Patricia Zavella is professor emerita of Latin American and Latino studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Born in Tampa, Florida and raised in Ontario, California, Professor Zavella received her PhD in anthropology from UC Berkeley in 1982. She taught courses in Chicano studies at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Barbara before joining the faculty of UC Santa Cruz in 1983. At UC Santa Cruz she served as Director of the Chicano / Latino Research Center and was among the founding faculty of the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies. She is widely considered one of the early scholars of Chicana studies, whose work in the social sciences has focused on the nexus of race and gender. She is the author of numerous publications in the field of Chicana/o studies, including: Women's Work and Chicano Families: Cannery Workers of the Santa Clara Valley (1987); "The Problematic Relationship of Feminism and Chicana Studies" (1989); "Reflections on Diversity Among Chicanas" (1991); Sunbelt Working Mothers: Reconciling Family and Factory (1993); Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios (2001); Chicana Feminisms: A Critical Reader (2003); Women and Migrations in the US-Mexico Borderlands: A Reader (2007); I'm Neither Here nor There: Mexican Quotidian Struggles with Migration and Poverty (2011); and The Movement for Reproductive Justice: Empowering Women of Color through Social Activism (2020). Her contribution to Chicana studies has earned her numerous awards, such as: NACCS Scholar of the Year; Distinguished Career Achievement in the Critical Study of North America; The Association of Latina and Latino Anthropologist Distinguished Career Award; and the Gender Equity in Anthropology Award. In this interview, Professor Zavella discusses: her family background and upbringing; her educational journey from high school to undergraduate studies at Chaffey Community College and Pitzer College; her graduate experience at UC Berkeley as one of the first Chicana students in anthropology; her participation in the Political Economy Collective and the Chicana Colectiva; joining the faculty at UC Santa Cruz and establishing herself in the profession; her reflections on the state of Chicana/o studies and how the field evolved over her career; the struggle for Chicanas to create a space in the field; the aims and contributions of her scholarship in the field; the reception of Chicana/o studies at UC Santa Cruz and in the academy; as well as her thoughts on important works, themes, and high points in the field's development over the last fifty years.