Torres, Esteban E. (Esteban Edward), 1930-

<p>A Korean War veteran and a longtime antipoverty activist in East Los Angeles with strong ties to unions, Esteban Torres served eight terms in the U.S. House. His career on Capitol Hill put him in the vanguard of Latino influence in U.S. politics. “When he took this seat in Congress, it was a period when we didn’t have much representation in the Hispanic community,” noted Vic Fazio of California, a longtime House colleague. “Now the gates are down, their political power is on the rise. It’s a career like Esteban Torres’ that has really made it possible for these younger people to have the opportunities for public service.”</p>

<p>Esteban Edward Torres was born in Miami, Arizona, on January 27, 1930, at a mining camp owned by the Phelps–Dodge Company. When Torres was five years old, his father was deported to Mexico and he never saw him again. Esteban, along with his mother, Rena Gómez, and his younger brother, Hugo, moved to East Los Angeles in 1936, where he attended the public schools and graduated from James A. Garfield High School in 1949. He was brought up by his mother and grandmother, Teresa Baron-Gómez, who instilled in him a sense of cultural pride. “My mother and my grandmother were very strong women, very educated and very proud to be Mexicans,” Torres remembered years later. “They were the ones that taught me to defend my rights, to shame me for not being Mexican.” Torres grew up in tough neighborhoods, crediting his survival to a structured family life anchored by his mother and his ability to find a middle ground among competing factions. “I was a barrio kid,” Torres recalled. “I grew up in the toughest environment anybody could grow up in. A lot of gangs. It was a depression. It was tough to get decent housing.… I was able to move between gangs and not alienate one group or the other. I had rapport with everybody. People always felt I was a peacemaker.” From 1949 to 1953, Torres served in the U.S. Army, fought in the Korean War, and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant first class. Torres used his benefits from the GI Bill to study at the Los Angeles Art Center in 1953. Over the next decade, he took courses at East Los Angeles College and California State University at Los Angeles. He took graduate-level courses, at the University of Maryland in economics and at American University in Washington, D.C., in international relations. Torres married Arcy Sanchez of Los Angeles on January 22, 1955. The couple raised five children: Carmen, Rena, Camille, Selina, and Esteban. “I thought about teaching in fine arts, but we had started raising a family and I had to go to work as a welder on the [assembly line at an auto plant],” Torres recalled. “I would take home pieces of metal, especially junk parts that were going to get scrapped, and develop larger pieces, labeled by the kind of car it was; Dodge, DeSoto, all those.” His interest in metal sculpting remained part of his life. “I saw so much conflict in the fight for social justice, in this country and abroad,” Torres recalled, “I couldn’t help being affected.… There’s a lot of frustration and revolt in me that comes out in my work.”</p>

<p>Torres was introduced to politics by way of his activism in the local branch of the United Auto Workers (UAW) Union. In 1958 his coworkers elected him chief steward of the Local 230. He was later appointed the UAW organizer for the western region of the United States. In 1963 he was tapped by Walter Reuther as a UAW international representative in Washington, D.C., and from 1964 to 1968 he served as the union’s director of the Inter-American Bureau for Caribbean and Latin American Affairs. In 1968 Torres returned to Los Angeles, founding The East Los Angeles Community Union (TELACU), a community action organization that grew under his stewardship into one of the nation’s largest antipoverty agencies. While serving as TELACU’s chief executive officer, Torres also was active in other local organizations, such as the Los Angeles County Commission on Economic Development, the Mexican-American Commission on Education, and the Plaza la Raza Cultural Center.</p>

<p>Esteban Edward Torres (born January 27, 1930) is a U.S. politician who served as member of the United States House of Representatives for California's 34th congressional district from 1983-1999.</p>

<p>Torres was born in Miami, Arizona, to parents from Mexico. He was raised mostly by his mother, Rena Gómez. His father was a miner, but was deported to Mexico.</p>

<p>Torres served in the United States Army from 1949 to 1953. Active in the labor movement, he was appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France, from 1977 to 1979 and served as a special assistant to President Jimmy Carter from 1979 to 1981.</p>

TORRES, Esteban Edward, a Representative from California; born in Miami, Gila County, Ariz., January 27, 1930; graduated from James A. Garfield High School, East Los Angeles, Calif., 1949; attended, East Los Angeles College, East Los Angeles, Calif., 1959; attended, California State University, Los Angeles, Calif.,1963; attended, University of Maryland, College Park, Md., 1965; attended, American University, Washington, D.C., 1966; United States Army, sergeant, first class, 1949-1953; United Auto Workers representative and international labor consultant, 1954-1968; community affairs organizer, 1968-1974; United Auto Worker official, 1975-1976; consultant, Office of Technology Assessment, 1976-1977; United States Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France, 1977-1979; special assistant to the President, The White House, 1979-1981; delegate, California State Democratic conventions, 1968-1983; delegate, Democratic National Conventions, 1984, 1988, 1992, and 1995; unsuccessful candidate for election to the Ninety-fourth Congress in 1974; elected as a Democrat to the Ninety-eighth and seven succeeding Congresses (January 3, 1983-January 3, 1999); was not a candidate for reelection to the One Hundred Sixth Congress in 1998; member, California state transportation commission, 1999 to present.