By Bridget Shackelford
Bruin contributor
bshackelford@media.ucla.edu
Guillermo Hernandez, a UCLA Spanish professor and director
emeritus of the Chicano Studies Research Center, died in Mexico
City on July 16. He was 66.
Hernandez died of a heart attack in his hotel room while on a
field trip with students from a four-week summer school program in
Puebla, Mexico, which he was in charge of.
Hernandez leaves behind his wife Yolanda Zepeda; his first wife
Lucha Corpi; children Arturo, Luciano, Guillermo M. and Gabriel;
grandchildren Kiara, Nikolas and Kamille; sisters Frieda and Nora
and brothers Arturo and Hector.
“I feel a sense of loss by the untimely passing of my
friend and colleague Guillermo Hernandez,” said Efrain
Kristal, profesor of Spanish and comparative literature, wrote.
“He was deeply committed to understanding and disseminating
the cultural contributions of Chicanos and Chicanas as valuable in
their own right, but was also able to see these contributions in
the broadest context of the Hispanic world.”
Hernandez had been with UCLA since 1982, and was director of the
Chicano Studies Research Center from 1993 to 2002. His area of
expertise was in medieval Spanish literature, and he was considered
an expert on corridos, Mexican ballads.
Just as Kristal will feel the loss of his friend, the UCLA
community will feel the loss of one of its professors.
“Hernandez was an impassioned and committed teacher and
scholar at UCLA, with the keenest interest in educating and
improving the lives of his students,” said Jonathan Post,
former interim humanities dean in UCLA’s College of Letters
and Science and a professor of English. “He was a valued
member of the Humanities faculty. … The many contributions that
he made over his years at UCLA will be sorely missed.”
Burial services took place July 21 at Holy Cross Mortuary in
Culver City.
The family has asked that donations be made instead of
flowers. Donations can be made to the Guillermo E. Hernandez
Memorial Scholarship Fund at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research
Center.
Checks should be made out to the UCLA Foundation/The
Guillermo E. Hernandez Memorial Scholarship. The mailing address is
UCLA, 1309 Murphy Hall, Los Angeles, Calif., 90095.