Humanities Scholars Lecture Series: Dr. Ricardo Romo

Humanities Scholars Lectures Series in conjunction with the exhibition, Chicano/a Art, Movimiento y Más en Austen, Tejas 1960s to 1980s highlights Chicano and Chicana artists in Austin, Texas during “El Movimiento” (The Chicano Civil Rights Movement).

Title:

The Origins and Evolution of Chicano Art: Perspectives on Texas and California

Chicano art owes much of its conception in the late 1960s to America’s largest Latino states, Texas and California. In both instances the genesis of Chicano art had rural and urban influences. The forces that contributed to the Chicano civil rights movement–a call for social justice, peace, and equality–initially  influenced the evolution of a new art: Chicano protest art.  The most common themes of this art include  better working conditions, the end to the Vietnam War, and educational opportunities.  These issues dominate  the works of the early Chicano artists. In my presentation at Mexic-Arte,  I will touch on these themes in Chicano art over the period 1967-1985  in the urban communities that were my home during this era– Los Angeles, San Diego, Austin, and San Antonio.

Ricardo Romo, a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, earned a Master’s degree in history from Loyola Marymount University (1970) and a Ph.D. in American history from UCLA (1975).

A nationally respected urban historian, Romo is the author of East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio[UT Press], now in its ninth printing (one in Spanish). As a recognized urban historian, Ricardo taught and published in the field of civil rights, Mexican American history, and urban history. He taught at UT Austin and served as Vice Provost over the period 1980-to 1999. During his teaching career at UT Austin, Ricardo spent a year as a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Stanford [1989-1990] and a semester as a Chancellor’s Distinguished Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley [1985].  

Romo left UT Austin to become the fifth president of the University of Texas at San Antonio where he served from 1999 to 2017.  He served on four Presidential Commissions, two appointed by President George W. Bush: U.S. representative to the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization; and the White House Commission on Historical Colleges and Universities.  President Barack Obama appointed Romo to two terms on the Commission on Hispanics in Higher Education and as a member of the Air University Board of Directors.  

Among Romo’s awards are the Isabel la Catolica award, the highest award given to non-Spanish subjects, bestowed by King Juan Carlos of Spain. The University of California Berkeley awarded him the Clark Kerr Award for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education.

Romo is the publisher of Latinos in America,  a Substack Newsletter, and currently serves as a Director for numerous boards, San Antonio’s Southwest Research Institute,   Texas State Historical Commission [Elected Treasure 2022] and World Affairs Council. He writes cultural and political essays and serves on the editorial board for La Prensa Texas, a bilingual newspaper in San Antonio.