Henry Trueba came to the Department of Curriculum and Instruction
at The University with a wealth of scholarly, administrative,
and professional experience. He joined our faculty in 1998, hired
as department chair. His reputation and accomplishments made
him an ideal leader and colleague in a department concerned with
the people and practices of professional education.
Dr. Trueba’s work addressed the experiences of ethnic
minorities in education. In more than twenty books and eighty-five
articles and chapters, he gave life to what it means for minority
students to strive and succeed in the dominant culture. Influential
works, such as Raising Silent Voices: Educating the Linguistic
Minorities for the 21st Century (1989), Crossing Cultural Borders:
Education for Immigrant Families in America (with Delgado-Gaitan;
Falmer Press, 1991), Ethnic Identity and Power: Cultural Contexts
of Political Action in School and Society (with Zou; State University
of New York Press, 1998), The Politics of Survival in Academia:
Narratives of Inequity, Resilience, and Success (with Jacobs,
Cintron, & Canton; Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), and Latinos
Unidos: From Cultural Diversity to the Politics of Solidarity
(1999), detailed the challenges facing minorities in American
society and efforts that have led to success. His ethnographic
research provided the foundations for a generation of researchers
on bilingual education, for social policy on minority school
retention, and for the basis of our thinking about cultural diversity
in education. His special focus was on Latino/a immigrants and
their families. Being an immigrant himself, Dr. Trueba was an
ardent chronicler of the strength and resiliency of immigrant
families and communities.
Enrique T. Trueba was born on October 29, 1931, in Mexico City.
After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in
Mexico City (at, respectively, La Universidad Autonoma de Mexico
and El Instituto Libre de Filosofia y Letras), he worked as a
Jesuit in rural villages in Mexico. Coming to the United States,
he earned additional master’s degrees (theology, Woodstock
College, 1964; anthropology, Stanford University, 1966) and his
Ph.D. (anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, 1970) before taking
a series of academic positions. While establishing himself as
a noted scholar, he taught at Western Illinois University; California
State University, Sacramento; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign;
San Diego State University; and University of California, Santa
Barbara. Dr. Trueba moved into higher education administration
in 1989, with an appointment as associate dean of the College
of Letters and Sciences and director of the Division of Education
at the University of California, Davis. From there, he became
dean of education at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and
then senior vice president for academic affairs and provost at
the University of Houston. From 1998 to 2001, he served as Regents
Professor and Chair of Curriculum and Instruction at The University,
before moving to the University of Texas-Pan American where a
held the position of special guest professor in the College of
Education.
His visiting appointments further included stays at the University
of Alaska, Fairbanks; Stanford University; Michigan State University;
New Mexico State University; La Universidad de Colima (Mexico);
Katholieke Universiteit te Leuven (Belgium); National Taiwan
Normal University (Taipei); Rice University; and Harvard University.
Dr. Trueba was an energetic scholar and teacher who received
numerous academic and community awards. The National Association
for Bilingual Education recognized him for distinguished research
on bilingual education. The American Anthropological Association’s
Council on Anthropology and Education gave him its George and
Louise Spindler Award for contributions to educational anthropology,
and he received a special award for contributions to the Association
of Colleges and Schools of Education in State Universities and
Land Grant Colleges. In 1995, he was named
Doctor Honoris
Causa in anthropology at National University for Nationalities,
Beijing. Other local, state, and national groups gave him numerous
awards.
The quality of Dr. Trueba’s work led to positions as features
editor for the American Educational Research Association’s
Educational Researcher and as chief editor for Anthropology and
Education Quarterly. He served on editorial boards and advisory
panels for Educational Researcher, International Journal of Qualitative
Studies in Education, Review of Educational Research, Readings
on Equal Education Series, and he reviewed for numerous other
scholarly journals and publishers. He received significant grants
from the U.S. Department of Education, the Office of Bilingual
Education and Minority Languages Affairs, and the Spencer Foundation.
Known for his advocacy on expanding learning opportunities for
those in greatest need and for developing the talent of immigrant
and marginalized populations, Dr. Trueba is remembered fondly
by hundreds of Ph.D. students and colleagues, Hispanic and others.
He supported quality work and was a constant source of good cheer
for those who worked with him. He was generous in the time he
spent reading others’ work and providing them with collegial
support. He was a constant inspiration to students and colleagues.
In his teaching, scholarship, and administrative roles, he created
a positive atmosphere for the creation and exchange of ideas
about the contexts of education. His influences will be enduring
and meaningful, on a personal level as well as from the voluminous
scholarship that he produced. He will be remembered as loving,
dedicated scholar with a special calling to serve those less
fortunate.
Henry Trueba is survived by his wife and life partner, Ardeth
Lucas Trueba, of Houston and by two children: Laura Trueba Clark
of Manhattan Beach, California, and Phillip Henry Trueba of Houston.
He is also survived by a brother and sister in Mexico and by
three sisters in California.
<signed>
Larry R. Faulkner, President
The University of Texas at Austin
<signed>
Sue Alexander Greninger, Secretary
The General Faculty
