Northeastern Voice

Papers of first Latino state representative online

Nelson Merced, right, listens to a voter while campaigning for a seat in the state House of Representatives in 1988. (Photo by Don West)

The works of Nelson Merced, the first Latino member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, are now searchable via the Northeastern Libraries Archives and Special Collections Department.

His papers on bilingual education and immigrants’ rights are among the materials searchable through an online guide at http://www.lib.neu.edu/archives/collect/findaids/M125find.htm.

The works, contained within the library’s signature collection dealing with underrepresented communities, are an important addition, said Joan D. Krizack, university archivist and head of the Special Collections Department.

“Underrepresented communities are a strong focus of our archives,” she said. “As a neighbor in the Roxbury neighborhood, it’s important that we help support efforts that allow this important community, and their voices, to be heard.”

Northeastern University began building its collection of underrepresented communities material in 1998, and has amassed about 100 collections.
Highlights of the collection include material from the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, Freedom House, The Chinese Progressive Association, AIDS Action Committee of Massachusetts and La Alianza Hispana (The Hispanic Alliance).

Now, the works of Nelson Merced have been organized, the contents outlined in a guide that can be searched on line.

“Nelson Merced was the first Latino member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives,” Krizack said, noting that his works would appeal to students and faculty working on social justice research, among other areas.

Merced, the son of Puerto Rican immigrants in New York, joined the United States Navy in 1965, before embarking on a life focused more on the rights of the underprivileged.
After moving to Massachusetts in 1976, he went to work for the Boston Department of Public Welfare, attended graduate school at MIT, and became director of La Alianza Hispana in 1981.

Merced spent time working with organizations such as the Massachusetts English Plus Coalition, the Massachusetts Black Legislative Caucus and the Mauricio Gaston Institute, His papers, now organized in the archives, focus on these and other activities from 1966-2002.

The collection is open for research Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., in the Special Collections Department.

— Susan Salk