Santiestevan, Henry

Biography

Henry Santiestevan was born Enrique Santiestevan on July 7, 1915 in Nogales, Sonora, Mexico. Henry is English for Enrique. His parents were Enrique J. Santiestevan and Maria Victoria Morel Santiestevan. His wife was Marystina Ellen Sternlov Santiestevan. Santiestevan graduated from John H. Francis Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles, California in 1934. Due to an illness his entrance into Occidental College was postponed. He graduated from Occidental college in 1940. Between 1943 and 1946 he served in the US Army and was honorably discharged in 1946. After his service in the US Army he went to work for the Hollywood-Citizen News. Eventually he would join the CIO and run its Western edition of the CIO news as its editor. In the late 1940s he became politically active and assisted Ed Roybal in becoming the first Mexican American elected to the Los Angeles City Council.

Mr. Santiestevan would go on to serve as the President of the Newspaper Guild and became a political director for the CIO in Los Angeles. In 1958 he took a position with United Auto Workers (UAW) and worked alongside their President, Walter Reuther. Later Mr. Santiestevan would become the editor of Solidarity the monthly magazine of the United Auto Workers, and Agenda with the Industrial Union Department. Through Mr. Santiestevan’s position as an editor he became a close confidant of labor organizer Cesar Chavez and assist with public relations and media campaigns for the United Farm Workers.

In 1970 Mr. Santiestevan became the director of the Southwest Council of La Raza (SWCLR) today’s National Council of La Raza (NCLR). After leaving SWCLR he established his own public relations consulting firm. He had numerous clients from across the country and was revered as a prominent writer. He retired in 1997. Mr. Santiestevan passed away on January 22, 2000.

Stanford also holds over eight hours of recorded interviews by Yale historian Stephen Pitti. Pitti was a doctoral candidate at Stanford when he conducted the interviews. They are located in the Special Collections department at Stanford University.

From the guide to the Henry Santiestevan Papers, 1975-2012, (Dept. of Special Collections & University Archives)