>> american history tv is on social media. c-span history. >> matthew wasniewski talks about hispanic americans who

served in congress. prior to the mid-20th century, many served as territorial delegates and commissioners as opposed to voting representatives. archives hosted this event and provided the video. historian at the center for legislative archives. thank you for attending today's talk on this last day of july. this is the last talk in the series until we resume in september. for those of you in attendance, our guest hardly needs an introduction. matthew wasniewski is the historian of the u.s. house of representatives and a member of the advisory meeting on the records of congress. friend andgtime

supporter, as well of us -- as well as a source of guidance to the center through his service on the advisory committee. matt is here today to discuss hispanic americans in congress, which was published last year. this is the third in a series that has come out of the house office under his leadership. the previously published volumes being women in congress 1917-2006, black americans in congress, 1870-2007. count for these 2573.volumes is and still counting. i believe there is a fourth volume in the works. this series represents a very substantial effort for which we are all grateful and eager to

hear about this latest publication and thank you so much for joining us, matt. matthew: pleasure to be here. your reference to page count was excellent because i was recently talking to -- and this is the book, by the way -- i was recently talking to a major trade press editor and she was telling me about a few of her authors, one of whom is very well known historian and she writes 800 page history books. she relays the story the author told her of a friend who bought the authors book and says this is just a fantastic book, i cannot put it down. i am taking it to get dressed and taking to bed. last night, i was reading it in bed and i fell asleep. the book dropped on the bridge of my nose, and now i have a bruise.

this is a teachable moment for the author. no more broken noses. that is the new book rule. violates definitely that rule. it is a nose breaker. it fits the arnold schwarzenegger role, you get your workout when you lift it up. it is meant as a reference book. thingsthe interesting that happens when you write about individual members at some length, the essays are about 1500-3000 words, you get what looks like seemingly disconnected dots. to make a bigger picture. certainly, a larger picture emerged as we were working on this publication.

to give you some quick background on the book, it is the third in a series. in some ways, it is a book that is very much like it's two predecessors. women in congress, we publish the latest addition of that in 2007. the book on african americans, we published in 2009. -- the primel mover behind the original edition was lindy boggs of louisiana, which -- who was a great proponent of house history. those books were like pamphlets at the time because so few women and african-americans had actually served in congress. a second edition was published in the early 1990's. a volume on hispanic americans -- we did not have a history operation so the library of congress produced the first

edition, which appeared in 1995. we are working on asian pacific islander americans, which is a few years down the road. it mirrors the structure of the books on women and black americans in congress. their individual essays about every member introduced in chronological order with contextual essays that set them in generational groups. these are fortified by appendices and historical images and artifacts, some of which people around the table have helped us find. it is aimed at upper high school/lower college audience. some of the storylines to mirror one another. -- do mirror one another cared women, african-americans,

hispanic americans, each of those storylines, there is attorney point -- turning point where they become surrogate members. there is also a similar part to the story in terms of how the groups are integrated into congress over time. there is a pioneering generation that has to work their way into the institution. there is a long apprenticeship phase where they gain seniority and get on good committees and work their way up into leadership. and then there is a mature integration phase, and that usually happens when there is a of enough members to create an issues caucus. this is distinct from women and african-americans. it is a story that stretches all the way back to 1822 to joseph marion hernandez.

women, half afore century before we see african-americans in congress. the story is driven by american foreign policy, expansion continental he and globally -- ly and globally. the purchase of florida from spain, the annexation of texas. democracy,about representation at the borders of american democracy. , statutory representatives, the constitution did not really contemplate and how they were incorporated into congress. how congress not only created the office but often gave them

limited and circumscribed powers. and then the fact that these individuals, for the most part, were representing majority hispanic constituencies. the question of how these people would be incorporated or whether they would actually be incorporated into the body politic. an interesting aspect of the story, up until war will to -- -- mainlyd to delegates from new mexico and resident commissioners from puerto rico. from a research perspective, this book is a little bit different, too, because unlike the fields of women's history and african-american history, hispanic, latino studies does not have as many monographs or political biographies of the individuals covered. in this aspect, the field is somewhat undeveloped and splintered. much of our research relied on

primary sources, paper collection in santa fe and albuquerque, local and regional spanish and english language newspapers. we relied heavily on the hispanic division, which was fantastic at the library of congress. they guided us to resources in new mexico and puerto rico and helped us with the storylines in the book. we used the periodicals room to look at a number of newspapers, particularly puerto rican newspapers. helpful san juan star. at national archives, to capture the story of puerto rican resident commissioners and territorial delegates, we went into a number of different record groups. the department of interior

territorial papers, record group 48, the records of the office of the territories, record 126, and the center for legislative archives supplied us with a lot of images, original documents and certificates of election. the book is structured like the volumes on women in congress and african-americans around several long generations. the first runs from 1822-1898. the era of continental expansion in the u.s. the second breaks down from the spanish-american war to world war ii, era of u.s. colonial global expansion. and in the third from world war ii until -- through the civil rights movement up until 1976. the hispanic caucus was created in december of 1976.

