José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco, Jr. was a Californiopolitician and diplomat. He was elected and appointed to various California state and federal offices and posts throughout his more than thirty-year career, including serving in the California State Senate, as the 12thgovernor of California, and three terms in the United States House of Representatives. Pacheco remains the only Hispanic or Latino governor in the state's history as part of the U.S. He was also the state's first governor to be born in California and the only governor to be born in the state before statehood. Pacheco represented California in the United States House of Representatives as a Member of the Republican Party from March 4, 1877 to February 7, 1878, and from March 4, 1879 to March 3, 1883. He was the first Hispanic Representative from a U.S. state; several others had previously served as delegates for U.S. territories and as such did not have full voting privileges.
Pacheco's association with a prominent family in the state helped him to gain support as he entered politics in the 1850s. He was also well respected by Anglos coming into the area. Early in his political career in the 1850s, he was a Democrat. He became affiliated with the National Union Party in the 1860s, but was elected to most of his positions as a candidate for the Republican Party. Pacheco was elected to the state senate in 1857 and re-elected two times, serving until 1863. During the American Civil War Pacheco was appointed the rank of brigadier general by Governor Leland Stanford and directed to disarm military companies in the Los Angeles area that were not loyal to the Union. Pacheco served as state treasurer from 1863 to 1867, then returned to the State Senate until becoming lieutenant governor. He served as Lieutenant Governor of California under Newton Booth until Booth was elected to the United States Senate in 1875. Pacheco then served as governor from February 27, 1875 to December 9, 1875, when Lieutenant Governor William Irwin, winner in the September elections that year, was inaugurated. After briefly serving as governor, Pacheco ran for a U.S. House seat, defeating incumbent Peter D. Wigginton by just one vote. Wigginton contested the election, eventually forcing Pacheco to leave in 1878 when the House Committee on Elections refused Pacheco's certificate of election. Returning to California, he went into business until winning a House seat again in September 1879. He was reelected in 1880. After leaving Congress, Pacheco lived on a cattle ranch in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila for five years until appointed U.S. Minister to Central America in 1890. He returned to California in 1893, and died in Oakland in 1899. He is buried in Oakland's Mountain View Cemetery. He was the last Hispanic Republican to represent California in the U.S. House of Representatives until Mike Garcia was elected to represent the 25th district in a special election in May 2020.
Family life
In 1863 he married Mary McIntire, a 22-year-old playwright. They had two children, Maybella Ramona, and Romualdo, who died in childhood. In 1889 Maybella married Will Tevis, the son of a powerful business family, in San Francisco. Maybella and Will would give Romualdo and Mary Pacheco four grandsons.
