Danny Ortega has advocated for farmworkers and immigrants in Arizona for decades
Danny Ortega received the first Impacto Award from the ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities in January. (Photo courtesy of Danny Ortega)
Daniel R. Ortega Jr. counts civil rights activist Cesar Chavez among his heroes.
Ortega, who is known as Danny, was in high school when he began following Chavez’s work with the United Farm Workers, the influential labor union that helped improve the lives of migrant farmworkers. He later met Chavez when he was a student at Arizona State University in the early 1970s.
“Cesar Chavez became a mentor as well as an example of how we should be serving the community,” says Ortega, adding that his father was a farmworker after emigrating from Mexico to the United States. “It was near and dear to my heart that he was fighting for higher wages, better working conditions.”
Ortega also was involved in the Chicano Movement, in which activists like Chavez aimed to end discrimination against Mexican Americans and expand not only their labor rights but also voting rights and educational opportunities. After graduating from the Arizona State University College of Law in 1977, Ortega started his career with nonprofit law firm Community Legal Services in Maricopa County.
Over the next five decades, Ortega remained steadfast in his advocacy for and empowerment of farm workers and the larger immigrant community in Arizona. The ABA Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities recognized Ortega for this leadership, presenting him with its inaugural Impacto Award in January. Ortega was one of two honorees, with Texas Access to Justice Foundation Executive Director Betty Balli Torres also receiving an Impacto Award.
“And you know, I don’t think that fight is over,” says Ortega, the owner of Ortega Law Firm in Phoenix, who has been an ABA member for more than 40 years. “[Combatting] the separatism that exists and the hate that exists against immigrants will continue to be my lifelong work.”
Advocate for change
Ortega helped bring about significant changes for farmworkers while serving on the Industrial Commission of Arizona.
He was working in private practice and focusing on personal injury, employment and immigration matters when Arizona Gov. Bruce Babbitt appointed him to the commission in 1979. It is responsible for administering and enforcing state laws that protect employees, including those related to occupational safety and health.
The short-handled hoe, known as “el cortito” in Spanish, could cause injuries to the migrant agricultural workers forced to use it. (Photo from the National Museum of American History)Ortega knew many farmworkers were still using the short-handled hoe, which forced them to stoop for long hours in the fields and resulted in chronic back pain and other debilitating health problems. The tool already had been banned in California, and he wanted to do the same in Arizona.
Ortega, who became chair of the commission in 1984, led its efforts to adopt regulations prohibiting the use of hoes with handles that were less than 4 feet long to weed or thin crops.
Ernest Calderón, the owner of Calderón Law Offices in Phoenix and a past president of the State Bar of Arizona, describes Ortega as “potent and effective.” He contends that many other people before Ortega tried to outlaw the short-handled hoe but failed.
“To somebody out there, maybe that doesn’t mean much,” says Calderón, who is also a member of the ABA House of Delegates. “But when you think of the human toil and effort that is needed to harvest produce, and then having that physical limitation placed on you, it was obscene. He led the fight to eradicate that, and he won. He was the face of the fight.”
Ortega served on the Industrial Commission of Arizona for 11 years. During his tenure, which included nearly five years as chair, he also urged the adoption of regulations requiring farmers to provide clean drinking water and toilet facilities to workers in their fields.
He still remembers one farmer who said it would be too costly to adhere to the new regulations. Ortega asked him if he had a mother or sisters, to which the farmer replied yes.
“If they were working, would you want them, if they had to go to the restroom, to do it in a ditch or behind a tree?” Ortega recalls saying to the farmer. “And if your mother or sister or your father was in the field, and they had no water, would that be just?”
Community service
Ortega has pursued justice and equality in countless other ways throughout his career.
He served on the board of directors of the Cesar Chavez Foundation and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund. He also has served as pro bono co-counsel on several of the nonprofit civil rights organization’s cases.
Ortega worked to protect voting rights through the Latino Coalition for Fair Redistricting. He was the campaign chair for Ed Pastor, the first Hispanic member of Congress from Arizona, for nearly 17 years. He also hosted talk shows at several Spanish-speaking radio stations to help educate the public about workers’ protections, civil rights and other legal issues.
“Those were opportunities to work with the community and to educate them about the legal system,” says Ortega, who appeared on the shows for more than a decade. “It was really my dream come true.”
Ortega has mentored many law students through the Los Abogados Hispanic Bar Association, of which he is a longtime member. Erica González-Meléndez, who is now an attorney with Snow, Carpio & Weekley in Phoenix, was one of those students. She also was an intern in his office.
Danny Ortega (far right) accepted the Impacto Award during the 2025 ABA Midyear Meeting in Phoenix.
“Danny was one of the most prominent attorneys in our community, and he was just someone who was very inspiring to watch,” González-Meléndez says. “He obviously valued hard work, so he expected a lot of us as his interns and was a good role model for us in that sense as well.”
In 1998, Ortega received Los Abogados’ Lifetime Achievement Award. Last year, he was honored again when the association renamed the award the Daniel R. Ortega Jr. Legacy Award.
Calderón, who has known Ortega for more than 40 years, served alongside him on the Los Abogados board of directors. He notes Chavez’s influence on Ortega, who he says treats everyone he meets with respect.
“In one sense, he’s a fierce advocate, and in another sense, he is a leader in the diplomatic legal profession,” Calderón says. “And then there is this very kind and loving man. You add those together, and you’ve got a great friend. You’ve got a great person.”
Ortega, who is married and has four children, never expected to be recognized for his work. But it means a lot to him.
“Because when you don’t expect recognition and it comes to you, well, it’s a warm feeling,” he says.
Members Who Inspire is an ABA Journal series profiling exceptional ABA members. If you know members who do unique and important work, you can nominate them for this series by emailing [email protected].
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