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Dennis Chavez: 1888-1962: Legislator Biography

Dennis Chavez: 1888-1962: Legislator.




As the first native-born Hispanic to serve in the U.S. Senate, Dennis Chavez burned with a desire to provide minorities with equal protection under the law. Long before Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus, and years before Martin Luther King, Jr., had his dream, Dennis Chavez, the gentle liberal, was demanding equality for all. As early as 1944, Chavez sponsored congressional legislation to eliminate racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination in the workplace. While his bill ultimately failed, his work was a harbinger of the civil rights movement to come, and led to the eventual passage of employee protection guarantees enacted in the 1960s. Born into a poor family and receiving no formal early education, Chavez fought his way up through the political hierarchy and enjoyed 31 successful years in Congress. At the time of his death, he was Washington's fourth most powerful senator, and for many years he was the highest-ranking Hispanic in federal government. Former President Lyn

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Dennis Chávez: the first Hispanic US senator
(Book)

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CHAVEZ, Dennis

The first Hispanic Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate, Dennis Chavez changed the face of New Mexican and national politics. Over his 31-year career, Chavez never strayed far from the New Deal liberalism that first won him election to national office. Through ambitious public works legislation, Chavez modernized the country’s infrastructure and national defense systems. But it is perhaps his civil rights agenda, which broadened the idea of American citizenship, that Chavez is best remembered for. As Representative Henry B. González of Texas said, “the fact that a man with a surname such as Chavez was able to contribute as magnificently as the Senator did will forever be an inspiration to those of us who cannot escape our names.”1

The third of eight children, Dionisio (Dennis) Chavez was born in early April of 1887 or 1888 to David Chavez and Paz Sanchez Chavez in Los Chavez, Valencia County, New Mexico.2 Chavez’s father maintained a small farm in the Rio Grande Valley and worked for neighboring ranches when the need arose. As there was no school in town, the

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