post-1977 is the modern era. i thought it might be useful to go through a couple of the individuals along the way and trace the storyline. i am happy to take questions at the end. i am hoping to leave 15 or 20 minutes without. the first individual, joseph hernandez served a very brief term. he is an incredibly interesting person, more for his career outside of congress because it was so short. he was wasn't -- he was one of these individuals who helped bridge the states cultural and governmental transition from spanish colony to u.s. territory. he had fought for spain prior to the turnover to u.s. control. he later fought for the united states, particularly against seminole indians in several of the conflicts with local indian tribes. he earned and lost a great fortune on several plantations.

he owned hundreds of african-american slaves. this guy is a slaveowning indian fighting politician who would be cut from the jacksonian cloth. he embodied attitudes toward statehood and representation that many of the delegates in the 19th century later would. the term of service was very brief. it set a precedent for later territorial delegates. he was the very first delegate from florida. focus, it was largely internal improvement. this is the storyline that follows throughout the 19th century. he focused on a postal road from saint augustine to pensacola. like a lot of the territorial delegates, he had no committee assignments. his powers were very limited. he could introduce legislation, cajole members, lobby, but his

powers on the floor were circumscribed. the story takes a turn with war with mexico in 1846. this is the first major turning point in the story and it raised questions for congress about how territories with culturally unique populations acquired from the massive mexican secessions these wake of war, how would be represented in the federal government and eventually incorporated. this individual is the second hispanic american to serve in congress. allegos.se geye

in 1853, the second delegate from the new mexico territory. there was an anglo delegate that preceded him. he comes from an interesting background. he has been an -- a legislator in the mexican assembly representing nuevo mexico. he had become very adept. he had been a former priest and after the transition to american rule, had been defrocked. an american bishop came in and chased him out. he switched to a career in politics. 1853,es to washington in and he does not speak english. he knows very little about the american political system. he knows very little about the party. but he is very adept at finding out where the leaders of power are.

his first problem is that he literally and figuratively is a voiceless legislator. he is relying on members of the house to translate for him and this tended to be members who were from missouri, at the other end of the santa fe trail. his friend was john smith phelps of missouri who acted as his informal interpreter. change.he had to he went to the head of the judiciary committee and the committee on

second jones act as sort of a steppingstone. passed away shortly after the passage of the act. the u.s. senate comes very late to the story. or than a century late -- more than a century late. this is the first hispanic american senator. he -- it is a symbolic

appointment. health and passes away shortly after that. mexico in thew territorial government and later after new mexico becomes a state hispanicthat he pushes civil rights at the state level. it is a fitting appointment and highly symbolic because he was not in the senate very long. dennis chavez is the first hispanic american to serve in bothhe is known best for his log senate career. he's one of the highest-ranking hispanic americans in congress in the 20th century because he chairs three congressional committees. one in the house, he goes to the senate and chairs the public works committee which is a major

part of his career. but his career which rages that new deal and into world war ii makes him a transitional figure in the story. the first hispanic american member of congress we can point to and can say here somebody acting as a surrogate representative. he's advocating for people far beyond the boundaries of his district or his state and speaking for hispanic americans nationally. work onthis with his the employment practices commission and advocating for greater puerto rican autonomy in the 1940's and into the 1950's. this storyline follows after world war ii. the storyline we are familiar with with women and toican-americans is tied in the larger push for civil rights in the post-world war ii era.

