H former members 1945–1977 H Edward R. Roybal 1916–2005 UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE 1963–1993 DEMOCRAT FROM CALIFORNIA n his 30 industrious years on Capitol Hill, Edward R. and the couple raised three children: Lucille; Lillian; and Roybal rose to power by shaping legislation on behalf Edward, Jr. of the underprivileged. Serving the sick and the elderly, Like many veterans, particularly Latino veterans, Roybal Inonprofits, and non-native English speakers, Roybal never was motivated by his wartime experience to challenge seemed to waver from the progressive course he first set discrimination in Southern California, especially its as a member of the Los Angeles city council. A cofounder effects on economic, education, and housing conditions of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) and its first around Los Angeles.4 After an unsuccessful bid in 1947 chairman, Roybal was among the country’s most influential for a seat on the Los Angeles city council, Roybal helped Hispanic politicians. Later, as chairman of a House start the Community Service Organization (CSO), which Appropriations subcommittee, he underwrote many of the sought to ally the city’s diverse neighborhoods, using most important federal programs, making him one of the strategies outlined by noted reformer Saul Alinsky. Roybal most influential Members of the House. “If we don’t invest was the group’s first president and its primary spokesman, in the Hispanic population today,” he cautioned in 1987, and in addition to pushing an array of progressive issues, “we will pay the consequences tomorrow.”1 the CSO quickly became the core of Roybal’s political Edward Ross Roybal was one of 10 children born to base.5 Two years later, at Alinsky’s urging, and with the Baudilio Roybal, a carpenter, and Eloisa (Tafoya) Roybal support of local labor unions and, eventually, several on February 10, 1916, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.2 newspapers, Roybal mounted a second attempt for a city Like many families in the Southwest, Roybal’s family council seat. had lived in the region for eight generations, since it was In 1949, backed by this broad coalition, Roybal won controlled by the Spanish. When he was six, Edward and the election, becoming the first Hispanic to serve on the his family moved to Los Angeles, California, settling on Los Angeles city council since 1881 and one of the highest- the east side in the barrios near Boyle Heights. He ranking Latinos in California municipal government.6 attended the local public schools and graduated from Roybal’s sweeping civil rights agenda, along with his Roosevelt High School in 1934. For much of the next diverse campaign staff and his drive to register voters, year, he worked for the Civilian Conservation Corps contributed to his decisive victory against incumbent before studying accounting and business administration Parley P. Christensen. Roybal won the general election with at the University of California, Los Angeles, and 63 percent of the vote, and despite redistricting and shifts Southwestern University, also in the city. From 1942 until in population over the next decade, he went on to win re- 1944 he worked as a public-health educator with the election by huge margins in 1951, 1953, 1957, and 1961.7 California Tuberculosis Association, and he later served Neither Roybal’s widespread support in his district nor four years as director of health education for the Los his position on the city council inoculated him against Angeles County Tuberculosis and Health Association.3 the prevalent discrimination in the rest of Los Angeles. At Late in the Second World War, Roybal served as an his initial council meeting, Roybal was introduced as “our accountant for an infantry unit in the U.S. Army. He new Mexican councilman who also speaks Mexican.” Years married the former Lucille Beserra on September 27, 1940, later, Roybal alluded to that incident as a defining moment 410 H HISPANIC AMERicans IN CONGRESS Collection of the U.S. House of Representatives, Photography Collection Edward R. Roybal 1916–2005 UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE 1963–1993 DEMOCRAT FROM CALIFORNIA H edward r. roybal H in his political career. “I’m not Mexican,” he said. “I am a The CSO and the labor unions backed Roybal, but the Mexican American. And I don’t speak a word of Mexican. state’s Democratic Party remained uncommitted since it I speak Spanish.”8 had drawn the district with another candidate in mind. Roybal was in the minority on the city council, and Chief among Roybal’s opponents in the primary was the dominant conservative members were indifferent to William F. Fitzgerald, a professor at Loyola University. much of his agenda. “They thought I would fall flat on my Three other minor candidates filled out the field. The face,” he said later. “They felt right along that I was not Los Angeles County Democratic