Rodolfo Acuña

Infobox Person
name = Rodolfo Acuña


caption =
birth_date = May 18, 1932
birth_place = Boyle Heights, Los Angeles, California
death_date =
death_place =
other_names = "Rudy" Acuña
known_for = "Occupied America"
occupation = Historian, Professor

Rodolfo Francisco Acuña, Ph.D., (born May 18, 1932) is an historian, professor, and perhaps the foremost scholar of Chicano studies, which he teaches at California State University, Northridge. He is the author of the seminal work of Chicano history, "", which approaches the history of the Southwestern United States from the point of view of Mexican Americans. It has been reprinted five times since its 1972 debut. The sixth edition was published Dec. 1, 2006. [ [http://www.pearsoned.com/pr_2006/113006.htm Chicano History And Identity Explored in Best-selling Book New Edition of Pearson Longman's Occupied America: A History of Chicanos , by Rodolfo F. Acuña, To Be Published in December 2006] URL accessed January 15, 2007] He has also written for the "Los Angeles Times". His work emphasizes the activism of the Mexican American people, and he has supported the numerous causes of the Chicano Movement. He founded the California State University, Northridge CSUN's Chicano/a Studies department, his teachings began there in 1969.

"Is Antonio Banderas Latino?"

During a lecture entitled "Is Antonio Banderas Latino?" at Swarthmore College his studies of the race, age, history and class of the Chicano identity were compared and contrasted to the definition of a Latino identity of U.S.A. His question "should a Spaniard get affirmative action for Latinos without the life experience?" where life experience meant that one needed to suffer discrimination was answered no as he is quoted "Often activists, like me, are elitists". [ [http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/org/daily/archive/fall_2003/20030919.html#n1 The Daily Gazette Swarthmore College Friday, September 19, 2003 Volume 8, Number 15] URL accessed January 15, 2007]

U.S. Latino issues

At a lecture celebrating the release of his book "U.S. Latino Issues" in 2003, he addressed U.S. Latino Issues and the Latino label or identity. He delves deeply into what exactly defines nation or culture; their similarities and differences; and what life experiences are necessary to differentiate one ethnocultural group from another. [ [http://www.csun.edu/~hfoao102/press_releases/summer03/acuna.html News Release Rodolfo Acuna's New Book Focuses on Issues Facing Today's Latinos -California State University, Northridge] URL accessed January 15, 2007]

Discrimination

In the 1980s Acuña sued the University of California, Santa Barbara for racial discrimination, a cause of action the judge in the case refused to hear and changed the lawsuit to deal with the issue of discrimination based on age and Acuña's relevancy. A jury found for Acuña, but refused to compel the University to hire him, instead awarding him a monetary compensation of $325,000, which Acuña used to pay his legal fees and then donated. [cite news
last = Quiñones
first = Ben
coauthors =
title = A Liberated Chicano
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = L.A. Weekly
date = 2006-04-19
url = http://www.laweekly.com/la-people-2006/the-liberated-chicano/13199/
accessdate = 2006-04-20 ]

Awards

Rodolfo Acuña received the Distinguished Scholar Award granted by the National Association for Chicano Studies. [ [http://www.speakerspca.com/search/details.php?speaker_id=3938 Speakers Lectures Entertainment Special Events Comedians Motivational Celebrities -Speaker-Rodolfo Acuña] URL accessed January 15, 2007] In 1998, he was awarded the Gustavus Myers Award by the Study of Human Rights in North America, an institution at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville for his book "Anything But Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles". [cite press release
title = Rodolfo Acuna Wins Gustavus Myers Book Award
publisher = California State University, Northridge
date = 1998-02-25
url = http://www.csun.edu/~hfoao102/press_releases/fall97/acuna.html
accessdate = 2006-10-05 ]