there are two principal strands post-1945. the first involves a mexican americans drive toward rights on the mainland u.s. enabled by chavez and other hispanic congressmen. the second was puerto rico's evolution from a territory to commonwealth which was made possible by a line of ricans.inded puerto these strands were widely divergent at the beginning but by the end, they come together. resources are pooled, agendas that had been local are nationalized, there is a large wrasse root movement, -- large grass roots movement, groups raza, which is a more radical movement come together. this time in congress when his panic americans serve a,

institutional apprenticeship, the length of service increases for them. they receive more prominent committee assignments. just a handful of the people here who stick out in this time serving resident commissioner from puerto rico and the principal architect of the rico's move to commonwealth status in the early 1950's. he was widely respected i house colleagues. he had a very close working relationship with the longtime was the sonnor who of munoz rivera and that partnership produced the commonwealth change in the 50's, which changed. can autonomy. and other individual here -- henry gonzales, he gets his start in local politics, housing

issues in the san antonio area and is involved with the pan-american association in texas. this launches his career in progressive politics. in 1956, he becomes the first mexican-american elected to the texas senate. twice, he filibustered measures that would have ray segregated texas public schools. at earned him a lot of attention. a great quote in time magazine -- it may be some that can chloroformed their conscious but if we fear long enough we hate and if we hate long enough, we fight. he runs for governor in the late 1950's and is trounced but get name recognition and becomes a viable candidate for a special election in 1961 in a san antonio district and comes into the house and serves in the house for nearly four decades.

best known for his service in the house banking committee, he chaired it in the 1980's and early 1990's and past a lot of important housing and banking reform. a critic of the big banks and also a proponent for many years for greaterp transparency. and other individual is from california and, a lot like gonzales in terms of coming up through grassroots politics, he was one of the cofounders of the community service organizations, a statewide organization that pushed hispanic interests. he is elected to the l.a. city council in 1949 and is the first mexican-american to serve on the l.a. city council since the 1880's. rough,come was a little but he fit in and was very important in terms of a lot of

programs andy opened city programs and housing programs. he served 32 years in-house and rises to a high position in congress and becomes one of the appropriation cardinals, chairing the treasury postal service and enrolled government subcommittee. byant to end here briefly period inout the last the book which is post-1977. this is the main page of the website where the entire book is available online. titledapter, we "strength in numbers and challenges in diversity." it starts with the creation of the hispanic caucus in 1976. five members established the

caucus as a legislative service organization that would follow, track, and influence policy affecting america's hispanic community. unlike other congressional caucuses, over time, the diversity of the caucus somewhat limited its legislative effectiveness. it was open to members from both parties. its roster included members from across the country. there were competing interests at work that made the caucus act oftentimes like an information clearinghouse than a legislative vehicle for moving legislation through congress. regional differences often splintered the caucus. hispanic american members were divided from the 1980's on immigration reform and trade policy in the 1990's such as nafta.

perhaps the most striking feature of this era is a numbers game going on. the civil rights act and voting rights act in the 1960's and court-ordered redistricting the which began in the 1960's opened of avenues for millions hispanic americans. the voting rights act profoundly changed the face of congress in terms of african-americans, but also in terms of hispanics. in the case of the latter, two thirds of all hispanics who have ever served in congress were elected after 1976. so that is tremendous growth. we are now up to 102 hispanic members who have served in congress. in 19 six to five, when the voting rights act was passed, there were just five hispanic members, for representatives and a senator. arehe 113th congress, there 30 in the house and three in the senate. the numbers have gone up and these members have chaired

powerful committees and subcommittees, they have authored important legislation, they have been party leaders, directed national party organizations, mel martinez, former senator, and they have held cabinet positions -- hilda's police and melba martinez. the hispanic population in the u.s. has grown from 6% in 1982 16% according to the 2010 census. their advocates when powerful seats at the federal level, hispanic americans have become one of the most influential voting blocs in the country. but gaining that representation has never been easy and likely won't ever be easy or simple or straightforward. the experiences of the hispanic members in that post-1977 time illustrate there's no one person or conch -- or caucus that can drive the agenda or determine the needs and desires and aspirations of all hispanic american voters.

this was very clear after the emergence of a separate congressional hispanic congress which was composed of republicans in the early 2000's. the caucus began to break over cuba policy and so now there is a hispanic caucus and conference and they are divided in a partisan fashion. this is perhaps the clearest sign political debate is alive and well, but regardless, based on this long history, there obviously is much inspiration that hispanic members and those who study them can draw from the rich history and hard-won victories over the years. we have 15 minutes left for questions and i would be happy to answer any. canaise your hand so we pass the microphone and pick it up on the video.