central committee did their equal.”9 Nevertheless, he chaired the public health not endorse either of the two leading candidates in the and welfare committee and developed a reputation as a run-up to the June 1962 primary, but Roybal secured stalwart liberal who took stands on matters of principle the support of state controller and future U.S. Senator despite the potential for criticism from voters and the Alan Cranston shortly before the election. With strong outright derision of his colleagues. During the Cold War, grass-roots backing and wide name recognition, Roybal for instance, Roybal was the only person who voted against easily captured the Democratic nomination by a three to the Subversive Registration Bill and its mandatory oaths one margin.15 of loyalty to the U.S. government.10 This independence Flush with a public endorsement from President John persisted throughout Roybal’s career on Capitol Hill; F. Kennedy, Roybal faced nine-term incumbent and Roybal “voted his conscience, even when people made fun Republican torchbearer Gordon L. McDonough in the of him,” recalled a principal aide.11 1962 general election. McDonough had lost much of his Roybal’s strength was constituent service; he attended political base when the state legislature redrew California’s district functions, served as a general ombudsman for congressional map, giving Democrats a significant everyday issues, and worked with the city to defuse registration advantage in the new district.16 In a midterm tensions between the Mexican-American community and election during which Democrats comfortably retained the Los Angeles police.12 Moreover, as the most visible control of the House, Roybal won with nearly 57 percent Hispanic officeholder in Los Angeles, he was the primary of the vote.17 In his subsequent 14 bids for re-election, he “spokesman for communities of color,” according to one was never seriously challenged in the Democratic primary, historian. In a highly publicized episode, Roybal fought and he never received less than two-thirds of the vote the city after it ceded a huge swath of residential land to in the general election.18 Early on, Roybal said, “Since I its professional baseball team, displacing many Mexican- want to make my own decisions I shouldn’t accept any American families—even though the location was outside contributions which I couldn’t easily repay.”19 By 1980 his his council district.13 In 1954 he launched an unsuccessful re-election bid was known as “one of the least expensive campaign for lieutenant governor of California, and in campaigns in the House of Representatives.”20 1958, he narrowly lost a bid to become the first Latino In the House, Roybal developed a low-key, behind- member of the Los Angeles County board of supervisors.14 the-scenes approach that some described as elegant. He In 1962, after California gained eight additional seats in had what the Los Angeles Times called a “quiet energy,” the U.S. House because of a population increase, Roybal and a major political study in the 1990s dubbed Roybal entered the race for the newly created 30th District seat “durable.” “Despite a style few would call dynamic, he has spanning his Eastside council district, downtown Los become a part of the political landscape in the Hispanic Angeles, and portions of Hollywood to the west. His neighborhoods of East Los Angeles,” the study said. “He platform reflected many of the community issues he had was a quiet ground-breaker,” recalled a senior aide. “Many pursued during his 13 years on the council, including of his accomplishments go unrecognized because he did job creation, education, housing, and urban renewal. things in a quiet way.”21 412 H HISPANIC AMERicans IN CONGRESS H edward r. roybal H As a freshman at the start the 88th Congress (1963– Act outlined a three-year appropriations schedule to fund 1965), Roybal hoped to serve on the Foreign Affairs bilingual programs, including increases in the amount of Committee because of his interest in U.S.-Latin American money awarded each year.25 Fourteen years later, Roybal policy, but instead he was assigned to the Interior and found himself in another fight for access to bilingual Insular Affairs Committee and later to the Post Office and instruction. “The children of our community continue to Civil Service Committee.22 In two years he won a seat on be shortchanged by this nation’s educational system—a Foreign Affairs and left his previous assignments. After system, that Hispanics, like all Americans, help support serving on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee in the 91st through the billions of tax dollars they pay,” he lamented Congress (1969–1971), Roybal relinquished the Foreign in a letter to the editor in the Washington Post.26 Affairs and the Veterans’ Affairs assignments in 1971 Early during his tenure on the Foreign Affairs for a seat on the exclusive Appropriations Committee.