LATINOPIA HERO DR. RICARDO ROMO

Latinopia is proud to recognize Dr. Ricardo Romo as a Latinopia Hero. Ricardo is a nationally respected urban historian, educator, and advocate for Latino culture and civil rights. From 1992 to 1999, he served as an Executive Officer and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He left UT Austin in 1999 to serve as the fifth president of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). His eighteen-year tenure at UTSA,  1999 to 2017, is one of the longest in the University of Texas System.  Romo led one of the fastest-growing public universities in Texas into a new era of academic and research excellence.

A native of San Antonio’s West Side, Romo attended Fox Tech High School, where he won three state championships in cross-country and track.  As the nation’s second-best miler, he earned a track scholarship to the University of Texas at Austin. Romo was the Southwest Conference Champion in the mile and three-mile and earned All-American honors. In 1966, he became the first Texan and first Latino to run a mile in under four minutes—a record that stood for 41 years. He earned a B.S. in Education from UT Austin in 1967, an M.A. in History from Loyola Marymount University in 1970, and a Ph.D. in History from UCLA in 1975. His book, East Los Angeles: History of a Barrio, was published by the University of Texas Press and is currently in its ninth printing.

Romo began his career as a high school teacher in Los Angeles, where he taught one of the first Mexican American history courses in the country. He then held academic positions in Chicano Studies and History at California State University, Northridge; the University of California, San Diego (where he also served as Director of Chicano Studies); and the University of Texas at Austin. At UT Austin, he was an associate professor of history and an active member of the Center for Mexican American Studies. He also held visiting positions at UC Berkeley and the Stanford Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences.

Ricardo Romo played a pioneering role in the creation of Chicano studies programs and the advancement of Mexican American historical research over his 50-year teaching career. He began teaching some of the nation’s earliest Chicano studies courses in 1969 at Franklin High School in Los Angeles, and from 1970 to 1973, he offered Chicano History classes at San Fernando Valley State College (now California State University, Northridge).

After earning his Ph.D. in History from UCLA, Romo joined the Department of History at the University of California, San Diego, where he taught Mexican American History and served as Chair of the Chicano Studies Department. During his tenure at UC San Diego, he co-edited New Directions in Chicano Studies, a landmark collection of essays written in collaboration with UCLA Professor Raymund Paredes.

When Romo joined the University of Texas at Austin History Department in 1980, he introduced the institution’s first Mexican American History courses and undergraduate seminars on American Civil Rights History,  establishing a foundation for future scholarship and curriculum in the field.

During the late 1980s through the mid-1990s, Romo was active in Latino public policy research and civil rights. He served as an expert witness in the Garza v. County of Los Angeles, Cal., 756 F. Supp. 1298 (C.D. Cal. 1990). This case found that the Board’s 1981 redistricting plan violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and the Equal Protection Clause, resulting in the creation of a new Latino-majority district in which Gloria Molina was elected. Romo was also an expert witness in the Hopwood v. Texas case decided by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in 1996 and is formally cited as Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932 (5th Cir. 1996).

Romo has received many honors throughout his career, including:  Fellow at the Center for Advanced Studies at Stanford; the prestigious Clark Kerr Award for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education from the University of California, Berkeley; the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Chief Executive Leadership Award; the Outstanding Civilian Service Medal from the United States Army North; the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Texas Exes Alumni Association; and, the Isabel la Catolica award, the highest award given to non-Spanish subjects, bestowed by King Juan Carlos of Spain.

Romo has received numerous special appointments, including:  by former President Bush and re-appointed by President Obama to the White House Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanics; as a U.S. representative to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; as Vice Chair for the Federal Reserve Bank; as Chair for Southwest Research Institute; and as Vice Chair for Air University.

As UTSA’s president, Romo led the university through a period of tremendous growth. Under his leadership, enrollment rose by 68% to over 31,000 students, and doctoral programs expanded from three to 24. He launched “The UTSA Plan: A Roadmap to Excellence,” focusing on educational access, research expansion, and institutional prestige.  UTSA’s annual research expenditures had a six-fold increase during his tenure. The Texas Legislature recognized UTSA as an emerging Tier One research university under his leadership.

Romo is also active in the San Antonio community, serving on numerous nonprofit boards and generously contributing to scholarships, museums,   and youth organizations. He and his wife, Harriett, have an extensive Chicano art collection, and they have donated art to seven museums, including the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  Now retired from the University of Texas, Dr. Romo maintains his love of art through a weekly blog, Ricardo Romo’s Tejano Report,  featured on Latinopia.

Ricardo Romo a true Hero of La Raza.