), a native of Merced County, had earned a B.A. degree from Loyola University in Los Angeles.

 

In 1979, Coelho was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 15th District. In his first general election he received sixty percent of the vote and was subsequently reelected five times. Coelho’s career would last more than a decade from January 3, 1979 until his resignation on June 15, 1989.

 

The 1980s

According to the 1980 census, Hispanic Americans increased their numbers to 14,608,673 persons at the turn of the decade and now represented 6.4% of the national population.  Even as their numbers began to increase, however, their political representation in the subsequent years would see only small strides.

 

In Texas, the Hispanic population now reached 2,985,824, representing 21% of the total state population of 14,225,513.  But even with these significant demographic changes of recent decades, only two of Texas’ 24 Representative seats in Congress were occupied by Tejanos:  Henry B González and Kika de la Garza. 

 

With the 1981 reapportionment, the number of Texas Representatives to Congress would increase to 27.  So, although Tejanos had grown to represent 21% of the Texas state population, their two Congressmen represented only 7.4% of Texas’ delegation to Washington, D.C.

 

Puerto Rico was represented in Congress by Resident Commissioner Baltasar Corrada del Río (born 1935), who would continue to serve in that capacity from the 95^th through the 98^th Congresses (January 3, 1977 to January 3, 1985).  In New Mexico, with the end of Senator Joseph Manuel Montoya’s Senate career, Manuel Luján, Jr. served as the sole Hispanic representative of the people of that state.

 

In New York State, Representative Badillo had resigned in 1978 to become Deputy Mayor of New York City.  A special election to fill his position brought Robert Garcia (born 1933), a Bronx native, to Congress.  A Korean War veteran, Garcia had become the first Puerto Rican elected to the New York Senate in 1966. Garcia won his first election with fifty-five percent of the vote and would win reelection with high percentages of the vote in his next six elections.  He would serve his constituency from the 95^th to the 101^st Congresses (February 14, 1978 to January 7, 1990).

 

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC)

In 1976, Congressmen Herman Badillo (NY), Baltasar Corrada (PR), Kika de la Garza (TX), Henry B. Gonzalez (TX) and Edward Roybal (CA) joined forces to create the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC). Through this organization, the founders hoped to monitor legislative actions affecting the Latino population and to bring a greater awareness to Latino Americans of the operations and functions of the American political system. In October 1981, the CHC became a non-profit, fund-raising organization known by a new name: the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc. (CHCI).

n 1985 the Board of Directors of the CHCI was expanded to include influential Hispanic business people from the private sector and community leaders from across the country who, in conjunction with the Hispanic Members of Congress, were able to bring policy-related knowledge and experience from the local, state, and national levels to the Institute. This coalition of business and political resources created programs that were designed to offer leadership development training for talented young Hispanics.

Redistricting in California (1981)

In California, the Chicano population numbered 4,544,331 individuals and now represented 19.2% of the total population of 23,667,902.  In spite of these steadily increasing numbers, California’s forty-three seats in the House of Representatives were occupied by only two Hispanics:  Edward R. Roybal and Anthony Lee Coelho. 

 

The effect of California’s rapid population growth finally yielded results for the Chicano population in 1982 elections.  After the reapportionment of 1981, California qualified for the addition of two more Congressional seats by virtue of the returns from the 1980 census schedules.  With the addition of two new “open” districts, California’s delegation to Congress increased to 45 seats.  In addition, the restructuring of other districts and the retirement of one Congressman opened up the possibility of bringing several new Chicano Representatives to Washington, D.C.

 With Richard Alatorre as the head of the Assembly Committee with the task of drawing the new district lines, the Latino community seemed assured of at least one more congressional position. As it turned out, the reapportionment paved the way for two more Chicano Congressman to take their seats in Washington.

The 30^th Congressional District, represented by Democrat George Danielson for most of the last decade, was molded into a new district that encompassed El Monte, Alhambra, Monterey Park, San Gabriel, Montebello, Maywood and Cudahy.  53-year-old Matthew “Marty” Martinez, serving in the California State Assembly from Monterey Park, won this seat in the November General Election.

At the same time, the 34^th Congressional District of California, encompassing Norwalk, West Covina, Pico Rivera, La Puente and South El Monte, was won by Esteban Torres of La Puente, a former White House official in the Jimmy Carter administration. Both Representatives Martinez and Torres joined longtime U.S. Rep. Edward Roybal (D-Los Angeles) and Representative Coelho, bringing an increase of California’s Chicano Congressional delegation to four individuals.

