Ricardo and Harriett Romo

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Descriptive Summary

Creator:    Romo, Ricardo & Harriet
Title:    The Ricardo and Harriet Romo Collection
Dates:    1967 - 1991
Abstract:    This collection is comprised of newspaper clippings, a typescript, photographs, prints and posters.
Identification:    Collection 048
Extent:    3 Folders (0.25 linear feet)
Language:    English and Spanish
Repository:    Southwestern Writers Collection, Special Collections, Alkek Library, Texas State University-San Marcos

Biographical Sketch/Historical Sketch

Professor and university administrator Ricardo Romo was born in San Antonio in 1944, and attended Fox Tech High School. He then attended the University of Texas at Austin on a track scholarship, and went to Los Angeles to earn a masters degree from Loyola Marymount University and a doctorate in U.S. History from the University of California at Los Angeles. He began his career as a social studies coordinator in the Los Angeles public schools in 1967, and then went on to teach Chicano Studies as an Asst. Professor at California State University at Northridge (1970-73) and at the University of California at San Diego (1973-1980).

Romo returned to Central Texas in 1980, serving on the UT Austin History faculty, simultaneously directing the Trinity University Tomás Rivera Center (1987-1993), and moving into the position of Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education (1993-1999). Also during this time, Romo wrote East Los Angeles : History of a Barrio, which deals with the assimilation of the Latino community into American society during World War II.  In 1992, Romo was named Educator of the Year by the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). In 1999, Ricardo Romo replaced outgoing UTSA President Sam Kirkpatrick, becoming the leader of the only public four-year higher education institution in his hometown.

Romo met his wife, Harriet, a native of Pasadena, while an undergraduate student at UT Austin. The couple was married in 1967, one year after she earned and M.S. in Education from UT Austin. In 1971, she earned an M.A. in Education from UCLA, followed by an M.A. in Sociology from UC San Diego, and in 1985, a Doctorate of Philosophy in Sociology, also at UC San Diego.  Since then Dr. Romo has studied at Stanford University and has been involved in various research projects related to ethnicity, immigration, and education. In 1996, she collaborated with photographer Alan Pogue, documenting the lives of Head Start program families in an exhibit entitled “Photographs and Field Notes: An Ethnographic View of Head Start Families”. This exhibit was shown at Southwest Texas State University in 1996. From 1990 to 1996, she taught in the Dept. of Sociology, at SWT. Dr. Harriett Romo went on to teach Latino studies at UT Austin, where she co-authored Latino High School Graduation: Defying the Odds, in 1996. As a part of the Romos’ ongoing and wide-ranging interest in Latino culture and studies, they also collect Latin American art and rare books concerning Southwestern borderlands.

Scope and Content Note

This collection is comprised of newspaper clippings, a typescript, photographs, prints and posters. Clippings relate to Latino studies and were collected by Ricardo and Harriett Romo; the typescript by UT Austin professor Ramón Saldivar, is entitled “The Dialectics of Difference: Contemporary Chicano Narrative”, which was published in 1990 by the University of Wisconsin Press. Harriett Romo’s collaboration with photographer Alan Pogue documenting the lives of Head Start program families in an exhibit entitled “Photographs and Field notes: An Ethnographic View of Head Start Families”, is represented by proof copies of brochure and exhibit panels, and photographs by Pogue. Also included are two photographs of César Chávez, and a collection of posters and prints, including a Malaquias Montoya lithograph of Tomás Rivera. Dates range from 1967-1991. Books and periodicals cataloged separately.

Administrative Information

Access Restrictions: Open for research.
Preferred Citation: The Ricardo & Harriet Romo Collection, Southwestern Writers Collection, Texas State University-San Marcos
Acquisition Information: Donated by Ricardo & Harriett Romo, since 1992.
Processing Information: Processed by:  Amanda Oates, 1999. Finding aid revised by Alan Schaefer, 2010.

Container List

Box    Folder

1    1    Clippings (1967 – 1991)
1    2-3    Saldivar typescript “The Dialectics of Difference: Contemporary Chicano Narrative” (n.d.)
1    4    Head Start Pogue/Romo exhibit:  Proofs of brochure and exhibit text, photographs by Pogue           

Prints and Photographs (all in mapcase drawer #7)

Chávez, César (2 black and white snapshots of Chávez speaking in Austin, Texas, undated   

Montoya, Malaquias. Tomás Rivera lithograph.               

“Agricultural Workers of the Rio Grande and Rio Bravo Valleys – A portfolio by Alan Pogue with essays by Rolando
          Hinojosa Smith and Ruperto Garcia” Portfolio and poster    

“The New Immigration: Ten Etchings” by José Antonio Aguirre, Guillermo Bert, Leo

Limón, Malaquias Montoya, and Alejandro Romero, 1989

Malaquias Montoya : A Solo Exhibition, April 4, 1992, Galería Sin Fronteras, Austin, Texas

Chicano Studies Program, University of Wisconsin – Madison (illus. by Francisco Mora)

Galería Sin Fronteras Inaugural Exhibit – Jose F. Treviño, Oct. 1986

Tomás Rivera Center – A Seminar & Photographic Exhibition Dec. 14-15, 1986

The Emergence of a Chicana Aesthetics, 1992

“Toci” serigraph, Atelier XIII, 1989, Michael Amescua

“Cocina Jaiteca” serigraph, Nat’l. Chicano Taller, 1988, Lawrence M. Yanez

Xochil Art Institute : Louis Le Roy, Ten Years of Chilis.

“Recuerdos y memorias de Doña Inez” serigraph, Atelier X, 1989, Samuel A. Baray

“Pan Dulce” serigraph, Atelier XII, 1988, Sam Coronado

“The Dressing Table” serigraph, Atelier XII, 1988, Patssi Valdez

Untitled serigraph, Atelier III, 1984, Roberto Delgado

“Dando gracias” serigraph, Atelier II, 1983, Leo Limón

“Muchachos Talk” serigraph, Special Project, Atelier XII, 1987, Leo Limón

“Perro en mi cama” serigraph, Atelier XII, 1988, Dolores Guerrero-Cruz

“Encantacion” serigraph, Nat’l. Chicano Taller, 1988, Alfredo Arreguin

Santa Fe Indian School: One Hundred Years of Indian Education 1890-1990