Compton in My Soul – A Journey in Search of Racial Equality

Albert M. Camarillo
Professor of American History, the Leon Sloss Jr. Memorial Professor, and Haas Centennial Professor of Public Service, Emeritus, Stanford University

This UCI Illuminations event centers on Albert M. Camarillo’s life journey from Compton, California to a diversity of academic and leadership pathways, roles, and spaces.

It will provide an opportunity to learn more about the formative experiences and moments underpinning Camarillo’s forthcoming memoir,
Compton in My Soul - A Life in Pursuit of Racial Equality, which will be published
by Stanford University Press in July 2024.

An accomplished and impactful U.S. historian, academic administrator, and educator, his event presentation is a wonderful opportunity to consider how memoir writing makes it accessible to unpack and discuss generatively meaningful moments in one’s life goals and journey.

Albert M. Camarillo is the past president of the Organization of American Historians, the nation’s largest membership association for historians of the United States, and past president of the American Historical Association-Pacific Coast Branch.

A member of the Stanford University History Department for over forty years, Camarillo is widely regarded as one of the founding scholars of the field of Mexican American history and Chicano Studies. He was born and raised in Compton where he attended public schools before entering the University of California at Los Angeles. He received his BA in History in 1970 and his Ph.D. in U.S. History in 1975. His dissertation was nominated that year as one of the best Ph.D. theses in the nation in American history.

Camarillo has published seven books and dozens of articles and essays dealing with the experiences of Mexican Americans and other communities of color in American cities. Two of his books, Chicanos in a Changing Society: From Mexican Pueblos to American Barrios (seven printings) and Chicanos in California: A History of Mexican Americans (four printings) have been widely read.

Over the course of his career, Camarillo has received many awards and fellowships. He is the only faculty member in the history of Stanford University to receive six of the highest and most prestigious awards for excellence in teaching, service to undergraduate education, and contributions to the University and its alumni association. At Stanford’s Commencement in 1988 and in 1994 respectively, he received the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Outstanding Service to Undergraduate Education and the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching. In 1997, he was awarded the Bing Teaching Award for Excellence and Innovation in Undergraduate Teaching. Camarillo was awarded the Miriam Roland Prize for Volunteer Service for 2005, an award that recognizes a Stanford Faculty member who “over and above their normal academic duties engage and involve students in integrating academic scholarship with significant volunteer service to society.” In 2011 he received the President’s Award for Excellence Through Diversity and, in 2010, the Richard W. Lyman Award from the Stanford Alumni Association.

In recognition of his important role as a leader in the Latino community, Camarillo has received several awards: California State Latino Legislative Caucus “Latino Sprit” Award, 2019; Ollin Award, Latino Leadership Alliance of Santa Clara Valley (2017); La Familia Award, Hispanic Foundation of Silicon Valley, 2007; Top Ten Most Influential Hispanic Educators in Silicon Valley, 2007.

Camarillo served in many administrative positions during his career. From 2007 to 2016, he was the Special Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Diversity, directing the Faculty Development Initiative, a faculty recruitment and hiring program in collaboration with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE). He is also the founding director of CCSRE (1996-2002), the founding director of the Stanford Center for Chicano Research (1980-85), and the founding executive director of the Inter-University Program in Latino Research (1985-88). He also served as Associate Dean and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences in the early 1990s.

Event Organizer and Contact:
Ana Elizabeth Rosas, Associate Professor, Departments of Chicano-Latino Studies and History, arosas1@uci.edu

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