Texas

For Texas, the number of seats in the House of Representatives was increased from 24 to 27 with the next reapportionment.  The primary beneficiary of this increase was Solomon P. Ortiz (born 1938), a native of Corpus Christi, who came to Congress representing the Texas 27^th District in 1983.  Ortiz was followed two years later by Albert G. Bustamante, a Democrat representing the 23^rd District.

 Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

The 1980s were notable for the election of Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (born 1952) who became the first Hispanic woman elected to Congress.  A native of Havana, Cuba, Ileana had immigrated to the United States when she was seven years old.  Educated in Florida, Ros-Lehtinen began her political career in 1982 when she was elected to the Florida House of Representatives, becoming the first Hispanic woman elected to Florida's State legislature. She served until 1986, when she became a State Senator. Then, in 1989, Ros-Lehtinen was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Claude D. Pepper. 

Representative Ros-Lehtinen represented Florida's 18th District where, according to the 1990 census, sixty-seven percent of the population was Hispanic.  Ros-Lehtinen was the first Hispanic elected to represent Florida in 166 years and she had the distinction of also being the first Cuban-American and the first Latino woman to serve in the United States Congress.

The 1990s

From the 101^st Congress in 1990 to the 105^th Congress in 1999, the representation of Latinos in Congress increased from 11 to 19. The increase in political representation, which was also manifested in several state legislatures, took place as qualified Latino candidates stepped forward to run for offices in states where they had previously held little or no political power. In most cases, these candidates won elections by developing coalitions that crossed ethnic and racial lines.

The first Latino Representative from the State of Illinois, Luis Gutiérrez, was elected as the Representative of Chicago’s Fourth District in the General Election of 1992. A native of Chicago, Representative Gutiérrez has worked as a teacher, social worker and alderman on the Chicago City Council before his election to the One Hundred and Ninth Congress.

In New Jersey, Robert Menéndez, a native of New York City and the son of Cuban immigrants, was elected as the Representative from Union City, New Jersey. At a young age, he had moved to Union City, where he served as a member of the Board of Education and as Mayor. He also served in the New Jersey State General Assembly and in the New Jersey Senate before his 1992 election to Congress.

Latino Representation in the New Millennium

On November 7, 2000, the first General Election of the New Millennium took place. Before the election, nineteen Congressional Representatives served from seven states:  California (6 Representatives), Texas (6), New York (2), Florida (2), Arizona (1), Illinois (1) and New Jersey (1). Fifteen of the nineteen Representatives were Democrats, while four were Republicans.

However, by the time the votes had been tallied up from the General Election, it became apparent that Latino representation in Congress would remain at 19, with no significant gains by the group.

After the November 5, 2002 General Election, Latino representation in Congress would increase from 19 to 22. Although Hispanic representation in Congress would remain confined to seven states, those states saw an increase in Latino representation: California (7 representatives), Texas (6), Florida (3), Arizona (2), New York (2), Illinois (1) and New Jersey (1).

 The Election of November 2004

The Election of November 2, 2004 represented a watershed in Latino political representation, as it brought two Hispanic Senators into that house of Congress, which had not seen a Latino in its chambers since Joseph Montoya had left office in 1977.

 A fifth-generation Coloradan, Ken Salazar had served as Colorado’s Attorney General for six years before running for the office of Senator. In the General Election of 2004, Salazar, who came from a long line of farmers in the San Luis Valley, was elected to serve as Senator of Colorado’s 3^rd Congressional District. At the same time, his brother John Salazar, became Colorado’s first Latino to serve in the House of Representatives.

 At the same time, Mel Martinez, formerly the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, was elected to serve as the first Latino U.S. Senator from the State of Florida. Ironically, New Mexico, which had been represented in Congress by Latinos frequently between 1853 and 1997, had no Hispanic representation in either the Senate or the House. In both  California and Texas, all of the incumbents had held onto their seats.

Overall, Latino representation in the U.S. Congress reached its highest point in history, with the following numbers:

Arizona (2 Representatives)

California (7 Representatives)

Colorado (1 Senator, 1 Representative)

Florida (1 Senator, 3 Representatives)

Illinois (1 Representative)

New Jersey (1 Representative)

New York (2 Representatives)

Texas (6 Representatives)

The victories of the incumbents and challengers brought the representation of Latinos to 25 at the start of 2005, a significant jump from the six Representatives who were serving twenty-five years earlier.

 _______________________________________________________________________

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