When Romualdo Pacheco became California’s first Latino to serve as lieutenant governor in 1871 — and later the state’s first Latino governor in 1875 — little did he know that it would be more than a century later before a Latino won a statewide office.
That dry spell was broken when Cruz M. Bustamante, who had made history by becoming the first Latino to serve as Assembly Speaker, won the lieutenant governor’s seat in 2000.