Esteban Edward Torres

Esteban Edward Torres (born January 27, 1930) is a politician from the state of California.

Torres was born in Miami, Arizona, to Rena Gómez. His father was a miner who was deported to Mexico in the 1930s despite being a U.S. citizen.

Torres served in the United States Army from 1949 to 1953. Active in the labor movement, he was appointed United States Ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Paris, France, from 1977 to 1979 and served as a special assistant to President Jimmy Carter from 1979 to 1981.

Torres was unsuccessful in his attempt to win a seat in the House of Representatives in 1974, but was elected in 1982 as a Democrat. He served from 1983 until 1999. He did not run for reelection in 1998 and was succeeded by Democrat Grace Napolitano.

He served as a member of the California Transportation Commission from 1997 to 2007 and resides in West Covina, California, with his wife Arcy Sanchez Torres.

Torres was successfully sued in 1995 after Torres' staffer Roderic Young threw a microphone at and, subsequently, falsely charged journalist Jan Helfeld with stealing a document from the Congressman's office, which Torres also alleged. Young stole one of two videotapes of a news interview with Helfeld and then "tried—but failed—to take back a release form that Torres had signed consenting to the interview." After Helfeld had left the congressman's office, Young called US Capitol Police and reported that Helfeld had stolen a document: the release form. Torres repeated the stolen document charge to the police, and Helfeld was detained and handcuffed. Helfeld sued Torres and won a settlement of $45,000 with a written apology in 1996.