Tomás F. Summers Sandoval, Jr., Ph.D., Oral Histories with Chicano Veterans

Tomás F. Summers Sandoval, Jr., Ph.D., Oral Histories with Chicano Veterans of the Vietnam War and their Families

Pomona College History Department and author of "Latinos at the Golden Gate" from UNC Press (2013)

Writing

Tomás F. Summers Sandoval, Jr., Ph.D., historian of the United States, with specialties in Chicana/o histories and California. 

Currently working on a book exploring the impact of the Vietnam War on Latino communities in the United States, based largely on oral histories with Chicano veterans of the Vietnam War and their families.

Bio

Dr. Sandoval, Jr. is the second of three children born to two Chicanos from East Los Angeles, and the grandson of Mexican immigrants who arrived to California in the early and mid 20th century. He grew up in La Puente, CA.

He states "teaching is my vocation". Dr. Sandoval, Jr. views teaching as a collaborative process of fostering learning in others. 

He shares "As a child, no one in my immediate (nuclear) family could call themselves a “college graduate.” Today, all five of us hold at least a Bachelor’s degree, four earned a Master’s, and two of us earned our Ph.D."

Dr. Sandoval, Jr. attended St. Joseph’s Elementary School and Bishop Amat Memorial High School, both in La Puente. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Claremont McKenna College in 1994. Then attended the University of California, Berkeley, received both a M.A. degree (1996) and a Ph.D. (2002) in United States History.

In January 2006, he joined the faculty of Pomona College, one of the collection of higher education institutions collectively known as the “Claremont Colleges.” 

Tomas holds a joint appointment in the History Department and Department of Chicana/o ~ Latina/o Studies. In 2012 he was awarded tenure Associate Professor.