Huerta, Jorge A.

Biography

Jorge Alfonso Huerta was born in Southern California on November 20, 1942. He graduated from Benjamin Franklin High School in Los Angeles, California, in 1960, and then attended California State University, Los Angeles, earning his degree in 1965. Huerta went on to earn his Ph.D. from the University of Calfornia, Santa Barbara in 1974. Huerta was the first Chicano nationwide to receive his Ph.D. in theatre. In 1975 he joined the Department of Theatre and Dance at UC San Diego as a professor. Huerta was later named UCSD's Associate Chancellor and the University’s first Chief Diversity Officer, serving in that post from 2004 to 2007.

Huerta published two books, Chicano Theatre: Themes and Forms (1982) and Chicano Drama: Performance, Society, and Myth (2000). He is the author of numerous articles about Chicano theatre, as well as many essays and lectures for theatre groups and universities. Huerta also edited three anthologies of plays, including A Bibliography Of Chicano And Mexican Dance, Drama, And Music (1972) and Nuevos Pasos : Chicano And Puerto Rican Drama (1989).

Along with teaching and writing, Huerta also directed in theatres across the country, including the San Diego Repertory, Washington D.C.’s Gala Hispanic Theatre, La Compañía de Teatro de Albuquerque, and New York's Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre. His main directoral focus has been Chicano plays, including Deporting the Divas and El Jardín . Through his collaboration efforts he worked with numerous theatre groups, such as El Teatro de la Esperanza, Teatro Meta, and El Teatro Campesino with Luis Valdez.

Huerta was honored as a Distinguished Scholar at the annual meeting of the American Society for Theatre Research in Boston, and received the Lifetime Achievement in Educational Theatre Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education in 2008. On May 4, 2009, Huerta was awarded the “Latino Spirit Award” from the State Assembly for his leading authority on contemporary Chicana/o and US Latina/o theatre.

From the guide to the Jorge Huerta Papers, 1964-2008, (Mandeville Special Collections Library)