Aleita Janiece Huguenin

1946 - 2023

Aleita Janiece Huguenin
February 24, 1946 - March 3, 2023
Rancho Murieta, California - Teacher, Democrat, Punster, Mentor to thousands, Wife, Mother, Grandmother and Dearest of Friends
Aleita Huguenin was many things throughout her 77 Years. She will be remembered for all of them - by literally hundreds of the lives she touched - through her teaching, her mentoring, her Democratic activism and her love of theater and friends. No one whose life she touched will ever forget her.
EARLY TEACHING and UNION ACTIVISM
Aleita, the daughter of two teachers, moved from Durango Colorado where she was born to Walnut Creek California, where, after graduating from Ygnacio Valley High and San Francisco State, she returned to Contra Costa to teach elementary and middle school in the Mt. Diablo Unified School District. In August 1968, Aleita married Kern Hildebrand, and in September 1973 she gave birth to her son, Derek Joel Hildebrand. They later divorced.
During the 1970's Aleita became active in her union and became their local union President and led teachers on their first strike. She also became active in the California Democratic Party, and in 1976 Aleita attended her first national presidential nominating convention supporting then candidate, Jimmy Carter.
In 1983, Aleita married Eugene Huguenin, an attorney employed by CTA.
In January 1986, Aleita joined the staff of CTA, representing CTA locals in Hayward, Newark and New Haven school districts. Later CTA created political specialist positions, to assist locals with political activity, and thereafter designated Aleita as statewide manager of that program.
She continued to rise, both in her political and union work with CTA. Aleita was a union member - through and through.... If teachers and the profession were ever under attack, she was there.
In this role she also helped found the California Teachers Summer Institute - a training ground for political activism and campaigns that ultimately trained thousands of teachers throughout California to become what Governor Pete Wilson once called "CTA - a relentless political machine." Aleita retired from CTA in 2007, but continued her activism in the Democratic Party
A DEMOCRAT THROUGH AND THROUGH
Few people can claim to know AND have visited in the White Houses of all the Democratic Presidents from Jimmy Carter through Barak Obama. (Aleita knew President Biden but her illness kept her from one last visit). And Aleita knew them, not because she was a big wig donor - but because she was the hardest of workers, the greatest of grassroots organizers, a passionate campaign speaker, and an unmatched campaign leader throughout California and the nation. Elected to the Democratic National Committee, Aleita attended scores of California and National Conventions, where she helped with platform discussions and national campaign organizing. Throughout more than 40 years as a Democratic activist, Aleita served her party - and her country -- with an unwavering sense of justice, fairness, women's rights and equity and inclusion, before those were even understood as goals. There are literally hundreds of women leaders who she helped elect and train - and who were all better for having known her. Her mark on her party is everlasting.
A LOVER OF LANGUAGE, PUNS, THEATERS AND MUSICALS
And to know Aleita in every one of these endeavors meant that you also laughed a lot...loved theater ...and musicals ... and yes, even sang. Aleita was a consummate lover of language and her ability to engage in endless and hysterical puns and tricks of language was legend. She knew how to make even he crustiest of old pols (both men and women) laugh as she disarmed them with tricks and puns. It was hard to hold it in, when in the middle of a serious policy discussion she would break into a punster joke - diffusing tension but making her point clearly - and unforgettably.
And Aleita did she love the theater - especially musicals. One of her most beloved was "WICKED" which, in the end, is a story of both politics and friendship - two of her greatest loves. The haunting duet 'Changed' ends with this refrain: "I don't know if I've been changed for the better - but I have been changed for good" Everyone who ever knew Aleita Huguenin is and was forever changed for good.
AND finally, Aleita, the wife, mother and grandmother
Aleita took great joy in her family, spending holidays and vacation visits with them whenever possible. She is survived by her brother Loren King and his wife Nancy Rossi King, of Salinas; by her son Derek Hildebrand and his two daughters, Mya and Ella Hildebrand, of Loomis; by her nephew Christopher King and his family of Verbania, Italy; by her stepson Jason Huguenin and his family of Mukilteo, Washington; and by her husband Eugene Huguenin of Rancho Murieta,.
A celebration of her life will be held in the Spring in Sacramento. If you wish, please make any gifts in remembrance to your local Alzheimer's Association.