Rodrigo Bañuelos
I give below two interview newspaper articles related to the Blackwell-Tapia Prize in Mathematics which I had the highest honor of receiving in 2004. The Prize presentation took place at the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics at UCLA where I received my Ph.D. in 1984. Both articles were written by Jorge Morales Almada, a reporter for the daily La Opinión (one of the nation's largest Spanish language daily newspaper) of Los Angeles, California, and published by La Opinión November 2004. For the first article Jorge received a second place prize in "The 17th Annual Hispanic Print Awards" in the category of "Outstanding Hispanic Success Story, Daily Publications," presented by The National Association of Hispanic Publications. Congratulations Jorge!
Since the appearance of these articles, I have received literally hundreds of emails, and many phone calls, from students, parents and teachers (at elementary, junior and senior high schools and universities), asking for advice on educational matters and for more information on my professional career. I have also received many requests for further biographical information. For these reasons, I have decided to put these articles here and the biographical sketch below.
For many young people attending college is a given. It represents merely the next logical step in their pursuit of well-defined goals and deviations from this would be considered exceptions. Yet for too many others (especially for many minority students and students from low income families), attending college is often the exception. This path can be a monumental, frightening, and life-transforming leap with immeasurable consequences for current and future generations. It is my sincere hope that by publicly disclosing this (rather personal) information, I can encourage low income and minority students to continue their education and to fully explore their dreams and aspirations.
As always, students, parents and teachers can write to me at banuelos@math.purdue.edu. I will try to answer all emails as promptly as possible.
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
Rodrigo Bañuelos was born in a rural agricultural community,
called "La Masita", in the state of Zacatecas,
Mexico, to a Mexican-American father, Sr. José Bañuelos,
and a Mexican mother, Sra. Rosalva Bañuelos. As a child he had
no formal education, working, like most kids in that region of Mexico at that time,
primarily in farming. There was no running water, electricity or phone
service. In retrospect, life in La Masita was very primitive and
very hard,
but he did not know it at the time. His childhood memories are
those of a "campesino" community, whose members were always looking
after one another. At
the age of 15, along with his mother, grandmother, five brothers and
one sister, he moved to Pasadena,
California. His father, born in the city of Superior, Arizona, had
lived in the US essentially all his life, commuting from Pasadena to La
Masita once or twice a year. His father worked as a cook at
various restaurants in the Los Angeles area. He was very proud of his
Mexican-American heritage. He was an incredibly hard working
individual with an amazing sense of optimism who believed that through
hard work anything can be
achieved. After moving to the US, his mother worked
for minimum wage at various factories and in the serving line at a
popular cafeteria in Pasadena--"The Pasadena Cafeteria". While
not having had any formal
education, both his parents valued education greatly. Indeed,
his mother always blamed every "bad" thing that happened to the family
on the lack of education. We were poor, sick, etc., and all
because
of a lack of an education. "Eso nos pasa por falta de
educatión," she would always say. And, of course, she was
right.
Rodrigo Bañuelos was certainly not the smartest nor the
hardest working
member of his family. Such distinctions belonged to his oldest brother,
Javier, who passed away at age 45 from Mesothelioma
caused by exposure to asbestos after many years of working in
a lumberyard. However, because of opportunities that others did
not have, Rodrigo was the first member of his family to attend and
graduate
from college. For this, he owes an enormous debt of gratitude to
Juan Francisco Lara who he met in 1973 while working at the Arroyo
Parkway Car Wash in Pasadena. (Juan Lara was then a Ph.D.
student
at UCLA with a part-time job teaching Chicano History at Pasadena City College. He
is now a
retired Vice Chancellor of UC Irvine. Juan Lara's lifetime
commitment to helping low income and underrepresented minority students
gain access to higher education is truly inspiring. His efforts have
impacted the lives of hundreds of individuals and their future
generations, mine included.) With Lara's
help he enrolled at Pasadena City College. From there, again
with the help of Lara and of Ruben Rubalcaba, director of the Equal
Opportunity Programs (EOP) at UC Santa Cruz, he transferred to
Santa
Cruz. (The previous year he had applied to, and was rejected
from,
every campus of the UC System.) At Santa Cruz he was encouraged
to continue in
mathematics by several people, none more than Professor Tony
Tromba to whom he also owes debt of gratitude. There he was
also fortunate to meet two of the
founding members (fathers) of SACNAS,
Professors
Eugene Cota-Robles and Frank Talamantes, both biologists, from whom
he received tremendous support and encouragement. These
individuals, like Lara and many others, exemplify at its very best
Cesar Chavez's
statement that "we cannot seek achievement for ourselves and
forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our
ambitions must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of
others, for their sakes and for our own." Rodrigo Bañuelos would
certainly not be where he is today if he had not encountered these
remarkable people.
Rodrigo Bañuelos has been active in efforts, local and national, to increase the number of minority students in sciences and engineering. He served on the Human Relations Commission (2000-2006) for the City of West Lafayette and was a member of the Golden Apple Awards Selection Committee for the Lafayette Chamber of Commerce for several years. He lives in West Lafayette, Indiana, with his wife Rosa. They have two daughters. Nidia is a graduate student at the University of Chicago. Carisa is an undergraduate at Purdue University. Last but not least, Rodrigo Bañuelos loves very, very,..., spicy food.
All those looking for biographical information on US-Latino scientists
are encouraged to visit the SACNAS (the Society for the Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science)
webpage, and specially the SACNAS Biographical
Project and the SACNAS Videos.
I also strongly recommend visiting the webpage of
Professor Richard Tapia,
a person who has been a role model and an inspiration for countless
US-Latino students in mathematics and related fields.
In addition, I believe it would be inspiring for all students, and especially for all minority students interested in careers in the mathematical sciences, to read about the life and achievements of Professor David Blackwell, a truly extraordinary American mathematician of African descent. For biographical information on Professor Blackwell, please visit Mathematicians of the African Diaspora, The MacTutor History of Mathematics Archive, or the MAA SUMMA page.
MEET JUAN FRANCISCO LARA, EUGENE COTA-ROBLES, AND FRANK TALAMNTES