UCI professor appears on ‘Latino Americans'

By Jordan Graham Orange County Register

“Latino Americans” – PBS' new three-part, six-hour series documenting the 500-year history of Latinos in America – premiered Tuesday, and the show's producers reached out to a few Orange County locals to help develop the project.

Vicki Ruiz, a professor of Chicano and Latino history at UC Irvine, served as a historical consultant for the series and appears in the show's first two episodes.

Recently, she chatted with the Orange County Register about her involvement.

Q: What do you discuss on the show?

A: I talk about the diversity of colonial settlements. We have this idea that Latinos are people who arrived here the day before yesterday, but the first European language spoken in what would become the United States is Spanish. St. Augustine was founded in 1565 (by the Spanish), compared to Jamestown (by the English) in 1607. What I talk about is the Latino presence in the creation of the settlements in Texas, in New Mexico and in California.

Q: What will people be most surprised to learn?

A: That you had Tejanos, or Texas-Mexicans, who fought for liberty at the Alamo. And that one of the major military officers in the campaign for Texas independence was a Tejano by the name of Juan Seguin. … Unfortunately, with rising racial tensions before the U.S.-Mexican war, he and his family had to leave Texas and go back to Mexico. He was a very conflicted figure.

I also think it is important when talking about the 1940s and 1950s the role that the Latinos played in the fight for civil rights for everyone. You have the Mendez case as a prime example here in Orange County. (In the Mendez v. Westminster School District case, a federal court ruled in 1946 that Orange County's segregation of Mexican and Mexican American into separate schools was unconstitutional).

Q: Why is a show like this important right now?

A: It gives a sense that Latino history is not an add-on but it's a part of the American experience. That Latino history is American history. And it's very complex, it's very heterogeneous. You have different groups, you have different experiences.

Q: Is it disappointing that this has to be a separate series? To some extent, it indicates that it has not been taught as part of American history.

A: Well, it's not (taught). This series is really a recovery project. It's something that academic scholars know about, but it is not often a history that is taught in school. There is a real rush, particularly under school testing standards, to get to particular places or timelines in American history. … It's hard for teachers. They say, “This is interesting, I'd like to include it.” But they see it more as enrichment and not a central part of the curriculum.

Q: How do you think this program will be received around the country?

A: I think that as the episodes become more contemporary, there will be a good, healthy debate about who was left out and the interpretations that were presented.

I hope that the series fosters cultural appreciation. I hope that it fosters the sense that there are many American stories. It sounds trite, but I believe we learn from each other's stories. And I hope people, if they are Latino, I hope they go interview their parents, their grandparents, their relatives. And if they're not Latinos, I hope they inquire, among the people they know, about their history, about where they come from.

Visit to learn more about the program.

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