With a heavy heart I write to share with you that our beloved colleague, Assistant Professor of History Romina Ruvalcaba, died on August 7 after a long and courageous battle with cancer. Romina was acclaimed by her colleagues and students as brilliant, compassionate, and fierce in her approaches to scholarship, teaching, activism, and collegiality. Our hearts are broken to see such a shining light go out in the universe.
Romina joined UC Merced in Fall 2018 as a historian of twentieth century Mexico. She impressed us immediately, and we knew from the opening moments of her interviews that she would have a profound impact on our students, our department, and our community. And did she ever. Romina was a demanding and comprehensive scholar, whose work challenged dominant interpretations of the Mexican state in the 20th century, reclaimed the rancho as subject, and reframed the relationship between rural communities and state violence. Up to her last days she was working with colleagues at UC Riverside with whom she earned a multimillion-dollar grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation to gather oral histories and analyze connections between agricultural communities in Mexico and immigrant Mexican communities in the Imperial Valley, with the purpose of creating new public archives in partnership with local communities. With similar vigor, she dove into undergraduate and graduate teaching, surprising students with her demanding yet nurturing focus on critical thinking and analytical writing. Her classes included the history of Mexico, Latin American Revolutions, Chicano History and Culture, and a grad seminar on theory and method. Her student evaluations are replete with praise for her enthusiasm, her ability to motivate, her power to transform the ways students approach learning. Many admired her willingness to spend limitless time helping them – what they called “that Romina extra.” She was a tireless mentor to numerous undergraduate students and multiple graduate students in her short time with us.
Romina overcame many barriers to become a brilliant and compassionate scholar, role model, and mentor for our undergraduate and graduate students. A formerly undocumented immigrant and a first-generation student, Romina earned an A.A. at Riverside College before moving to Chicago, where she earned a B.A. at Loyola University and then a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago in 2017. While finishing her dissertation, Romina taught classes at Cal State Long Beach and gave birth to her son Agustín, who she affectionately called Auggie. She allowed her experiences as an immigrant, student, and single mother to inform her teaching and research in the best ways possible, connecting to her students and subject communities in meaningful ways that always looked toward partnership.
Romina’s impact on the department cannot be overstated. Her colleagues describe her as brilliant, fierce, funny, loving, caring, supportive, demanding, warm, and generous. Romina’s contributions to the ways HCRES approached research, teaching, and service will endure. She was a fantastic colleague who read each department member’s work and participated in several informal reading and writing groups with other tenured and untenured faculty. Romina remained dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and truth to her last day. She taught classes and organized new reading groups even as she fought cancer, explaining that this was her passion; she knew no other way.
Far beyond her work, we will remain inspired by Romina’s indomitable spirit. She was a doting mother, beloved daughter, and inspiring sibling. As one colleague told her son and siblings, we valued Romina as a person, a colleague, a teacher, and a scholar, not in order but altogether. With both deep pain for her loss and profound gratitude for our good fortune to have had her as a member of our community, we remember Dr. Romina Ruvalcaba. We share those memories with her mother, her siblings, and her son.
We are planning a celebration of Romina’s life during fall semester. Details will follow. Romina’s family has organized a visitation and memorial on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2022 at Montecito Memorial Park and Mortuary in Colton, CA. Interested individuals may get more information and also share memories and send flowers by clicking here.
Yours,
Gregg Camfield
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
