Hernández, Benigno Cárdenas, 1862-1954

<p>Benigno Cárdenas Hernández (February 13, 1862 – October 18, 1954) was the first Hispanic from New Mexico to serve as a full member of Congress.</p>

<p>Hernández was born in Taos in the New Mexico Territory to Juan J. and Maria M. Hernández as the third of 15 children, where in his early years he attended both private and public schools. As a young man he moved to Lumberton in Rio Arriba County, where he raised sheep. In 1882 he returned to Taos, where he worked as a store clerk. In 1888 he became a private merchant, and for the next few years lived in various communities in New Mexico. In 1893 he established a store in Lumberton and six years later he set up the headquarters for his business activities in Tierra Amarilla, the county seat for Rio Arriba County.</p>

<p>In 1900 Hernández began his political career when he became probate clerk and recorder in Tierra Amarilla. In 1904 he was elected county sheriff of Rio Arriba County and served for two years. From 1908 to 1912 he served as county treasurer and tax collector. In 1912 he was appointed receiver in the State Land Office in Santa Fe. During his tenure as an elected county official, he also served as a delegate to numerous State Republican Conventions. He resigned from the Santa Fe post the following year and returned to his business.</p>

<p>Benigno Hernández was the first Hispanic American from New Mexico elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. He rose through the ranks of local politics in an era of Republican dominance. Elected two years after New Mexico was admitted to the Union in 1912, Hernández benefited from a rich tradition of Territorial Delegates who had tended to their constituents’ needs. Hernández’s loss of his congressional seat during the Democratic resurgence in the 1916 elections and return to the House after Republican gains in the 1918 midterms reflected national trends.</p>

<p>Benigno Cárdenas (B. C.) Hernández was born in Taos, New Mexico, to Juan J. and Maria M. Hernández, on February 13, 1862. Juan was an adobe mason, and Maria maintained the household. Benigno was the third of 15 children. He attended local schools but had little formal education. Instead, Hernández learned the sheep-ranching and mercantile trades while living in Ojo Caliente, Lumberton, and Tierra Amarilla in Rio Arriba County. He returned to Taos in 1882, working as a clerk until 1888. Hernández lived in a number of communities while building a merchandising business. In 1904 he joined Amador & Company, a firm specializing in sheep, cattle, and merchandising. In 1898 Hernández married Frances Whitlock; the couple had three children: B. C., Jr.; John W.; and Isabel.</p>

<p>Hernández served as probate clerk and recorder in Tierra Amarilla from 1900 to 1904 and was then elected to a two-year term as county sheriff. Hernández served as Rio Arriba’s treasurer and collector from 1908 to 1912 and as receiver in the state land office from 1912 to 1914 before returning to his business activities. He also served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1912 and in 1916. One scholar counted Hernández as a member of the “Old Guard,” a Republican contingent that used a “political establishment of considerable skill and permanence … [in] … dominant counties of the Rio Grande and Upper Pecos valleys.” Many of the Old Guard Republicans were successful entrepreneurs who not only “achieved a measure of independence from politics” but also spoke for “a union of business and similar groups with government.” Because they wielded significant influence over political and business affairs at the county level, the Old Guard Republicans had an extraordinary amount of political leverage at the state and national levels.</p>

HERNÁNDEZ, Benigno Cárdenas, a Representative from New Mexico; born in Taos, N.Mex., February 13, 1862; attended common and private schools; clerk in a general merchandise establishment in Taos County from 1880 to 1889; engaged in general merchandising and stock raising; moved to Lumberton in 1896 and engaged in mercantile pursuits; probate clerk and ex officio recorder of deeds for Rio Arriba County 1900-1904; moved to Tierra Amarilla in 1901; sheriff of Rio Arriba County 1904-1906; county treasurer and ex officio collector of taxes from 1908 until 1912; delegate to numerous State Republican conventions; receiver of the land office at Sante Fe, N.Mex., in 1912 and 1913, when he resigned; again engaged in mercantile pursuits and stock raising; delegate to the Republican National Conventions in 1912 and 1916; member of the State exemption board during the First World War; elected as a Republican to the Sixty-fourth Congress (March 4, 1915-March 3, 1917); unsuccessful candidate for reelection in 1916 to the Sixty-fifth Congress; elected to the Sixty-sixth Congress (March 4, 1919-March 3, 1921); was not a candidate for renomination in 1920; appointed collector of internal revenue for the district of New Mexico by President Harding on April 22, 1921, and served until 1933; member of the Selective Service Board 1940-1947; died in Los Angeles, Calif., on October 18, 1954; interment in Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, Calif.