OTTO SANTA ANA
University of California, Los Angeles
Chicana/o Studies Department
7349 Bunche Hall, Box 951559
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1559
310/206-8225
otto@ucla.edu

Brief Biography:
Otto Santa Ana is from a mining family and a mining town in Arizona. His father worked in the copper mines as a truck driver and among other things, a tire repairman. His fatherâs family were miners in New Mexico at the time of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and before that in Casas Grandes and Parral, Chihuahua. His mother worked as a home maker after marriage.

After an extended period of graduate study and varied life experiences spent in Arizona, Mexico, the East Coast, and Europe, Ana took my Ph.D. and married Thelma Meléndezndez, who holds a Ph.D. in Education from University of Southern California, and a B.A. from UCLA. Thelma is Director of School Family Reform Initiatives for the LAAMP (the Annenberg Initiative), and currently an adjunct professor at USC. They make our home in Eagle Rock (Los Angeles).

Public Lectures Topics:

  • "Anti-Latino representations in current California print media"
  • "The role of language in the education of Latino and other language minority public school students"
  • "What are the languages spoken by Latinos?"
  • "What are the elements of Latino and Chicano Studies?"

Find out more about Otto Santa Ana by visiting www.sscnet.ucla.edu/chavez/santaana.html

Otto Santa Ana has been listed in the Directory of California Thinkers since 01-Feb-2000.