Preliminary Inventory of the Antonio D. Bustamante Papers

Antonio D. Bustamante was born to Antonio Martinez and Constance Diamos Bustamante in Douglas, Arizona, on July 15, 1952. He graduated from Douglas High School in 1970 and continued on to Stanford University, where he earned his B.A. in Political Science in 1974. During his time at Stanford, he worked for the United Farm Workers Union for three summers. He started as a labor organizer in Coachella, California but soon became a member of César Chávez's road staff. Bustamante enrolled in Antioch School of Law in Washington, D.C. in 1976.

On August 16, 1976 (coincidentally the first day of classes at Antioch), George, Patrick, and Thomas Hanigan captured and tortured three undocumented farm workers, Manuel García Loya, Eleazar Ruelas Zavala, and Bernabe Herrera, outside of Douglas, Arizona. Bustamante organized a national letter writing campaign to demand a trial or at least to inquire as to why there had been so many delays in bringing the Hanigans to justice. He later formed the National Coalition on the Hanigan Case in order to pressure the U.S. Justice Department into not dismissing the possibility of filing federal charges against the Hanigans. The Hanigans were tried three times. George Hanigan died before the first trial, but a jury acquitted his sons of torture on the grounds that undocumented immigrants had no civil rights to violate. After the verdict was announced, the Mexican consul in Douglas famously declared that the decision opened the hunting season for every illegal alien who comes into the United States. The verdict was appealed, and the second trial was held in Tucson's U.S. District Court in 1979 and 1980. The jury hung, and after numerous congressmen signed a letter to the Department of Justice supporting retrying the Hanigans in federal court, a federal trial was held. Patrick Hanigan was found guilty in March of 1981; Thomas Hanigan was aquitted.

Bustamante graduated from Antioch in 1980 and moved to Tucson, where he was admitted to the Bar and practiced criminal, immigration, family, and civil rights law from 1982 to 1989. He relocated to Phoenix in 1989, where he practices as a criminal defense lawyer. Bustamante has also advocated in support of human rights issues and been active in issues affecting Chicanos and immigrants.