Romualdo Pacheco Served as California’s First Elected Latino Governor in 1875

Romualdo Pacheco assumed the role of California governor on Feb. 27, 1875, becoming the first Latino to hold the office through an election. His term began when incumbent Governor Newton Booth resigned his seat to take a position in the U.S. Senate.

Pacheco was born in 1831 in what was then Mexico, making him the first California-born governor to serve after the state joined the Union. His father, a captain in the Mexican army, died in the Cahuenga Pass shortly after Romualdo’s birth.

The young Pacheco was raised by a Scottish sea captain, John D. Wilson, who sent him to a school in Oahu. He returned to California speaking English, French, and Hawaiian, though he had to relearn Spanish. He later joined the Protestant faith and the Freemasons.

Pacheco held several state offices before 1875, including judge, state senator, and state treasurer. He served as lieutenant governor under Booth starting in 1871. When Booth departed for Washington, D.C., Pacheco announced his ascension to the governor’s office at approximately 2 p.m. that day.

His gubernatorial term lasted slightly more than nine months, ending on Dec. 9, 1875. He sought re-election but his party declined to support him. He then ran for lieutenant governor again on an independent ticket but lost.

In 1876, Pacheco ran for the U.S. House of Representatives and won by a single vote. His opponent challenged the result, and the Democratic-controlled Congress removed him from the seat. He won the election again in 1880, representing a district that spanned from below San Francisco to the Nevada border and 500 miles south to the Mexican border.

During his time in Congress, Pacheco faced criticism regarding his stance on the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1870, while serving in the state legislature, he voted against an amendment that would have cut public funding to the railroad if it employed Chinese workers.

The Los Angeles Herald later described him as a pliable dupe of the Southern Pacific Railroad company. In Feb. 1882, Pacheco endorsed the Chinese Exclusion Act on the House floor. He argued that Chinese workers were taking jobs from white laborers and posed a cultural peril to the country.

Pacheco left politics after the 1882 vote and was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as envoy to Central America. He returned to California to work in stockbroking before retiring. He died in 1899.

The Los Angeles Examiner once called him the handsomest man in California. He was known as a hunter and sailor, and he claimed to have killed several hundred grizzly bears using a lasso and knife. His wife, Mary McIntire, was a Kentucky-born author whose story Incog was adapted into a Broadway musical titled Three Twins.