>> out of curiosity, how did you guys define hispanic for the purposes of inclusion in this specificd was there a definition or know it when you see it? matthew: we relied on the hispanic division of the library of congress. which poles new members of congress as to whether they identify themselves as hispanic. the interesting thing is in the 1980's, it gets a little more complicated because tony caldwell of california who is of portuguese descent lobbies to get on the hispanic caucus. back to the roman definition of hispaniola and claims portugal is part of that area that would have been referred to as hispanic. there are a couple of members

who come to his aid -- bill richardson of new mexico. and he is allowed onto the caucus. but it creates a problem in later years because there have actually been a dozen members of portuguese descent if not more who have been elected since then . and it's a matter of whether with beingfy hispanic or not. some do, some don't. so we rely on the library of congress. another question we had very early on was you have the philippine resident commissioners from the early 20 century and many of them have hispanic surnames, almost all of them have hispanic surnames. but, and working with the library of congress asia division and hispanic division, vowed to cultural preferences and we are told filipinos regard themselves as asian pacific

islander, so they will be in .hat book we relied on the guidance of the libraries divisions at that point. but it is trickier, obviously, then women or african-americans. you can get on a slippery slope of cultural preference. and the book itself, we have also been asked, i should add, latino or hispanic? we use the term latino, latina in the text itself. the title was passed by congressional resolution and title was the hispanic caucus wanted in the legislation, so that's the title we went with. termnic is also the census still used by the federal government. yes, ma'am? >> with regards to the need for

a lotators, you mentioned of the translators were from the east and therefore i'm finding also occurred in new mexico , but in southern colorado, those hispanic representatives have no english ground and that territory of colorado would not pay for a translator, so they had translators from the east, but then there were differences in political language that those translators could not help them with. can you tell me when the government started paying for translators? matthew: we don't know that the government ever paid for translators. based on anecdotal stories we've come across, he is relying on the friendship that he has struck up in particular with

missouri representatives who were bilingual. it did not appear he was paying for it, or not in any way that we could track out of any house fund like clerk disbursement reports or anything like that. he may have been paying for it out-of-pocket, but it is hard to know. a what are your thoughts on translator from the east versus -- hispano whoic served in prior legislatures? do they have to go through some kind of litmus test? matthew: i don't know. gallegos -- in particular, he is the one who relies on the translator, but the artery can -- the path taken

representatives were not fluent in english either. but he studied english and had a tutor, but there is no record of him ever appealing to the house for a translator or paying for translations out of his office allowance, at least not that we are able to track. but someone in gallegos'position who was familiar with territorial politics under two different national regimes i think would be savvy enough to overcome differences in translations. >> i also have a question on weights and measures committee. you said the house allowed the territories -- territorial delegates to serve in the committee. what year was that? matthew: 1871. that was the one specific committee they could serve on for about two decades.

then the committee, the committees are opened up a bit. after a while, they can serve on the territories committee. after that, there's another liberalization that opens up in the 20th century, but it is very circumscribed. >> i don't have a specific question on weights and measures during this time for the government, but in the colorado 1860's,y during the they are changing weights and measures so they are no longer -- southern colorado could no longer use the spanish variance. same thing no doubt in new mexico as well. >> the county -- el paso county. any other questions?

>> a general question -- in the process of doing the third volume, as you get later, have you had very much overlap in women and african-americans or between the three volumes? if so, how has that changed the way you have talked about those individuals? aspects, theome hispanic caucus and the black caucus do team up in the 1980's on certain issues. not so much the women's caucus. that it has really changed the way we have approached the book. the story in that regard, they cross in terms of party association more than caucus in again, or another, but

and i mentioned at the beginning, there are these very clear patterns of how each of these groups introduce people to go process and integrate into the institution. it may take many more years in one case for one group for one stage, but there are three very clear stages and, for instance, for women, for a very long time, the early women members of ii very up to world war purposefully, with the exception of rankin did not embrace what you would call a women's rights agenda. in fact, they tried to minimize gender distinctions and felt that was the best way to work their way into the hierarchy. with kind of the same way the hispanic american members up until chavez and the post-world iod, but there's always the tension and degree to

which you are going to act as a surrogate representative. henry gonzalez was a cofounder of the hispanic american caucus, but he is so turned off by za,ivists, particularly la ra which attacked him in the late 60's and early 70's that he questioned a lot of the tactics that are used by activists and eventually questions the legislative agenda of the caucus moves toward in the 80's to the point where at some point, we don't know when, he stopped paying his dues. find the press article that says today, henry gonzales left the hispanic caucus, but we know he lost interest. familiarstory that is with women. they are not a monolithic block. so there are those similarities, more would say those are

general ways in which these individuals interacted with the fact, then and, in stories of the caucuses interacting with each other, there's not so much there. mentioned1850's, you gallegos had no experience with the american political system. can you talk about what political system they were working with? he came straight out of new mexican politics when new mexico was a province of mexico. >> might real question -- how difficult was the difference in

