In Memoriam: Mario Barrera, Professor Emeritus of Ethnic Studies

The field of Latino and Chicano Studies is vital to supporting diversity in modern day higher education. To truly understand our country and each other, we must learn from every voice and perspective. Every voice deserves a chance to be heard. The late professor Mario Barrera helped establish  space for Chicano voices. 

Barrera passed away at the end of March of 2024, and we want to take the time as Hispanic Heritage month concludes to honor him and the important legacy he left behind. He founded the Chicano Studies program at UC Berkeley and was a pillar in the field as it developed.

It is all too easy to forget how hard scholars have fought to have their work acknowledged, and we never want to take their research, their perspectives, their knowledge for granted. Barrera’s work will live on and continue to influence and support a new generation of Latino Studies scholars. Notre Dame Press is proud to have published both of his books, Race and Class in the Southwest and Beyond Aztlan, each an important text in the field of Latino Studies. Below is the description for Beyond Aztlan, as well as blurbs that highlight how crucial this text was at publication and how foundational it continues to be.

Beyond Aztlan

Beyond Aztlan argues that American society has historically viewed a distinctive cultural identity as something that an ethnic group gives up in order to achieve economic and political parity.

Mexican Americans, who have scored limited gains in their struggle for equality since the 1940s, are proving to be no exception to the rule. Mario Barrera in this provocative volume compares the situation of Mexican Americans to that of minority groups in four other countries, and concludes that equality does not necessarily require assimilation. This unique comparative study will appeal to a wide audience—especially to students and professors of sociology. ethnic studies, political science, anthropology, and American studies.

Barrera’s work begins with an examination of the goals of the Mexican American population, which he identifies as community and equality. He discusses the historical emergence of these goals and the shift to an emphasis on equality over community. Subsequent chapters explore the revival of community identity during the period of the Chicano Movement, as well as later trends toward fragmentation, radicalization, and re-traditionalization. He compares the pluralistic accommodations of Canada, China, Switzerland, and Nicaragua with the United States and discusses the relative success of their multicultural emphases and their regional autonomy arrangements. Barrera concludes that it is possible to achieve a pluralistic ethnic accommodation that would recognize the legitimacy of both equality and community goals without sacrificing cultural diversity.

“[B]arrera addresses many issues, questions many of the answers given by Chicano organizations and movements in their quest for Aztlan, and provides much food for thought. Anyone interested in the issues of ethnic equality with cultural maintenance or regional autonomy would do well to read this book, if not for its answers, then perhaps for its questions.”

American Journal of Sociology

“. . . Barrera provides a powerful statement regarding the importance of ethnic goals within a pluralistic society even when those goals may threaten the solidarity of the modern conception of the nation state.”

International Migration Review

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