Rodolfo "Rudy" Acuña is professor emeritus of Chicana/o studies at California State University, Northridge. Born and raised in the Boyle Heights community of East Los Angeles, Professor Acuña received his PhD in history from the University of Southern California. A fierce advocate for many causes within the Chicano Movement, he foremost saw himself as a teacher and educator—a career he began at San Fernando Junior High and Cleveland High School. In 1964, he joined the faculty of Pierce Community College, where he would develop some of earliest curriculum for the field of Chicana/o studies. Five years later, he would serve as founding chair for the Department of Chicano Studies at California State University, Northridge, which continues to rank as the largest Chicana/o studies department in the United States. He is the author of numerous publications in the field, most notably Occupied America: A History of Chicanos (1972), a foundational text that is currently in its ninth edition. Other publications include: Community Under Siege: A Chronicle of Chicanos East of the Los Angeles River, 1945-75 (1984); Anything But Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles (1996); and Corridors of Migration: Odyssey of Mexican Laborers, 1600-1933 (2007). In this interview, Professor Acuña discusses: his family background and upbringing in Southern California; his educational journey from high school and California State University, Los Angeles to graduate school at the University of Southern California; his development as a teacher; his role in the formation of Chicana/o studies at both Pierce College and California State University, Northridge; his reflections on how the field of Chicana/o studies evolved over the decades; the aims and contributions of his scholarship in the field; the reception of Chicana/o studies by the academic profession; as well as his thoughts on important works and developments in the field over the last fifty years.