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José Antonio Romualdo Pacheco (October 31, 1831January 23, 1899) was a Californio statesman and diplomat. A Republican, he is best known as the only Hispanic person to serve as governor of California since the American Conquest of California, and as the first Latino to represent a state in the U.S. Congress. Pacheco was elected and appointed to various state, federal, and diplomatic offices throughout his more than thirty-year career, including serving as a California State Treasurer, California State Senator, and three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.
His mother, María Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco, was a sister-in-law of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo and a daughter of María Ygnacia López de Carrillo, the grantee of Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa. After the death of his father, Romualdo's mother married Captain John D. Wilson, a Scotland, who sent Pacheco to Honolulu, Hawaii, for his education.
At age twelve, Pacheco began an apprenticeship aboard a trade ship. The Mexican–American War broke out two years later, and he was briefly held by American forces during the Conquest of California while on one trip in July 1846, as he brought cargo to Yerba Buena (modern day San Francisco). The ship he was on was searched, and he made an oath of allegiance to the United States and was released.
In 1853, at age 22, Pacheco successfully sought the position of Judge in San Luis Obispo County. Pacheco was election to the State Senate in 1857, succeeded his cousin Pablo de la Guerra. At 27 years old, he was the youngest member of the legislature. He was re-elected two times, serving until 1863. During the American Civil War Pacheco was appointed the rank of brigadier general by Governor Leland Stanford and directed to disarm military companies in the Los Angeles area that were not loyal to the Union.
Pacheco served as State Treasurer from 1863 to 1867, then returned to the State Senate until he was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1871. He served as Lieutenant Governor of California under Newton Booth until Booth was elected to the United States Senate in 1873 and took office in 1875. Pacheco then served as Governor from February 27 to December 9, 1875, when Lieutenant Governor William Irwin, winner in the September elections that year, was inaugurated. Pacheco, having been denied the Republican nomination for Governor, instead ran for Lieutenant Governor on the People's Independent ticket alongside John Bidwell.
After his brief tenure as governor, Pacheco ran for a U.S. House seat in 1876, defeating incumbent Peter D. Wigginton by just one vote. Wigginton contested the election, eventually forcing Pacheco to leave in 1878 when the House Committee on Elections refused Pacheco's certificate of election. Returning to California, he went into business until winning a House seat again in September 1879. He was reelected in 1880.
He returned to California in 1893, and he died in Oakland, at the home of his brother-in-law, in 1899. He is buried in Mountain View Cemetery.
He was the last Hispanic Republican elected to represent California in the U.S. Congress until Mike Garcia was elected to represent the 25th district in a special election in May 2020, Sacramento Bee "Republican flips California congressional seat. What does that mean for November?" (2020) although Frank Coombs, whose mother was Mexican, was a Republican U.S. representative from California from 1901 to 1903, and Mexican-American U.S. Representative Matthew G. Martínez switched from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party on July 27, 2000 and served in Congress as a Republican until his term concluded on January 3, 2001.
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