Dominican candidates in New York tout pioneer status, but history is complicated

NEW YORK — In the race to replace Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., the buzz around two of the candidates, Adriano Espaillat and Guillermo Linares, has been heightened by their chance to make history: Each is seeking to become the first person born in the Dominican Republic to be elected to Congress. That much would be true. Both men have long laid claim to being the first from what is known as the Dominican diaspora to have been elected to various lesser offices, from the New York City Council to the New York state Legislature.

But exactly who was first at what is a question that hinges on the ingredients of ethnic identity, and how they apply to immigrants and their children.

Nine candidates were running in the Democratic primary on Tuesday in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx for the chance to replace Rangel, a powerful Harlem politician who is retiring after what will be 46 years in Congress. The candidates include Keith L.T. Wright, a state assemblyman who has Rangel’s endorsement, and Adam Clayton Powell IV, whose father, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., previously occupied the seat held by Rangel. Espaillat, a state senator, ran twice before in primaries against Rangel.

Linares, a state assemblyman, has long been considered a pathbreaker among Dominican politicians here. He was elected to the City Council in 1991, and a biography posted on his Assembly webpage says that he “has the historic distinction of being the first Dominican-born elected to public office in the United States.”

Espaillat’s Senate webpage says, “Sen. Espaillat made history in 1996 when he became the first Dominican-American elected to a state legislature” — a reference to his election that year to a seat in the state Assembly.

Linares’ claim may be true, narrowly defined. But Espaillat’s appears to be a bit of a stretch, according to research by Nestor Montilla, the chairman of the Dominican American National Roundtable, an advocacy group, who researches immigrant history.

The same day that Linares was elected in 1991, Kay Palacios was elected to the City Council of Englewood Cliffs, in New Jersey, Montilla said.

Palacios was born in the United States, but her parents were immigrants from the Dominican Republic. She grew up speaking Spanish and identifies herself as a DominicanAmerican. While she goes by “Kay,” the given name on her birth certificate is Quisqueya, an Indian word for the island of Hispaniola, where the Dominican Republic is.

While it is true that Linares was the first Dominican immigrant elected, Montilla said that both the assemblyman and Palacios should be considered Dominican-Americans — putting them in a tie.

But long before they were elected — and long before Espaillat joined the state Legislature — an African-American politician named Arthur O. Eve was elected to the state Assembly from Buffalo, N.Y. That was in 1966, the same year that Rangel was first elected to the Assembly from Harlem.

Eve went on to serve a long career in the Assembly. What was seldom noted was that Eve’s father was an immigrant from the Dominican Republic. Eve said in an interview that his mother was born either in the United States or the Bahamas.

That makes Eve half-Dominican.

And that is enough for Montilla, who has interviewed Eve about his background. Based on his research, a group called the Institute for Latino Studies will present Eve with an award later this year acknowledging him as the first Dominican-American elected to public office in the United States.

In an interview, Eve said his parents split when he was young and he rarely saw his father afterward. He never learned to speak Spanish, hardly gave a thought to his Dominican roots and has never visited his father’s native country.

After Eve and Rangel entered the Assembly, they became some of the earliest members of what was then known as the Black and Puerto Rican Legislative Caucus.

Eve said it never occurred to him to emphasize his Dominican heritage with Puerto Rican colleagues as a point of shared Latino heritage. But Eve was pleased to learn that he was now considered a Dominican-American pioneer, saying, “I’m honored by that.”