Dr. Julian Samora was a pioneering scholar of Mexican American studies, who focused on immigration, civil rights, public health, and rural poverty. Frequent personal encounters with anti-Chicano prejudice in the course of his education strengthened his determination and his vision of the role of scholarship in the struggle against racial/ethnic hostility and ignorance. In 1953 he completed his studies at Washington University in St. Louis to become the first Mexican-American to earn a doctorate in sociology and anthropology in the United States.
The purpose of this website is to make a new generation of students, scholars and community leaders aware of Dr. Samora’s many contributions to better the lives of Latinos in the United States. He touched the lives of many people, some directly as a mentor and teacher, some indirectly as a researcher and writer. His ideas were groundbreaking for their time and he paved the way for Latinos to understand and study themselves at university and policy-making levels, to understand the complex relationships between Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, to begin to study Mexican immigration, and to ready the United States for the reality of Latinos as the largest minority in the U.S.
We invite you to explore his online archive, read some of his articles, listen to interviews discussing his impact on scholarship and social justice. Are you learning about Latino history and want to know more? We invite discussion. Please join in. We want to hear from you.