Robert Garcia made history as the first openly gay immigrant to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. To mark this historic occasion, Garcia was sworn in on January 3 on the U.S. Constitution, a photo of his parents, his citizenship certificate, and an original Superman #1 comic borrowed from the Library of Congress.
Each of these items holds a special significance to Robert Garcia. Born in Lima, Peru, he was brought to the U.S. by his mother, who was undocumented at the time. He says that becoming a citizen at 21 was the happiest day of his life, making it clear why he included his citizenship certificate.
His mother, a healthcare worker, and stepfather, were both victims of the COVID-19 pandemic and died in June 2020. According to his website, this loss spurred him to use his position as Mayor of Long Beach, California “to ensure other families wouldn’t experience the same pain.” His expansion of mobile testing and vaccination went on to earn praise from health experts and the White House.
The choice of a Superman comic is appropriate for many reasons. Designed by Jewish writer Jerry Siegel and Jewish artist Joe Shuster, Superman was a kind of parody of Adolf Hitler’s Ubermensch—a bastardization of Nietzsche’s philosophy that typified his “master race” ideology. Superman came on the scene to be exactly the caliber of person the Nazis aimed to be, but aggressively American and anti-fascist as a giant middle finger.
These days, Superman media tends to focus on the character’s status as an immigrant, an outsider who still goes out of his way to help the people who need him, despite their resentment of him. In the nearly 85 years that Superman has been around, he has remained an aspirational figure, and given their similar backstories, it make sense that Robert Garcia would want to embody him in his swearing-in.
