Who Advocates for Hispanic Citizens of the United States
This archive compiles oral histories from two institutions: the Congressional Hispanic Conference and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) est. 1976 is an organization comprised of thirty Democratic, Hispanic members of the United States Congress. The purpose of the CHC is to advocate, through the legislative process, for solutions to problems affecting Hispanics in the United States. To generate support to solve issues that affect the Hispanic population of the U.S. the CHC works independently and with other organizations to increase awareness of these issues; furthermore, the CHC strives to increase awareness of how Hispanics in the U.S. are affected by the American legislative process.
The Congressional Hispanic Conference est. late 1990 is an organization comprised of six Republican members of the United States Congress and Senate. The Congressional Hispanic Conference is an organization which broke off from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus in the late 1990s. Its founding members wanted to create a Republican counterpart to the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Unlike the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Hispanic Conference does not require its members to be of Hispanic decent. Its only requirement is that its members currently serve in Congress or the House of Representatives and intend to advocate for the Conference’s agenda.
Both the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Conference are institutions, which use the combined power of multiple members of Congress or the Senate, to advocate for specific Congressional Acts that the institutions’ members deem to be in the interest of Hispanic citizens of the United States.
Origins of the Congressional Hispanic Archives
The Congressional Hispanic Archives is an online database of oral histories (interviews) with former and current members of the United States Congressional Hispanic Caucus. A joint effort between Dartmouth College and Northwestern University, this database hopes to guide future researchers interested in Latinx/Hispanic issues. The primary motivation for this archive is to increase awareness of the work done by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Hispanic Conference with respect to the central issues affecting Hispanics in the United States:
- Immigration Policy
- Labor
- Representation
- Education
- Socioeconomic Status
This database provides first-hand accounts of the formation of the longest-standing Hispanic organization in the U.S. Legislative branch. Oral histories archived in this database are conducted by undergraduate students who are supervised and directed by historians Matt Garcia and Gerry Cadava, current faculty members of Dartmouth and Northwestern, respectively.
The Congressional Hispanic Archives serves as a primary source for researchers interested in documenting the history and platforms of numerous Hispanic officials concerned with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. The archive provides information on the political leadership of the Caucus and issues each of the individual members has based their political platforms.