The Fabian Bedne Story

The Tennessean had a great story this weekend on Councilman Fabian Bedne and his story of going from the military dictatorship in which thousands of people were disappeared by the government, to becoming Nashville's first Hispanic councilmember.

Bedne was elected Metro Nashville’s first Latino council member, three years after that council debated a measure that would have kept any city documents from being written in his native language — or anything other than English. Voters defeated it.

“Living under a dictatorship made me really resent being disenfranchised,” he said. “When people don’t have a way to get their point of view heard, I find that to be wrong.”

He survived a Nashville house fire. Was defeated in an election once before. Was asked about his citizenship on the campaign trail. But today, he wants to protect his constituents from that same feeling of voicelessness, and spends hours each day talking to them about shaping Nashville.