Bookmark this page or copy and paste URL to Email message

Manuel "Lito" Peña Papers 1957-2000

MSS-278

Biographical Note

Manuel "Lito" Peña Jr. was born to Manuel and Elvira (Gomez) Peña on a cattle ranch in Cashion, Arizona on November 17, 1924. "Lito" (the diminutive form of Manuel) received his public school education at the Tolleson Elementary School and dropped out of Tolleson High School in the midst of his junior year (1943). He worked as a farm laborer in the agricultural fields in and around Tolleson until 1944, when he moved to El Monte, California to live with his sister and her husband. In December of that year, Peña returned to Tolleson. In 1945, he spent seven months as an "independent trucking contractor" driving a 4-ton, 10-wheel truck to transport produce from farms to packing houses on hauls averaging about 50 miles. He later found work with Reynolds Metals and for Luke Fields as an apprentice sheet metal mechanic. Peña married his wife, Aurora Cruz, in 1945.

Peña was drafted into the Army in August of 1945 and served as Private First Class with the 31st Infantry Regiment in Korea, where he received advanced training as a gunner on an 8a MM mortar crew and became a heavy weapons specialist. Peña was honorably discharged from military service in September of 1946 and used the G.I. Bill to advance his education. He attended the National School of Meat Cutting in Toledo, Ohio and used his skills and training as a butcher in his father's grocery store in Cashion, where he gained valuable business experience as the manager of the store's meat department. Peña also observed how his father interacted with the Peña grocery store's largely working class customers and understood that his father served as a community spokesperson for the Spanish-speaking in political issues. Peña later recalled "meeting Arizona Supreme Court Judge Fred Struckmeyer and Bill Mahoney, who was running for Maricopa County Attorney at the time". His father's encounters with important political leaders ignited Lito's interest in government and local politics and he soon became active in the Democratic Party. In 1946, Peña helped organize Tolleson's first voter-registration drive. The tough part about registering voters, Peña recalled, "was that at that time, you registered once for the state election and then you had to register again for the city. The city would not allow us to go door to door register voters. We had to bring the people in to Tolleson to register them. We brought them out from the fields and the farms in pickup trucks and got them registered. In a town where they had never had more than 150 people registered to vote, we registered 750."

Peña soon became Chairman of the Voter Registration Committee of the Maricopa County Democratic Central Committee and the Assistant Director of Voter Registration for the State Democratic Party. He was also a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City in 1964. Peña's bitter memories of attending a "Mexican school" in Tolleson lingered and he vowed to eliminate segregation justified by a language barrier separating Mexican and Mexican American children from Anglo children at the Tolleson Elementary School. In 1950, he became the vice-president of the Comité Movimiento Unido Mexicano Contra La Discriminación, whose goal was to end the school district's long-standing segregation policy. The district's refusal to end segregated schools resulted in the committee's filing Gonzales vs. Sheely on May 5, 1950 in the federal district court of Arizona. In 1952, United States District Judge David Ling ruled that the segregation of Mexican children in the Tolleson Elementary School District was inequitable and declared that the schools must be open to all students. The case became known as the "Landmark Civil Rights Case of Arizona." Peña said this civil rights case and his work with the Comité Movimiento Unido Mexicano Contra La Discriminación convinced him to run for political office. By 1955, Peña had obtained his broker's license and he established the Peña Realty and Trust Company and the Peña Insurance Agency. He conducted business in his Tolleson home.

Around this time, Peña was attracted to the community organizing ideas of the Community Service Organization (CSO), a non-political group concerned with community relations and improvement developed in California by social activist Saul Alinsky. CSO's advocate, Fred Ross, came to Phoenix and convinced Peña to learn leadership techniques and to work closely with another young CSO advocate, César Estrada Chávez, the future labor leader of the United Farm Workers (UFW). It was here that Peña and Chávez formed a close and long-lasting friendship. In 1960, Peña ran for a seat in the Arizona House of Representatives. He lost both that election and the subsequent 1962 election. In 1963, Peña ran for a seat on the Phoenix City Council on the Action Citizens Committee (ACT) ticket and challenged Charter Government candidates; he lost that race too. Among his strongest supporters was Lincoln Ragsdale, a noted civil rights activist in Phoenix. Peña ran for a seat in the House of Representatives in 1966 and won by 30 votes. When his brother, Rudolph "Danny" Gomez Peña, was elected to office in 1972 the pair became the first brothers to simultaneously hold office at the state level. Peña became chairman of the Commerce and Labor Committee representing his south Phoenix constituents in District 22 when the Democrats gained control of the Arizona Senate in the mid-1970s. His legislative record shows that he concentrated on labor and consumer issues, championed the elimination of the sales tax on food, and voted in favor of increases to worker's compensation benefits. In 1996, Manuel "Lito" Peña formally retired from the state Senate and from his representation of District 22. He died on October 12, 2013.

