Maria Luisa Alanis Ruiz
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Maria Luisa Alanis Ruiz (born 1948) is an American Chicana activist and academic in Oregon.[1] She has been active in Chicano and Latino social justice work in the state of Oregon since the 1970s, helped found Portland's Cinco de Mayo festival, and has been a long-term volunteer for the Portland-Guadalajara Sister-City Association.[2] Much of her academic career was spent developing Chicano and Latino Studies programming and curricula for Portland State University.[2][3]
Born in 1948 in Linares, Mexico, Alanis Ruiz spent parts of her childhood living with her grandmother Maria Luisa "Lichita" in Monterrey.[2] Raised a Catholic, her family consisted of her mother, father, Maria, four brothers, and three sisters.[2] Her father struggled to support the family with little work in Linares; when he received United States citizenship in 1954, the family moved to Matamoros, Mexico, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas.[2] The family lived as a trans-border family for seven years while her father worked in the United States and Alanis Ruiz learned English from a school in Brownsville while she lived in Matamoros.[2]
Alanis Ruiz was 18 years old when her father obtained legal U.S. residency for the rest of the family.[2] They lived in Brownsville before moving to Oregon for better work opportunities; they moved to Eola Village, the largest migrant labor camp with a population of 5,000 workers.[2] During her two years as a farm worker she became interested in activism and labor organizing.[2]
She spent 11 months working in the McMinnville, Oregon Diane's Foods factory. Her family moved to Woodburn, Oregon, but when they moved out of state for better work opportunities she remained in Eugene, Oregon to attend the University of Oregon.[2][4]
Alanis Ruiz was recruited by graduate students Felipe Cañeda and Alfonso Cabrera to join the University of Oregon's High School Equivalency Program in 1970.[2] Along with other migrant workers, she obtained her GED in the program and received a scholarship to study at the Language Institute at Oregon State University.[2] After she completed the program, she enrolled at the University of Oregon, receiving her diploma in 1976.[2] She went on to receive a Master of Science in Education Administration and Policy Foundations from Portland State University in 1998.[2]
Academic career
Alanis Ruiz spent several years as a recruiter for Colegio César Chávez until her departure in 1980.[5] She took a position in the admissions office at Portland State University and held many roles in the admissions department at the university, including Affirmative Action Program Admissions Counselor and Assistant Admissions Director.[6][7]
Alanis Ruiz was involved in the creation of the PSU Chicano-Latino studies certificate in 1995, serving as the program's Associate Director.[2] After the death of the program's director in 1998, she temporarily took the position of Interim Director. Her role involved developing curricula, teaching classes, and advising student groups including PSU's MEChA chapter.[2] In 2004, she decided to leave the PSU Chicano-Latino Studies Program resulted in her transfer, citing differences between her identity as a Chicana feminist and the male-centered Chicano-Latino Studies curriculum.[2]
She took a position as the Director of Latino Community Relations in the College of Liberal Arts.[2] In 2011, she retired from Portland State University after 31 years of service.[4]