Campa Salazar, Valentín (1904–1999)

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Campa Salazar, Valentín (1904–1999)

The Mexican labor union leader Valentín Campa Salazar was a controversial figure in the railroad workers' union and a longtime activist of the Mexican Communist Party. Born on February 14, 1904, in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Campa completed only his first year of secondary education before going to work in 1920 for La Corona, a subsidiary of the Royal Dutch Company. As a labor activist he cofounded the Sindicato Unitario Mexicano. Beginning in 1927 he was imprisoned thirteen times for his labor organizing; he spent ten years in Lecumberri prison after a 1958–1959 railroad strike. Campa ran unsuccessfully for president on the Mexican Communist Party (PCM) ticket in 1976 and served as a federal deputy from 1979 to 1982. He died on November 25, 1999.

See alsoLabor Movements; Mexico, Political Parties: Partido Comunista Mexicano.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Valentin, Campa Salazar. Mi testimonio: Experiencias de un comunista mexicano. Mexico: Ediciones de Cultura Popular, 1978.

Valentin, Campa Salazar. Una voz en la tribuna. Mexico: Camara de Diputados, 1994.

                                      Roderic Ai Camp

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Campa Salazar, Valentín (1904–1999)

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