Former U.S. Representative Charles A. “Charlie” Gonzalez has donated his congressional papers to UTSA. These materials are now included in UTSA Library’s Special Collections. Gonzalez’s collection will be made available to students and researchers interested in studying his impact during his 14 years of service as a congressman.
Gonzalez is a San Antonio native and served as the Representative for the 20th Congressional District of Texas for 14 years. As a congressman he served on numerous committees, including Financial Services, Small Business, House Administration, Energy and Commerce, Judiciary and Homeland Security. Gonzalez left Congress in 2012 and is now the chief of public engagement for VIA Metropolitan Transit in San Antonio.
“I’m pleased that my legacy as a public servant of the citizens of San Antonio and Texas will now be widely accessible,” Gonzalez said.
“Representative Gonzalez’s congressional papers help to document important chapters in the histories of San Antonio, Texas, congressional policymaking and Latino politics,” UTSA President Ricardo Romo told UTSA Today. “Acquisitions of this caliber play a role in the university’s ascent to Tier One research status.”
The materials consist of speeches, press releases, legislative files, videotapes of interviews and constituent correspondence — information that will be beneficial to researchers in an array of disciplines.
“Special Collections is committed to providing access to a robust set of collections that can help propel the students and the faculty — and outside researchers — to perform research and access primary resource materials,” said Mark Shelstad, UTSA Library’s head of Special Collections.
Walter Wilson, professor of political science at UTSA and former staff member of Gonzales’s congressional office, initiated the acquisition of Gonzalez’s congressional papers.
“He (Wilson) was very interested in being able to do research on Latino issues in Congress as well as the issues that come across in South Texas,” said Shelstad.
With the addition of Gonzalez’s papers, UTSA will have gained its first congressional collection. Shelstad called the collection “a good stepping stone…It means that we have a larger set of core resources for students and faculty to use.”
The collection is housed at UTSA’s HemisFair Park Campus and can be accessed via the Institute of Texan Cultures Special Collections reading room.
“As a proud San Antonian, I can’t think of a better place than UTSA to offer my congressional papers as a resource for generations of students and scholars,” said Gonzalez.