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Table of contents
Language of Material:
English
Contributing Institution:
University of California, Davis Library,
Dept. of Special Collections
Title: Pedro (Peter) Camejo Papers
Creator:
Camejo, Pedro
Identifier/Call Number: D-504
Physical Description:
20 linear
feet
Date (inclusive):
1928-2008
Abstract: California
politician Peter Camejo's journals, correspondence, writings, and
audiovisual materials.
Physical Location: Researchers should
contact Archives and Special Collections to request collections,
as many are stored offsite.
Pedro "Peter" Muguel Camejo Guanche (1939-2009) was born on December 31, 1939 in Queens, New York. Camejo studied mathematics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of California, Berkeley.
Camejo's multicultural childhood exposed him to a variety of living conditions and made him passionate about social equality.
This passion drove him to join the Socialist Workers Party (SWP) Youth in 1958, while enrolled at MIT. Camejo quickly distinguished
himself within the Party, and by 1961, he had moved to New York to become a leader of the Young Socialist Alliance (YSA).
His work supporting civil rights there made him such a recognizable figure that the SWP sent him to Berkeley, California in
1965 to build up its YSA branch. Once there, he joined the anti-Vietnam War movement and ran (unsuccessfully) in the 1967
mayoral election.
Following a failed Massachusetts-based run for Senate in 1970, the SWP made Camejo a party representative. In this capacity,
he spent a few years visiting Trotskyist groups throughout Latin America before returning to the United States in 1974, at
which point the SWP decided to run him for president. In the ensuing 1976 Presidential Race, he won at least 96,000 votes,
but ultimately lost to Democrat James Earl Carter, Junior.
Camejo returned to California soon after, and began helping to organize the National Chicano/Latino Conference on Immigration
and Public Policy. The conference took place in San Antonio, Texas, in October 1977, and despite some infighting among the
political groups involved, it was a success. Camejo resumed his overseas work immediately after. In 1978, he helped Peruvian
human rights activist Hugo Blanco win a seat in Peru's Senate, then supported his presidential run the next year. It was Camejo's
time in Nicaragua, however, that left the greatest impression on him. Witnessing the successful revolution there brought him
to the conclusion that the SWP had grown too detached from the average American's reality to be effective, and ultimately
convinced him not to fight it when the SWP kicked him out.
By the 1980s, Camejo had returned to Berkeley and founded the North Star Network, an organization dedicated to supporting
democratic revolutions throughout Latin America. He also began working at San Francisco's Merryll Lynch investment firm in
1985. This job inspired him to open his own firm, Progressive Asset Management (PAM), in 1987. PAM's focus is on Sustainable
Responsible Investment.
Camejo returned to politics in 1992, when he joined the newly-formed Green Party. He ran for governor of California in 2002
and 2003, and by 2004 he was the running mate of his party's presidential hopeful, Ralph Nader. This bid for the Vice Presidency
failed, but Camejo was quick to refocus on California. He ran for governor a third time in 2006.
Peter Camejo passed away in his Folsom home in 2008. He was 68, and left behind a wife, two stepchildren, and three brothers.
Camejo's journals, correspondence, writings, and audiovisual
materials.
Web archive of Camejo's blog, Peter Camejo Updates,
https://wayback.archive-it.org/5780/*/http://petercamejoupdates.blogspot.com/
Collection is open for research.
Liz Phillips encoded this finding aid with help from student
assistant Aditi Sinha. The biography was written by Sacramento State Public History graduate student Emily Zinn.
[Identification of item], Pedro Camejo Papers, D-504, Archives
and Special Collections, UC Davis Library, University of
California, Davis.
Terms Governing Use and Reproduction
All applicable copyrights for the collection are protected
under chapter 17 of the U.S. Copyright Code. Requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted
in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of the Regents of the University
of California as the owner of the physical items. It is not
intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder,
which must also be obtained by the researcher.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Political activists
California -- Politics and
government
Camejo, Pedro -- Archives
Greens/Green Party USA