Juan Trujillo Oral History Interview

This interview begins with Juan Trujillo’s background, including where he was raised and the background of his parents. Trujillo then discusses his education from high school to college at BYU and then in Texas. He also mentions several of his past mentors before stating his reasons for choosing to apply for a job at Oregon State University. After this, he details the past job duties he has held and his current position as assistant professor in the School of Language, Culture, and Society. The classes he teaches and has taught range from Spanish linguistics, to English linguistics, to the Spanish Learning Community class, to DPD courses. Staying with the theme of OSU, Trujillo notes several people of importance from the university. To focus on diversity at OSU, Trujillo chronicles the changes in diversity at the university, the failures of the current OSU administrative bureaucracy to effect change, the cultural centers, his role in supporting faculty of color, and his recommendations for a more diverse campus. Trujillo highlights the lack of access to resources that people of color face at OSU and in Corvallis due to its limitations as a small community. Then, speaking on a national level, Trujillo talks of the racism and wage disparity that many minorities face. The interview transitions into a more personal tone when Trujillo relays his decision to obtain a PhD, his recognition of his ethnic background, his production of a short film documentary regarding gay Mormon experiences, and his expressions through writing. Toward end the interview, Trujillo highlights his challenges at the university in regards to receiving tenure as well as noting his accomplishments.

Juan "Tony" Trujillo was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington, in 1964. After earning his bachelor's and master's degrees at Brigham Young University, he went on to receive his PhD in Ibero-Romance Philology and Linguistics from the University of Texas in Austin. He has been a professor at Oregon State University since 1997 as an Assistant Professor in the School of Language and Society at Oregon State University. His job duties include: classroom instruction, scholarship development, and administrative responsibilities. He also helped develop a Difference, Power, and Discrimination course, and the Spanish Learning Community course, which is a 15 credit language-intensive course. Recently, Trujillo has been developing documentaries and writings to both further his career and self-awareness.