Jorge Alfonso Huerta was born in Southern California on November 20, 1942. He attended California State University, Los Angeles, earning his degree in 1965. Huerta went on to earn his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1974, becoming 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. Along with teaching and writing, Huerta 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 of El Jardín. Huerta was honored as a Distinguished Scholar by the American Society for Theatre Research, 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 description of Jorge Huerta papers, 1964-2008. (University of California, San Diego). WorldCat record id: 55881979
