Professor Luis Leal is one of the most outstanding scholars of Mexican, Latin American, and Chicano literature—he is the dean of Mexican American intellectuals in the United States. Don Luis, as he is affectionately called by those who know him well, is now in his early nineties and has devoted his long life to scholarship, teaching, and to helping others with his unassuming but effective leadership.

Born in Linares, Nuevo León, in northern Mexico on September 17, 1907—the eve of the Mexican Revolution of 1910—Don Luis spent his early years with his family surviving and adjusting to...

MG: Don Luis, when and where were you born?

LL: I was born on September 17, 1907, in Linares, Nuevo León, in northern Mexico. Linares is located southeast of Monterrey, the capital of Nuevo León. I was named after my father.

When I returned in 1985 after many years to receive an homenaje [homecoming award] from city officials, I discovered that Linares had not changed very much over the years. In fact, it struck me that it had not changed at all.

At the luncheon for me, I was seated next to the presidente municipal [mayor], who asked me, “Why...

MG: Let’s go back to your migration to Chicago. You left in 1927 to come to Northwestern University because some friends were already studying there. You went to study mathematics. Why was there this Linares connection with Northwestern? Why didn’t these students go to a closer American school, such as the University of Texas?

LL: I don’t know exactly why there was this connection. These were young men also from the traditional families and who had gone to the Catholic school. I think that the connection may have had to do with the Englishman who operated the electrical plant. He...

MG: Don Luis, after you finished your Ph.D., did you apply for teaching positions elsewhere?

LL: I taught one more year at Chicago, but during this time I also looked for a new position because I couldn’t stay at the University of Chicago. I attended the MLA [Modern Language Association] in 1951, which was in Detroit that year, to see about other positions. I unexpectedly met up with Professor Arthur Campa, who was at the University of Denver. I had read some of his studies on popular culture in New Mexico and admired his work.

Were you introduced to him?...

MG: Don Luis, why did you decide to leave Emory in 1959?

LL: It was mostly because Gladys wanted to be near her mother and sister, who lived in Chicago. In December of 1958, when I was attending the MLA convention in New York, I got together with Professor Renato Rosaldo Sr. from the University of Arizona. One evening as we were visiting the different receptions hosted by many of the big publishing houses, we ran into Professor Shoemaker, the head of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Illinois. He told Rosaldo, “We’re looking for...

MG: Don Luis, the 1960s, of course, was a very tumultuous period, especially because of the Vietnam War and student protests against it. What was the situation like at Illinois at that time? Was there much student unrest?

LL: When I first arrived at Illinois in 1959 and for the next few years, the campus was very quiet. It really wasn’t until about 1968 that things began to change. It was in 1968 when some of our students went on strike protesting the war, as well as conditions on the campus. They held marches; they broke windows, in particular a...

MG: Let’s talk about Ron Arias, whose novel, The Road to Tamazunchale, appeared first in 1975. He didn’t publish with Quinto Sol, so he was not part of that group.

LL: He first published a few short stories. One of his first he entered into the University of California Irvine Chicano literary contest. It won first prize for fiction. I think that this was also in 1975. But he also published some stories with Revista Chicano-Riqueña. His novel, The Road to Tamazunchale, was published in 1975 by a small press in Reno. At first it was almost impossible to get...

MG: Don Luis, you decided to retire from Illinois in the mid-1970s. Why did you decide to do that at that time?

LL: Actually, I didn’t have a choice. Unlike today, when there is no mandatory retirement age, there was one then at Illinois and all other universities. You had to retire at sixty-eight. I turned sixty-eight in 1975, but because my birthday was in September after the academic year began, I was allowed one more year. So I actually retired at sixty-nine.

How did you decide to come to Santa Barbara?

In December of 1975, when I was attending...

MG: I want to discuss your own most recent work. I understand you’ve written a book on Joaquin Murrieta. Why did you decide to do a book on Murrieta?

LL: I’ve always been interested in Murrieta as a popular hero. Some time ago, as I was collecting recordings of corridos, I found one on Murrieta. I think it was the very first corrido recorded about Murrieta. It was done in the 1930s in San Antonio. This began my interest in Murrieta. I then later came across the novel about him written by John Rollins Ridge in 1854. I began reading...