Mexican American historian

He began his career with an interest in teaching history, but when his academic counselor advised him to teach "Spanish" or "Physical Education" because "Mexicans don't have a history" he felt compelled to begin Chicano studies, giving a voice to representing Mexican Americans in education and history. From there, he fully evolved into a Mexican American historian. He has always sought to fulfill his lifelong query as to "how accurate were the interpretations of historians of the past", their reliability and objectivity. His books and lectures analyze and cross examine this query from his personal history and life experiences as Mexican American. [ [http://www.historians.org/pubs/Free/why/ACUNA.HTM American Historical Association Why Become a Historian? Rodolfo F. Acuña] URL accessed January 15, 2007]

Notes

Bibliography

*2008 "Voices of the U.S. Latino Experience" [Three Volumes] . Greenwood Press, Forthcoming.
*2007 "Corridors of Migration: Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933". University of Arizona Press.
*2007 "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos". 6th edition. New York: Longman . ISBN 0321427386
*2004 "US Latinos Issues". Greenwood Press. ISBN 0313322112
*2004 "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos". 5th edition. New York: Longman. ISBN 0321103300
*2000 "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos". 4th edition. New York: Addison, Wesley & Longman.
*1998 "Sometimes There is No Other Side: Essays on Truth and Objectivity". Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. 291 pp. Honorable Mention for Gustavus Myers Award for an Outstanding Book on Race Relations in North America. ISBN 0268017638
*1997 "Truth and Objectivity and Chicano history". East Lansing: Julian Samora Research Institute, Michigan State University. ISBN 0816503702
*1996 "Anything But Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles". London: Verso Press, 1996. 320 pp. Recipient of the Gustavus Myers Award for an Outstanding Book on Race Relations in North America. ISBN 1859849369
*1988 "Occupied America: A History of Chicano". 3d Edition. New York: Harper and Row. 475 pp. Recipient of the Gustavus Myers Award for an Outstanding Book on Race Relations in North America.
*1988 Sound Recording: "Occupied America a history of Chicanos". Publication: Salt Lake City, Utah : Utah State Library Division for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Cassette tape.
*1984 "Community Under Siege: A Chronicle of Chicanos East of the Los Angeles River, 1945-1975". UCLA. 560pp. ISBN 0895510669
*1981 "El Caudillo Sonorense: Ignacio Pesqueira y sus tiempos". Mexico D.F.: ERA. 191 pp.
*1980 "Occupied America: A History of Chicanos". 2nd Edition. New York: Harper & Row. 437 pp.
*1976 "America Ocupada". Ediciones ERA. 342 pp.
*1974 "Sonoran Strongman: The Times of Ignacio Pesqueira". Tucson: University of Arizona Press. 179 pp. ISBN 0816503702
*1972 "Occupied America: The Chicano Struggle Toward Liberation". New York: Harper & Ro., 282 pp.
*1971 "The story of the Mexican Americans; the men and the land". Sacramento: California State Dept. of Education. ISBN 0816503702
*1970 "Cultures in Conflict: Case Studies of the Mexican American". Los Angeles: Charter Books. 140 pp.
*1970 "A Mexican American Chronicle". New York: American Book Co. 210 pp.
*1969 "The Story of the Mexican American". New York: American Book Co. 140 pp.

External links

* [http://www.csun.edu/~hfchs006/staff/fulltime/racuna.htm Rudolph Acuna] at CSUN
* [http://www.versobooks.com/books/ab/a-titles/acuna_anything_mexican.shtml "Anything but Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles"] , biography from Verso books.

Articles

*cite news
last = Acuna
first = Rodolfo F.
coauthors =
title = A day without immigrants? Yes: We have been bullied into submission for far too long
work =
pages =
language =
publisher = New York Daily News
date = 2006-04-23
url = http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ideas_opinions/story/411102p-347789c.html
accessdate = 2006-10-04
* [http://www.aztlan.net/acuna4.htm "Murder in Arizona...It's Only The Third World"]
* [http://www.aztlan.net/acuna.htm"Popi"]
* [http://www.aztlan.net/pocho.htm "The Making of the Political Pocho"]
* [http://www.aztlan.net/miami.htm "The Miami Myth Machine"]