Julian Samora; Mexican American Sociologist

Julian Samora, 75, a Mexican American sociologist who helped create the academic movement for Mexican American studies. A native of Colorado who studied at Adams State College and Colorado State University, Samora went on to Washington University in St. Louis, where in 1953 he became the first known Mexican American to receive a doctorate in sociology and anthropology. Pursuing a career, as he put it, “to prove I was equal,” Samora produced prolific research papers about Mexican Americans and taught for 26 years at the University of Notre Dame. While creating a major Mexican American studies program, Samora also helped found the civil rights organization known as the National Council of la Raza. Michigan State University, where Samora taught for two years, created the Julian Samora Research Institute to continue his pioneering study of Latinos in the Midwest. On Feb. 2 in Albuquerque.