Joseph Marion Hern ndez becomes the first Hispanic elected to Congress
On September 30 1822 Joseph Marion Hernndez becomes the first Hispanic to be elected to the United States Congress.Born a Spanish citizen Hernndez would die in Cuba but in between he became the first non-white person to serve at the highest levels of any of three branches of the American federal government.Hernndez belonged to a St.Augustine family that came to Florida as indentured servants.
Despite these humble beginnings records show that his family eventually became wealthy enough to own property and several slaves and that Hernndez was educated both in both Georgia and in Cuba.Throughout the 1810s the United States made a variety of efforts to take Florida from the Spanish finally succeeding after Andrew Jackson led an army through the territory in the First Seminole War.What Hernndez did during this time is unclear but he was either very savvy or very luckyhe fought the Americans during the war and received substantial amounts of land from the Spanish government but then pledged loyalty to the United States and was allowed to keep his three plantations when the territory changed hands in 1819.
It was then that Hernndez changed his name from Jos Mariano to Joseph Marion.The newly-acquired Florida Territory was allowed to elect a delegate to congress but that delegate did not have voting privileges.Floridas legislative council elected Hernndez to represent the territory.
During his brief tenurehe served for less than a year before losing his re-election bidHernndez was instrumental in facilitating the transition from Spanish to American government in Florida.In addition to securing the property rights of many Floridians who remained after the annexation he also advocated for roads and infrastructure to bind the new territory together and make it an attractive candidate for statehood.He went on to fight in the Second Seminole War helping his adopted nation drive the natives from its new territory.
The war saw the loss of two of his plantations however as well the destruction of his political ambitions after he was involved in an incident in which an American contingent captured a number of Seminoles despite approaching them under a flag of truce.Hernndez later served as Mayor of St.Augustine before retiring to Cuba where he died in 1857.
