Octaviano Larrazolo (1859 – 1930) was a Republican politician in Texas who, after moving to New Mexico, became involved state politics and focused on civil rights for the Mexican and Hispanic citizens who comprised two-thirds of New Mexico’s population. In 1910 he gave a now-renowed speech which forced both Republicans and Democrats to acknowledge and address the concerns of the majority ethnicity in the state.
His speech attacked machine politics in New Mexico that he felt were exploiting Hispanic voters across the state. Lorrazolo feared New Mexico was close to becoming like the South with racist Jim Crow laws preventing non-whites from participating in democracy by disenfranchising (preventing the use of their right to vote).
In the speech, Larrazolo said “you [Hispanics] … have allowed yourselves to be controlled by other men but you will be controlled by bosses only as long as you permit the yoke to rest on you…Every native citizen must unite in supporting this constitution because it secures to you people of New Mexico your rights—every one of them; the rights also of your children and in such a manner that they can never be taken away…if you want to acquire your freedom and transmit this sacred heritage in the land hallowed by the blood of your forefathers who fought to protect it…Do not wait until you are put in the position of Arizona which in two years will be able to disfranchise every Spanish speaking citizen.”
Larrazolo eventually served as the fourth governor of New Mexico. Then as a United States senator. This made Larrazolo the first Mexican-American to serve in the U.S. Senate and the first Latino to serve in the U.S. Congress.
Previously there had been three senators of Spanish descent; i.e. they were of European, not Latin American, descent.
