Pedro Acevez was born in Wapato, Washington, and grew up in the nearby town of Toppenish.  He grew up working on his father’s farm, as well as doing farm labor in Oregon and Washington, before attending Yakima Valley College and Central Washington University. He transfered to the University of Washington in 1969, a move partly made possible by combining scholarships for both groups. 

Acevez was active in MEChA de UW, and served as its President one year.  During his first school year, he worked with a number of MEChA students to help channel a spontaneous farmworker walkout in Yakima Valley into a United Farm Workers (UFW) organizing drive. During the 1970-71 school year, he served as a resident advisor on the “Chicano Floor”, or 5th floor, of Lander Hall— though fired for returning home during an illness, student protests successfully pushed the UW to reinstate him. 

Since graduating from the UW in 1975, Acevez has worked as a high school and community college math and science teacher, and currently works for the UW’s Health Sciences Center. 

Pedro Acevez shared his memories of the Chicano Movement with Edgar Flores and Oscar Rosales on January 27, 2006. .The full interview is preserved in Special Collections Library, University of Washington.

Work on this interview was made possible by a grant from 4Culture/King County Lodging Tax.