Antonia Castañeda is professor emeritus of history at St. Mary's University. Born in Crystal City, Texas and raised in the Yakima Valley of Washington state, Professor Castañeda received her PhD in history from Stanford University, representing one of the first Chicana graduate students in the program. She held faculty positions at UC Santa Barbara and the University of Texas, Austin before joining the history department at St. Mary's. She is the author of many publications within the field of Chicana/o Studies, such as: Chicano Literature: Texts and Context (1972); "The Political Economy of Nineteenth Century Stereotypes of Californianas" (1990); "Women of Color and the Rewriting of Western History: The Discourse, Politics, and Decolonization of History (1992); "Sexual Violence in the Politics and Policies of Conquest: Amerindian Women and the Spanish Conquest of Alta California" (1993); and "Engendering the History of Alta California: Gender, Sexuality, and the Family" (1998). In addition to her scholarship, she has actively worked to advance the inclusion of gender and sexuality in the field. She is a founding member of the scholarly organization Mujeres Activas en Letras y Cambio Social (MALCS), and co-editor of the Chicana Matters Series at University of Texas Press. In this interview, Professor Castañeda discusses: her family background and upbringing; her educational journey from high school and the University of Washington to graduate school at Stanford; her experience in the profession; her reflections on the development of Chicana/o Studies during the early years and how the field evolved over the decades; the struggle of Chicanas to gain equal footing in the fields of history and Chicano Studies; the reception of Chicana/o Studies at the universities she served; as well as her thoughts on important works and high points in the field over the last fifty years.