We are deeply saddened by the recent loss of our former colleague, Dr. Francisco Arturo Rosales, Professor Emeritus. Dr. Rosales passed away on Dec. 22.
Dr. Rosales received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1978. Since writing a dissertation on Mexican immigration to the Chicago area, he has published over 40 articles and essays and six books on the Mexican immigrant experience and on Latino civil rights. His book Chicano! A History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement (Houston: Arte Público Press, 1996) accompanied a PBS documentary of the same name. Dr. Rosales published ¡Pobre Raza!: Violence, Crime, Justice, and Mobilization Among Mexico Lindo Immigrants, 1890 with the University of Texas Press in 1999. Since then Arte Público Press has published two of Dr. Rosales' works; Testimonio: A Documentary History of the Mexican American Struggle for Civil Rights in 2000, and in 2006, A Dictionary of Latino Civil Rights History.
Since coming to Arizona State University in 1980, after five years at the University of Houston, Dr. Rosales taught courses in Mexican American, United States and Latin American history. Besides undergraduate teaching, Dr. Rosales mentored numerous graduate students who are now teaching at other universities and colleges. He also taught at the University of Nebraska and the University of California, Davis as a visiting professor.
While at Arizona State University, Dr. Rosales served on various university committees at the department, college and presidential levels. In addition, he was involved in numerous national organizations. He served on the board of editors in the American Nineteenth Century journal, and on the advisory committee of two national media projects, "Race with History" radio program and the "American Lynching" film documentary project. Throughout his career, Dr. Rosales was invited to speak in numerous community forums, not only in Arizona and Texas where he resided, but also in Nebraska, California, Connecticut, Illinois and Indiana. For over ten years, he served as a speaker for the Arizona Humanities Council. Since his undergraduate days, Dr. Rosales served in many venues as a civil rights activist and always maintained an interest on a variety of projects dealing with immigrant rights.
Dr. Rosales was an active participant in the Chicano Movement, and in 1968, he served as the first co-chair of Arizona State University’s Mexican American Student Organization, (MASO), which later became MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano Aztlán).
Dr. Rosales will be greatly missed by students, staff, faculty, historians and friends around the world.