Albert Moreau provided the first radical Latino voice in the electoral arena in the Northeast when he ran for the state assembly in New York in 1929. Thirty-two at the time, the Argentine-born Moreau was a veteran of the U.S. anti-imperialist movement of the 1920s. In New York, he helped found the Centro Obrera de Habla Española, or Spanish Speaking Workers Center, in Harlem; it became the headquarters for the Communist Party’s Latino outreach during the early days of the Great Depression. Moreau likewise provided a Spanish voice within the party, serving on the Central Committee of the CPUSA, and aiding the Communist struggle in Cuba during the early 1930s.
Bert A. Gallegos, Colorado Legislator, 1955-1963
Bert A. Gallegos served in the Colorado state legislature from 1955 to 1963. He represented voters in Denver and was the sole Hispanic solon during most of his tenure.
Interesting, the number of Hispanic legislators was much greater during the New Deal period. Five served during the Roosevelt years: Herman J. Atencio (1933-1939), Alejandro M. Guerrero (1935-1937), Juan Noriega (1936-1940), Daniel Vigil (1941-1943), and Frank Lacombe (1943-1946).
The following portrait of Gallegos is reprinted from Colorado: Latin American Personalities, a wonderful little pamphlet published back in 1959.
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Bert A. Gallegos is a man with a purpose, and the zeal and courage to make his dream come true. He believes is civic and political responsibility for all persons, and especially for the Latin American community.
As a practicing attorney and a leading member of the Colorado House of Representatives, Gallegos has and is continuing to make a direct and valuable contribution to better the life of his group. Continue reading
Posted in Activist Profiles, Elected Officials, Southwest
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Senator Mel Martinez and GOP Moderates
The most prominent Hispanic elected official during the past decade was U.S. senator Mel Martinez from Florida. His life story, his ubiquitous presence on Spanish-language television, and his close association with President George W. Bush gave him a tremendous cache.
New biography tells a wonderful personal story and provides a powerful warning to the Republican Party on why they have trouble courting Hispanics.
Martinez’s story is chronicled in Richard E. Foglesong’s new biography, Immigrant Prince: Mel Martinez and the American Dream(University Press of Florida, 2011).
A page-turner, Immigrant Prince is both heartwarming and coldly analytical in examining the man who, for many, came to encapsulate the American Dream as well as the failed Republican Party’s efforts to incorporate Hispanics into a “big tent.”
The story begins in Cuba in 1962 where, at age 15, Martinez bids farewell to his parents and friends and heads for the United States in one of the opening acts in a drama known as Operation Peter Pan, a now-famous resettlement program run by the Catholic Church.
But instead of being dropped off in the growing Cuban enclave of Miami, as was the experience of most Peter Panners, he was placed with Anglo foster families in Orlando, a central Florida community with few ethnic residents. Continue reading
