Dr. Carlos Muñoz, Jr. was born in the “segundo barrio” in El Paso, Texas, and raised in the barrios of East Los Angeles, California. He is the son of poor working class Mexican immigrants. He earned his AA from Los Angeles City Community College, his BA with honors in Political Science from California State University at Los Angeles and his PhD in Government from the Claremont Graduate University. He is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Ethnic Studies and Adjunct Faculty, Center for Latin American Studies, University of California, Berkeley. After 47 years of teaching in higher education, he has gained international prominence as political scientist, historian, journalist, and public intellectual.
Dr. Muñoz was the founding chair of the first Chicano Studies department
in the nation in 1968 at the California State University at Los Angeles and the founding chair of the National Association of Chicana & Chicano Studies (NACCS). He is a pioneer in the creation of undergraduate and graduate curricula in the disciplines of Chicano/Latino & Ethnic Studies. He is the author of numerous pioneering works on the Mexican American political experience and on African American and Latino political coalitions. His book, Youth, Identity, Power: The Chicano Movement won the Gustavus Myers Book Award for “outstanding scholarship in the study of human rights in the Untied States”. The 1st edition of the book underwent 12 printings and has become the classic study of the origins of the Movement. A revised and expanded 2nd edition of the book was published in 2007. The book was a major resource for the PBS television series Chicano! History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement Dr. Muñoz was the senior consultant for the project and was also featured in the series. The HBO movie, “Walkout” was based on that series.
African Presence in Mexico, Racial/Ethnic Politics, Social and Revolutionary Movements
