Joseph Marion Hernández

José Mariano Hernández or Joseph Marion Hernández (May 26, 1788 – June 8, 1857) was an American politician, plantation owner, and soldier. He was the first Delegate from the Florida Territory and the first Hispanic American to serve in the United States Congress. A member of the Whig Party, he served from September 1822 to March 1823.

Hernández was born in St. Augustine, Florida during Florida's second Spanish period. His parents were Minorcans who had originally come to the region as indentured servants in Andrew Turnbull's New Smyrna colony. Prior to the American acquisition of Florida, Hernández owned three plantations south of St. Augustine (in what was then East Florida): San Jose, Mala Compra, and Bella Vista, the last of which is now Washington Oaks State Gardens.

When Spain ceded the Floridas to the United States in the Adams–Onís Treaty in 1822, Hernández pledged his allegiance to the U.S. After the organization of the Florida Territory later that year, he was elected Florida's first Delegate to the United States House of Representatives, and was approved by President James Monroe on September 30, 1822. He thus became the first Hispanic ever to serve in the U.S. Congress. He served for six months, leaving office on March 3, 1823.

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