Ladislas Lazaro

Ladislas Lazaro was an American politician who served as a Democratic United States [House of Representatives|U.S. Representative] from from 1913 to 1927.

Biography

Born near Ville Platte, Evangeline Parish, Louisiana, Lazaro was the son of Marie Denise Ortego, a daughter of one of Ville Platte’s founding Hispanic families, and Alexandre Lazaro Biladinoviz, a Romani immigrant from the town of Risan, who came to America aboard a ship from Russia as a stowaway. Lazaro attended public and private schools and Holy Cross College, New Orleans, Louisiana.
He graduated from Louisville Medical College in 1894 and practiced his profession in Washington, Louisiana, until 1913.
He became interested in agricultural pursuits. He served as president of the parish school board for four years. He also served in the Louisiana State Senate from 1908 to 1912.

Lazaro was elected as a Democrat to the Sixty-third and to the seven succeeding Congresses; he served from March 4, 1913, until his death in Washington, D.C., on March 30, 1927. He became the second Hispanic American ever to chair a standing committee in the U.S. House of Representatives when he was named chairman of the Enrolled Bills Committee in 1915.

He died while in office in 1927 and was interred in the Old City Cemetery, Ville Platte, Louisiana.