Ramón Eduardo Ruiz

Who was Ramón Eduardo Ruiz?

Ramón Eduardo Ruiz was an American historian of Mexico and Latin America. He was the author of fifteen books on Mexican and Latin American history and in 1998 he was awarded the US National Humanities Medal.

Ruiz was born in San Diego, California as the son of a former member of the Mexican Navy who left that country during the Mexican revolution. He served as a Pacific B-29 pilot in the Army Air Forces during World War II. He earned his bachelor's degree from San Diego State University in 1947, his master's from Claremont Graduate University in 1948, and his doctorate from the University of California at Berkeley in 1954. Ruiz taught at the University of Oregon, Smith College, and the University of California at San Diego.