changing for them from the american political system? he wasn't familiar with the national democratic party and the democratic party in new mexico had its own policy agendas. that talksgreat book about this -- howard lamarr, which talks about politics in the southwest. he focuses on new mexico, but to make that leap from territorial politics to the national democratic agenda, i think, was tough for him. by theernment was a guy name of david meriwether, who was a long time politician from the northeast and served as forthing as a tutor gallegos. gallegos came and consulted him and we know this because meriwether records this in his memoirs. at when she got him into

legislative environment, he understood how things worked in d.c. he certainly knew who the key committee chairs were and he was convincing enough to get them to go on to the floor and argue on his behalf, even though it didn't work. but there are parts of the story that we really have to -- there's a lot of gaps to the story. >> one more question. the difference between english law and then spanish or mexican law that they had to work through? what might they have encountered without? that's really a territorial transition question. i'm not so familiar with how to answer that. >> i think some of the justices had to work with that in the territories. matthew: the court justices.

yes. >> well, i believe our time has about expired. thank you for that splendid presentation and let's give him a round of applause. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> this is american history tv ,n c-span3, where each weekend we feature 48 hours of programs exploring our nation's past. >> this sunday, we look at the national museum of the american

indians photography collection with the museums michelle and eleni. she talks about the history of photography and explains how to navigate and explore their online collections. here is a preview. >> this is an image from the frank lehner collection, photographs from buffalo bill's wild west show. i have done a lot of research on william f curley and buffalo bill's wild west. my dissertation is on the art and advertising of buffalo bill's wild west. startedest in this area from one collection at the american history museum which is a portrait collection of sioux indian performers from the wild west. those images were photographed -- the american images represented in the collection are behind-the-scenes photos,

which i like to see. i like to see what where the performers doing when they were not in the arena. a different element of what was happening. instead of the performers in the thea reenacting things like battle of little bighorn or ofse races and other types program acts that would happen during a visit to the wild west, here is cody sitting with a couple of the performers. i'm thinking it's possibly chief iron tail at cody's left who performed for more than 20 years on the show circuit, traveling nationally and internationally with the show. many of the performers were sioux indians from pine ridge reservation. i had the opportunity, with another smithsonian colleague, to visit pine ridge just two years ago and to learn more

about the families and the individuals who chose to be at the reservation -- to leave the reservation and perform, there were lots of different reasons why an individual would choose to contract with the wild west show and i wanted to show one of these images that highlighted there was a relationship between cody and the indians. he was hoping this opportunity was not just a stereo typical at indian life, it was an education for the public. and some indians chose to join him and yet, they were sometimes reenacting scenes they had lived, but they were also being paid. they were seeing the country and seeing the world. europe, at times when the show would go there, and there were for anrsonal reasons american indian man or woman to join the show. the families could also travel

women would beo behind-the-scenes, taking care weree camp, the teepees able to travel and live and also wear clothing as they would and they were not always allowed to do that on the reservation in the u.s. to highlight that one collection and show that intimate moment behind-the-scenes and the friendship that did transpire between a lot of the indian performers and cody. >> learn more about the national museum of the american indians photography collection this sunday at 6 p.m. eastern, 3 p.m. pacific on american artifacts, here on eric and history tv. -- on american history tv. >> american history tv is on social media. follow us at c-span history.

>> every saturday at 8 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span3, go in a different classroom in here about topics ranging from civil rights in u.s. presidents to 9/11. your patience and logging into class. >> with most college campuses closed thanks to that -- due to the coronavirus, watched teachers transfer to a virtual setting. >> gorbachev did most of the work, but reagan met him halfway. reagan encouraged him, reagan supported him. >> freedom of the press, which we will get to later, madison called it freedom of the use of the press and it is the freedom to print and publish things, not the freedom for what we refer to as the institutionalism of the press. p.m.ery saturday at 8 eastern.

it's also available as a podcast. find >> historians david blight and annette gordon-reed talked about recent debates over historical monuments, discussing how people could make decisions about removing or contextualizing them based on historical information and public sentiment. the american historical association hosted and recorded this event. james: good afternoon. and i say that with some trepidation, because our audience is national and international. so, good morning to some of you and good evening to some of you. i am jim grossman, the executive director of the american historical association. and this is an initial experiment in something that we are likely to call "history behind the headlines." the aha considers historical context and perspective essential to decision-making in public culture and especially in all aspects of public policy.