Rudy Acuña ¡Presente! - Poster of the Week
- politicalgraphics
- Apr 3
- 2 min read
Raza Youth Unity Conference
Malaquías Montoya
Silkscreen, 1984
San Francisco, CA
7780
Rodolfo “Rudy” Acuña, a founder of one of the first Chicano Studies programs offered in the U.S., died last week at age 93.
Los Angeles-born Acuña received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from LA State College (now CSULA) and his PhD from USC. His studies focused on Latin American history, but he was also active in the community, participating in the Latin American Civic Association and the Mexican American Political Association.
In 1969, in response to growing Chicano opposition to the Viet Nam War and requests from students to be taught “their own history,” Acuña founded the Chicano Studies department at California State University, Northridge (CSUN). He developed a curriculum of 45 courses, and over time the department expanded to offer degrees in both Bachelor’s and Master’s programs.
In 1989, Acuña, joined Eric Mann, Professor Cynthia Hamilton, Father Luis Olivares, and Reverend Frank Higgins to form the Labor/Community Strategy Center, a civic rights advocacy group focused on building advocacy and organization in communities facing discrimination. In 1995, he won a discrimination lawsuit and used the settlement money to establish the FOR Chicana/Chicano Studies Foundation to support Chicana/o faculty facing discrimination in academia.
Acuña wrote over 20 books, including his now classic 1972 textbook “Occupied America: A History of Chicanos,” a foundational Mexican American history survey that is still taught in schools. Among Acuña’s many honors, he received CSPG’s 2007 Historian of the Lions Award.
Acuña demonstrated that academics must do much more than argue theory.
Rudy Acuña
¡Presente!
References:
Comments