Guadalupe Valdez, popularly known as Lupe, was born in 1947 to migrant farm worker parents and raised in San Antonio, Texas. She worked in the Neighborhood Youth Corps and graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1966. She earned her Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Bethany Nazarene College in Bethany, Oklahoma in 1972 and her Master's degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Texas at Arlington. She served as a church youth director in Phoenix, Arizona and joined the Army National Guard before she entered the Women's Army Corps (WACS) for officer training prior to its merger with the United States Army, achieving the rank of captain. After military service, she worked in county prison systems outside of Texas, but returned to Texas in 1978 and worked at the Federal Correctional Institution in Seagoville. She became a federal agent working undercover investigations for the General Services Administration (GSA) Criminal Division in Georgia in 1980, then for the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture in Arkansas, and for the U.S. Bureau of Customs offices based in Dallas, Texas. She retired from federal service after twenty-six years, campaigned and won election as Dallas County Sheriff in 2004, and reelection to that office in 2008. She is a member of the Mexican American Democrats of Texas (MAD) and an avid supporter of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender (GLBT) rights.
From the description of Oral history interview with Guadalupe Valdez, 2006 [videorecording]. (University of Texas at Arlington). WorldCat record id: 432313091