Scope and Content Note

The Manuel "Lito" Peña Papers consist of personal files and photographs documenting Peña's work in Tolleson, Arizona in the 1950s with the Community Service Organization (CSO); correspondence reflecting his friendship with César Chávez, farm labor union leader and organizer; legislative speeches made and bills introduced in the Arizona Senate (1966-1996); campaign literature generated when Peña sought re-election as the Democratic representative for District 22; political statements made and additional documents produced explaining Peña's votes on a variety of issues presented for discussion among lawmakers, including the Governor Evan Mecham impeachment hearings in 1988; biographical information; newspaper clippings and printed matter about state and county elections (1980s-1996); correspondence from and to Peña's District 22 constituents (1966-1996); and original photographs portraying Senator Peña's friendships with community activists, leaders, and organizers of the Community Service Organization (CSO) at meetings in California in 1956 and 1957.

Series I: Personal Papers contains biographical information about state Senator Manuel "Lito" Peña (1986-1999); handwritten notes concerning legislative matters and speeches made at local and national public events (1970-1996); Peña's appointment book (1966); personal correspondence with United Farm Workers labor leader César Chávez (1959-1962); and notes and newspaper articles regarding legislation that Peña introduced (1991-1998).

Series II: Campaigns and Elections presents a wide variety of materials showing Senator Peña's re-election campaigns (1976-1992) including expenditures, correspondence from colleagues in the Democratic party, flyers, contributors lists, and nomination petitions.

Series III: Legislation - House and Senate houses Senator Peña's voting records; documents his sponsorship of legislation to increase benefits for workers injured on the job (workers compensation); shows Peña's efforts to introduce legislation to eliminate the sales tax on food and to support measures that benefit the average consumer; presents Peña's efforts to monitor and control regulation measures by the automobile industry and insurance companies to ensure that they remain fair and equitable to consumers; and illustrates a number of issues important to Peña's constituents, including consumer protection bills, interest rates on bank loans, gasoline sales taxes, regulation and enforcement of building codes, game and fish license fees, the establishment and control of credit card interest rates, and the minimum wage.

Series IV: Committees documents Senator Peña's work on committees including Agriculture, Commerce and Labor, Commerce and Industry, Finance, Transportation, Alternative Fuels, Auto Insurance, Maricopa County Democratic Central Committee, Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCS), and the State Retirement System between 1966 and 1999. The minutes generated from these meetings demonstrate Senator Peña's attention to detail and concern for the protection of his constituents and the general public.

Series V: Government Agencies, Sub-Series A: General houses Senator Peña's correspondence, memorandums, notes, statements, and reports on the regulation of such agencies as the State Department of Transportation, the State Department of Insurance, the State Department of Commerce, the State Department of Weights and Measurements, the State Structural Pest Control Commission, the State Department of Banking, the State Liquor Control Board, and the State Athletic Commission dating from 1964 to 1993.

Series V: Government Agencies, Sub-Series B: Legal Matters shows Evan Mecham's 1988 impeachment hearings. Included are Senator Peña's handwritten notes taken during lawmakers' discussion of the charges filed against Governor Mecham. Of particular interest are the materials recording Senator Peña's physical confrontation with future Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court William Rehnquist in Phoenix in 1964. Rehnquist, a young lawyer at the time, had allegedly been sent by the Republican Party to a south Phoenix voting site during general elections to intimidate racial and ethnic minorities in order to prevent them from voting for Democratic candidates. Rehnquist sat at a table near the voting area and spoke to potential African American and Mexican American voters standing in lines waiting to vote. In his conversations with them, he challenged their qualifications and questioned Spanish-speaking individuals about their knowledge of the United States Constitution and noted that they spoke with heavy Spanish accents. Peña, a Democratic precinct poll watcher for the area, questioned Rehnquist about his behavior and the two engaged in a shouting match that culminated in a violent incident. Seven years later, in 1971, Peña testified at Rehnquist's confirmation hearings in Washington, D.C. about this incident. Rehnquist denied that the events occurred and attributed Peña's recollection of the matter to a case of mistaken identity.

Series VI: Correspondence contains correspondence from local and national Democrats and Republicans expressing their opinions on legislative matters and on candidates for political offices. Constituents' correspondence is included in this series as is correspondence with members of Senate and House committees. These letters date from 1962 to 1996.

Series VII: Miscellaneous houses materials regarding Democratic National Committee matters including newsletters, newspaper articles about Senator Peña's interest in issues dealing with consumer rights, state elections, and Hispanic voters. Of particular interest are newsletters published by the Community Service Organization (CSO) from 1957 to 1964.

Series VIII: Photographs contains original photographs from Senator Peña's personal files dating from 1956 to 2003. Many of these photographs, however, are undated. Among the subjects depicted are Peña's re-election campaign; Peña's political colleagues, including Tony Abril, "Nayo" Cajero of Tucson, Governor Jack Williams, presidential candidate Michael Dukakis, and vice-presidential candidate Lloyd Bentsen. Also included are photographs taken in neglected neighborhoods in Tolleson, Arizona, where the work of the Community Service Organization (CSO) is visible and photographs taken at Community Service Organization (CSO) meetings in the mid-1950s.

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

The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of the Arizona State University Library. Requests to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.

Access Terms

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], Manuel Lito Peña Papers, MSS-278, Arizona State University Library.

Provenance

The Manuel "Lito" Peña Papers were donated to the Chicano Research Collection by his brother, Wilfredo J. "Sonny" Peña, in 2004 (Accession Numbers 2004-03429 and 2004-03430).

Container List