Last Latinos Were Elected in 1872
Tuesday’s vote marks the first time since 1872 that a Spanish-surnamed person has been elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
The last Spanish-surnamed supervisors were Francisco Machado and Francisco Palomarez. They served from 1872 to 1875, according to Morgan Kousser, a Caltech political history professor who served as an expert witness in the redistricting trial that led to Tuesday’s election.
After California came under U.S. rule in the mid-1800s, one or two of the five supervisors always had a Spanish surname, Kousser said.
Two of the first three members of the governing board of Los Angeles County under U.S. rule were Augustin Olvera and Luis Roubideau. Olvera, head of the Court of Sessions that ruled the county from 1850 until the formation of the Board of Supervisors in 1852, reportedly spoke no English.
Although the county took in far more territory than it does today, the population was just 7,831. Only 377 men voted in the first election, during an era when women were not allowed to vote.
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