Dr. Rudy Acuña founded the Chicano Studies Department at California State University Northridge. At 78, he still teaches in what's become the largest program of its kind in the nation. In 1972, he wrote Occupied America: A History of Chicanos. The book has now been cited as an example of what's wrong with Mexican-American studies in Tucson, Arizona, which have been declared illegal by the state's newly-elected Attorney General, former Superintendent of Schools Tom Horne. We talk with Professor Acuña and others.
On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: Ethnic Studies in Arizona
Credits
Guests:
- Héctor Tobar - Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of “Our Migrant Souls: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of ‘Latino’”
- Rudy Acuna - Founder of the Chicano Studies Department, Cal State University Northridge
- Roberto Suro - University of Southern California - @robertosuro