Dennis Chavez
Dionisio " Dennis " Chavez ( born April 8, 1888 in Los Chaves, Valencia County, New Mexico Territory, † November 18, 1962 in Washington DC ) was an American politician (Democratic Party) of the State of New Mexico in both chambers of the U.S. Congress took.
Life
Dennis Chavez came from a family who has been resident in his native Los Chaves for generations. But in 1895 he moved with his parents to Albuquerque, where they lived in the historic residential district Barelas. He went to school there, had to cancel his education but to work and to support his family financially. First he was there employed in a food market. Later he attended night school and learned there the engineering profession, which he then exercised over many years as an employee of the city of Albuquerque.
In 1911 he married Imelda Espinosa, who belonged to a prominent family in New Mexico. The couple moved in 1914 after Belen, where Chavez worked among other things as a journalist for a weekly newspaper and as a court interpreter. In 1916, he supported the ultimately successful campaign of Andrieus A. Jones for a seat in the U.S. Senate as a Spanish interpreter. Jones offered him after he took office a year later the post of Deputy Head of Office in Washington. Chavez went to the post and visited after work also an evening school, where he studied law. After graduating from Georgetown University in 1920, he returned to Albuquerque and opened a law office there.
Policy
His first political mandate Chavez took over as deputy in the House of Representatives from New Mexico 1923-1924; for re-election, he joined not to. For this purpose he applied in 1930 to the only seat that has held the country at this time in the U.S. House of Representatives. There he remained after his election victory on 4 March 1931 to 3 January 1935. Thereafter, he retired first from out of Congress because he had previously lost the election for U.S. Senator against the Republicans Bronson M. Cutting a year.
As Cutting died in a plane crash on May 6, 1935 killed, Chavez was appointed by New Mexico's governor Clyde Tingley as his successor in the Senate. After he was confirmed in November 1936 at the by-election, he was with his re-election in 1940 the first Hispanic who could complete a full six -year term. More Re-elections followed in 1946, 1952 and 1958, before Dennis Chavez died on 18 November 1962 at the office.
Appreciation
In Chavez's funeral at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Albuquerque Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson held the eulogy. Among all Hispanics who previously belonged to the Senate, he is the one with the significantly longest tenure. A statue in his likeness stands in the National Statuary Hall of the Capitol in Washington, in which each state is represented by two persons from his story. In addition to Chavez, this is the Indian leader Popé for New Mexico.
His granddaughter Gloria Tristani the first Hispanic member of the Federal Communications Commission in 1997. In 2002 she ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate, but was defeated by Republican Pete Domenici.