How To Discuss The History Of Latin America And How Latin Americans Helped Shape Our History
There is a forgotten history which deserves to be known to people in the United States. This is a forgotten history of not only Latin America, but also of Latin Americans in the United States.
Some examples of how the history of Latin America has been forgotten is the general lack of knowledge estadounidenses (including Hispanic and Latin American ones) have of the history of Central America. If you want to see examples of this yourself just ask your friends about the Federal Republic of Central America. The Federal Republic of Central America was what came after not only the end of the Spanish colonization of Central America but also the two year period during which the Central American areas which are now the independent nations of Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, were part of the Mexican Empire. The Federal Republic of Central America was a governing body which attempted to unite and consolidate the power of the former provinces of Spain in Central America (excluding what is now known as Belize, and Panama, with Belize being part of the British Empire for many years all the way until 1981 and Panama being part of Colombia until 1903) and to help them not only grow but possess the power to combat invasive foreign influence and to counter any attempts to strip them of their sovereignty. This attempt to be united would last about 17 years, from 1823 until about 1839. It’s a period in Central American history that’s worth knowing about.
To see how Latin Americans in the United States have been stripped of their history why don’t you ask yourself who the first Hispanic politicians in this country were? It’s a tough question to answer off the top of your head, and this is also something we could ask of many other ethnic groups as well. But for Hispanics it goes likes this: Joseph Marion Hernandez of Florida (the Florida Territory at the time) was the first Hispanic American to serve in congress BUT he didn’t serve a full term. Romualdo Pacheco of California in 1877 was the first Hispanic American to serve a complete term in the House Of Representatives. Joseph was a member of the Whig Party and Romualdo was a member of the Republican Party. The first Hispanic Senator was Octaviano Larrazolo who was a Republican (although he was originally a Democrat and got turned off by the party’s frustration of what they viewed as his race-baiting politics) from New Mexico who got to finish an unexpired term of Senator Andrieus Jones (who had died in office) but was followed by fellow Republican Bronson M. Cutting (who would win an election against Dennis Chavez in 1934, and then perish in a plane crash only to see his term fulfilled by Dennis Chavez, who would then proceed to win an election on his own merit and become the very first popularly elected Hispanic Senator, and first Hispanic Democrat Senator). Octaviano Larrazolo would perish just six years before Dennis Chavez would get to fulfill the term of Larrazolo’s successor and eventually win a full term of his own, which would make Chavez the very first conventionally elected Hispanic Senator.
Dennis Chavez is an important figure whose work in civil rights occurred before the work of Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Irene Morgan, Lillie Mae Bradford, and other critical leaders of the Civil Rights Movement in the 40s, 50s, and 60s. So why is his work, including the fact that he introduced the first Fair Employment Practices Bill (two decades before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, mind you) so unknown? It’s difficult to say why but it’s immensely frustrating for me as a historian and as a political commentator whose focus is the role of Hispanics and Latin Americans in this nation and beyond. It’s easy to fall into the idea that since we aren’t taught about Hispanic and Latin American politicians in our history classes they must be unimportant but that’s not true. Brave men and women like Chavez played critical roles in conversations regarding civil rights and progressive politics during a time that those conversations were even more heated than they are now but for reasons I do not understand their contributions to this nation have been forgotten including by Hispanics and Latin Americans here ourselves.
It’s vital to us as a group that is growing in size and influence that we move to reclaim these histories. We need to aggressively seek out opportunities to educate our friends and families about these histories. We have our influence in this country because of the work of legends who’ve been forgotten. We have our influence because of men and women of extraordinary character whose names we’ve forgotten and that shouldn’t just bother people it should move them to action because here’s the thing: we can learn about these figures from the past. Currently our knowledge might be limited but we can learn more information easily. It’s not just a matter of pushing ourselves to not only acknowledge our lack of information but also to want to not suffer from this lack of information.
As a historian interested in increasing the public knowledge of my areas of expertise my mission is more complex than merely gaining all of the information I need and want. It’s a matter of pushing people to want to know more and to want to share the knowledge they’ve gained with others. The role I have, especially as someone who doesn’t work in academia is different than that of many other historians. I want to not only gain information but I want to make the information I gain public MORE than I want to gain information. I am not only a historian but I am also a historical communicator who helps untangle the complexities of existing knowledge and make it accessible for a public that (at least in my experience) isn’t always appreciative of the complexities of political history and the difficulties of making that information understandable.
I want to urge anyone who reads this to become more interested in both the history of Latin America and the history of Latin Americans in the United States. These histories often intersect but they are also both distinct histories and understanding and accumulating knowledge in one won’t guarantee an understanding or an accumulation of knowledge pertaining to the other.
In reading this I am setting the stage for my own continued exploration of these topics and I hope that gets you excited. I also hope that reading this post made you want to know more about the events, individuals, and locations I mentioned. If it did, I’d love it if you shared this post and potentially get others just as excited as you got because of it. Let’s work together to have more serious and nuanced discussions related to the histories of Latin America and how Latin Americans and Hispanics have influenced this country over the course of our existence here.