Nelson Merced is a
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
Latino activist and
politicianA politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
. He was the first Hispanic elected to the
Massachusetts General CourtThe Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...
, serving from 1989 to 1993 as Democratic
representativeThe Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...
from the fifth Suffolk District in
BostonBoston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, including the Roxbury and North
DorchesterDorchester is a dissolved municipality and current neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It is named after the town of Dorchester in the English county of Dorset, from which Puritans emigrated and is today endearingly nicknamed "Dot" by its residents. Dorchester, including a large...
neighborhoods.
Early Life, Family and Education
Nelson Merced was born in New York in 1948 and moved back and forth between the Northeast of the United States and Puerto Rico with his family several times before joining the
United States NavyThe United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
in 1965. After leaving the Navy, he lived in
Puerto RicoPuerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
with his parents and was active in the squatters’ rights movement in San Juan. Returning to the United States in 1971, Merced settled in
MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
in 1976. He worked for the Massachusetts Department of Public Welfare, and took the position of the director of La Alianza Hispana in 1981.
Merced has a bachelor's degree from the
University of ConnecticutThe admission rate to the University of Connecticut is about 50% and has been steadily decreasing, with about 28,000 prospective students applying for admission to the freshman class in recent years. Approximately 40,000 prospective students tour the main campus in Storrs annually...
and did graduate work at the
Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyThe Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
.
Political career
In 1988, Merced became the first Latino to serve in the
Massachusetts House of RepresentativesThe Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from single-member electoral districts across the Commonwealth. Representatives serve two-year terms...
and the first Hispanic to hold statewide office in the commonwealth. He held this position until 1992, running a successful re-election campaign in 1990. During his time in the House, Merced was active in the campaign to promote and protect bilingual education in Massachusetts as well as working for immigrants’ rights and the reform of the
Boston Public SchoolsBoston Public Schools is a school district serving the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States.-Leadership:The district is led by a Superintendent, hired by the Boston School Committee, a seven-member school board appointed by the Mayor after approval by a nominating committee of specified...
. He also wrote legislation creating an Urban Initiative Fund, and was a key legislative leader for the first bill that sought to establish community reinvestment mandates for the insurance industry.
In 1994, Merced took a position as the CEO of Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción just prior to the organization’s proposed merger with the Escuelita Agueybana Day Care Center. The merger never took place and, in 1996, Merced left the organization. In 2005, Merced took a position as the Director of National Initiatives and Applied Research with
NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit sponsored by the US Congress.
Merced was also a member of the U.S. Commission on Immigration Reform, appointed by the US Senate and sometimes known as the Jordan Commission after its chair,
Barbara JordanBarbara Charline Jordan was an American politician who was both a product and a leader, of the Civil Rights movement. She was the first African American elected to the Texas Senate after Reconstruction and the first southern black female elected to the United States House of Representatives...
. The Commission was formed in 1990 to propose reforms to United States immigration policies, which it did in a
series of reports issued between 1994 and 1997.
Other activities
Merced was a founding member and first president of the
Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative, a unique and nationally recognized community development organization. Over the past 15 years, Merced has lectured at the
University of MassachusettsThis article relates to the statewide university system. For the flagship campus often referred to as "UMass", see University of Massachusetts Amherst...
in community planning, personnel management, funding strategies, and the legislative process.
External links
The
Nelson Merced papers, 1966-2002 (bulk 1988-1992) are located in the Northeastern University Libraries, Archives and Special Collections Department, Boston, MA.