The Mexican American Studies & Research Center is committed to contemporary applied public policy research on Mexican Americans. As the leading public policy research center addressing issues of concern to this minority group in Arizona, the MASRC works collaboratively with key community agencies in promoting leadership and empowerment of Mexican Americans within the state and the nation. The Center achieves these goals through its applied research agenda, through its publications, and through the comprehensive curriculum it offers students at the University of Arizona. As an intellectual center, it disseminates information to a broad audience, which includes elected officials, educators, students, policy makers and other researchers.

A Brief History of the Mexican American Studies & Research Center

In 1968 a group of Mexican American faculty members at the University of Arizona came together to form the Mexican American Studies Program in response to student and community demands for change. By 1975 it became the Mexican American Studies Committee. Then, on March 22, 1981, the Mexican American Studies & Research Center was formally inaugurated. Two years later, the Center received state funding and began to realize its interdisciplinary research program. The need for a Center was a result of the failure of higher education to perform the necessary research on Mexican Americans in Arizona and throughout the country. In its short history, the Center has served as an extension of the University into the state's Mexican American and non-Mexican American communities.