The 3800 block of Grand Boulevard in East Chicago now honors Jesse and Rosemarie Gomez, both Hispanic pioneers in politics.
Jesse was the first Hispanic elected official in Indiana, Councilman Robert Garcia said. Rosemarie became the first Hispanic woman to serve on the East Chicago City Council after her husband died in 1979.
Garcia represents the district that the Gomezes once did.
The City Council approved the resolution last year, but getting everyone together for Friday’s dedication of the new sign for Jesse & Rosemarie Gomez Way took time.
“We stand on the back of those elected officials,” Garcia said. “I stand on the shoulders of their leadership and their legacy.”
Their son, also named Jesse Gomez but with a different middle name, followed in his parents’ footsteps, serving on both the city council and now on the school board.
Gomez told his parents’ story.
“My father’s family arrived here in East Chicago from Mexico as trailblazers in 1916, and he was born here on April 14, 1920,” Gomez said. At age 12, Gomez’s father and his family returned to Zacatecas, Mexico, later attending the University of Mexico, where he focused on political science.
With the impending start of World War II, he returned to East Chicago to register for the draft and work at Inland Steel. After he left the mill, he worked as an insurance agent, an editorial writer for two Spanish-language newspapers, a radio announcer for WJOB’s Spanish-language “Hora Mexicana” program, and as a health inspector for the city.
In 1963, he was elected 6th District councilman, the first Hispanic elected to political office in the state’s history. He was re-elected to three additional consecutive terms, Gomez said, eventually becoming the 5th District councilman.
“Time with an elected official is interesting,” Gomez said. “As a youngster, I remember that we often had a table set for eight at dinner – two for my parents, four for the children and one for the live-in family friend, Joe. The eighth seat was reserved for someone else, usually an immigrant who was first making their way here to East Chicago from Mexico, Puerto Rico or somewhere across the Atlantic.”
“My father was a good dancer, a great sketch artist, a fantastic chess player, a horrible joke teller and, in his mind, the greatest soccer player in the world,” Gomez said.
Gomez rattled off a long list of achievements during his father’s career, including serving as a Spanish language volunteer for the Pan-American Games and project coordinator for the East Chicago Vietnam Veterans Memorial, not to mention service twice as City Council president.
“That’s a lot for one person to do in a lifetime. My father achieved that during his short time here on Earth,” Gomez said.
The elder Jesse died Aug. 31, 1979, at age 59.
Rosemarie was born Jan. 14, 1926, in Saltillo, Mexico. While she was young, her family moved back and forth between the United States and Mexico.
She attended East Chicago public schools but left early to work at Inland Steel to help her family financially, Gomez said. She later returned to school and graduated from Washington High School.
In 1939, Rosemarie portrayed the Statue of Liberty during the Mexican Independence Day Parade. The next year, she served as queen of that parade.
Rosemarie, 99, has her own long list of accomplishments and involvement in the community.
“My mother was a great cook, a fantastic gardener, and she is one of the most loving, kind and considerate people that you ever will meet,” Gomez said.
One day, Gomez said, his father told Rosemarie she needed to become an American citizen, which she did. “My mother later found out that the reason he asked her to do that was so that years later she could vote for him when he first ran for the City Council, a race he won,” Gomez said.
“Together, my parents were trailblazers, in similar fashion to the way their parents were,” Gomez said. “They were kind of the Hispanic version of John and Jackie Kennedy.”
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.