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Ed Pastor Papers 1977-1992

MSS-131

Biographical Note

Edward López Pastor was born in the mining community of Claypool, Arizona on June 28, 1943. The oldest of three children, he attended public school in Miami, Arizona. He was the first member of his family to attend college, graduating from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Chemistry in 1966. He was also the first in his family to attend law school, earning his Juris Doctorate from ASU in 1974.

Pastor was elected to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in 1976 and served three terms before resigning in May of 1991 to run for Congress. He became the Democratic nominee from Arizona's 2nd District on August 13 and Arizona's first Mexican-American Congressman on September 24. Pastor was sworn into office on October 3, 1991 and has been re-elected to the following ten Congresses (1991-2012).

Prior to his election as a county supervisor, Pastor was a member of Governor Raul Castro's staff (1971-1972), taught chemistry at North High School, and served as Deputy Director of the Guadalupe Organization, Inc. in Guadalupe, Arizona. He also served on the Board of Directors for the National Association of Counties, as Vice President of Arizona's County Supervisors Association, and as a member of the executive committee of the Arizona Association of Counties.

Pastor was honored with an outstanding service award from the East Valley Boys and Girls Club in 1988. He also received the Mesa Community Council's Santa Cruz Award, which recognizes an outstanding elected public servant, in 1987.

Pastor is married to the former Verma Mendez, who serves as the Director of Bilingual Education for the Arizona Department of Education. The couple has two daughters, Yvonne and Laura.

Scope and Content Note

The Ed Pastor Papers house correspondence, reports, and budgeting records dating from 1977 to 1992 that Ed Pastor compiled during his time on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and as a representative from Arizona in the United States Congress. The collection has been divided into five series.

Series I: Maricopa County Board of Supervisors consists of political correspondence generated during Pastor's terms as Councilman for District 5. These letters contain information about the county's administration and document Pastor's lobbying efforts. Series II: Personal Papers is composed of Pastor's personal correspondence with his constituency.

Series III: Research on Foreign Affairs houses information regarding the elections of 1988 in Nicaragua and El Salvador that Pastor compiled during several fact-finding trips that he took as a representative of the National Association of Counties and the Southwest Voter Registration Institute. These documents include reports compiled by the prospective agencies; various articles on U.S. foreign policy in Central America; a copy of El Exportador, a Nicaraguan labor union paper; and transcripts from "La Gaceta", a Nicaraguan radio broadcast of election results. Also included are articles on human rights policy in Mexico; Punto Critico, a magazine examining Mexican political movements; a journal on political prisoners in Mexico; and a journal by Pastor entitled "Travels with Saul" in which he details his personal experience traveling through Guatemala and El Salvador.

Series IV: Research on Domestic Issues includes files containing Pastor's research on the North American Free Trade Agreement, health care reform, and budget reform. The materials from the John F. Kennedy School of Government Program for Newly Elected Members of Congress provide an overview of the issues confronting a congressman in addition to biographies of newly elected members and of the speakers present at the conference. Also included are files showing issues affecting Pastor's district, including reports and correspondence from the Southwest Voter Registration Project; a report from the Select Committee on Educational Reform dealing with better schools for Arizona; and a Phoenix Gazette article on the Mexican-American community in Phoenix titled "The Neighborhood/Mi Barrio". Finally, this series houses several plaques and other honors conferred upon Pastor for his community service.

Series V: Appointment Books contains Pastor's appointment books dating from 1984 to 1990.

Arrangement

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

To view this collection, make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or calling (480) 965-4932. Appointments in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138) on the Tempe campus are available Monday through Friday. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.

Copyright

Arizona State University does not own the copyright to this collection. We recognize that it is incumbent upon the researcher to procure permission to publish information from this collection from the owner of the copyright.

Related Material

Congressman Pastor donated additional materials to the Chicano Research Collection between 1997 and 2011. Preliminary inventories for these materials can be found at http://www.azarchivesonline.org/xtf/view?docId=ead/asu/pastor_acc.xml.

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Ed Pastor Papers, MSS-131, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

Materials illustrating Pastor's role as a Representative for District 5 on the Maricopa Board of Supervisors from 1976 to 1991 were donated to the Chicano Research Collection in 1992 (ACC# 1992-00605). A later accession contains information showing Pastor's first year as a Congressman (ACC# 1993-01221).

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