Tomás Rivera Center Collection

The Tomás Rivera Center for Hispanic Studies, a national institute for policy issues, was the first national Latino think-tank with offices in Claremont, California and later San Antonio, Texas. Established in 1985, the center's mission was to improve public and corporate policies, specifically in education, affecting the "Mexican-origin and Latino population of the United States." The center conducted studies, compiled information, and produced publications. Work was carried out by researchers and scholars in universities. The center was named after one of its founders, Tomás Rivera, an alumnus of Southwest Texas State University, a novelist, and, at the time of his death chancellor of the University of California, Riverside. Arturo Madrid was the founding president of the center. The center opened an office at Trinity University in the fall of 1988 and was housed in what is now the Alumni Relations and Development office on lower-campus. Ricardo Romo, history professor at the University of Texas, Austin, and later president of University of Texas, San Antonio, was executive director from 1987-1993. In 1993 Madrid joined the modern languages faculty at Trinity and became the Murchison Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, and served as the senior scholar of the center. The center closed operations at Trinity in 1996.