UC San Diego’s Jorge Huerta to Receive Latino Spirit Award From State Assembly

April 29, 2009

By Pat JaCoby

Jorge Huerta, Ph.D., professor of Theatre at UC San Diego, will be honored by the Latino Legislative Caucus with a “Latino Spirit Award” during a special Assembly floor session scheduled in the State Capitol May 4.

Huerta is one of seven Latinos statewide to be honored, said Assembly member Tony Mendoza, “to showcase positive Latino role models and shine a light on the work they do that impacts and provides a better quality of life for our communities. This year we pay tribute to a wide spectrum of individuals serving in a variety of industries. From theater to business to philanthropy, these individuals have motivated others and have added to the rich diversity that makes California the Golden State.”

Well known for his path-breaking scholarship, editorial work and translations, Huerta currently holds the Chancellor’s Associates’ Endowed Chair III as professor of Theatre at UC San Diego and is working on a new book on comedy in Chicana/o theatre. A member of the UC San Diego faculty since 1975, he was named Associate Chancellor and the university’s first Chief Diversity Officer, serving in that post from 2004 to 2007.

A leading authority on contemporary Chicana/o and US Latina/o theatre, Huerta also is a professional director who has edited three anthologies of plays and written a number of landmark books. Last year he was named a Distinguished Scholar at the annual meeting of the American Society for Theatre Research in Boston, and received the Lifetime Achievement in Educational Theatre Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education.

Huerta was the first Chicano, nationwide, to receive a Ph.D. in theatre when he received that degree at UC Santa Barbara.

Others to be honored by the Latino Legislative Caucus are Ruben Navarrette Jr., syndicated columnist and author; Frederick R. Ruiz, 2009 chair of the California Chamber of Commerce; Luis G. Nogales, Nogales Investors Management managing partner; Rigoberta Menchutum, human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Ellen Ochoa, aerospace pioneer, and Dolores Huerta, the nation’s first Latina astronaut.

Media Contact: Pat JaCoby, 858-534-7404 or pjacoby@ucsd.edu