Biographical Summary

Armando Navarro was born on October 31, 1941, in Artesia, California. He attended public schools in Cucamonga and graduated from Upland High School in 1960. He earned a B.A. in political science in 1970 from Claremont Men's College and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Riverside, in 1974. Navarro married María Dávalos in 1962. They have five children: Armando Jr., María Antonette, Miguel Antonio, Orlando, and Xavier Angel. Navarro served in the United States Army Reserve from 1960 to 1968 and earned the rank of first lieutenant.

A registered Democrat, Navarro has been an activist espousing issues pertinent to the Mexican-American community since his days as a college student. As a scholar and as a community activist he was responsible for the organization of La Raza Unida party in the San Bernardino and Riverside county area. He has also been instrumental in organizing regional conferences and meetings to bring leadership of the Chicano community together on issues such as immigration reform, voter registration and education, police-community relations, church-community relations, and United States-Mexico relations. In 1977 he organized the Congreso para Pueblos Unidas and in 1983 became the executive director of the Institute for Social Justice, the position he held at the time of the interview.

In 1981 Navarro served as the state director of Californios for Fair Representation (CFR), a coalition of over fifty Chicano community organizations in California mobilizing public opinion against gerrymandering the Chicano electorate in California in the 1981 reapportionment. Using the computing facilities at the Rose Institute for State and Local Government of Claremont McKenna College, CFR was able to present those responsible for reapportioning California assembly, senate, and congressional districts with alternative redistricting maps and plans. This interview focuses on Navarro's activities and leadership in this coalitional effort.

In addition to his political activities Navarro has also taught at various colleges and universities in California and has published scholarly articles and political manifestos calling for social change and political action.

About this text
Courtesy of Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, 405 Hilgard Ave, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575; http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb7z09p494&brand=oac4
Title: Oral history interview with Armando Navarro
By: Navarro, Armando, 1941-, Interviewee, Vásquez, Carlos, 1944-, Interviewer
Date: 1989
Contributing Institution: Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, 405 Hilgard Ave, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575; http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
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