Matt Sebastian Meier

Background

Matt Meier was born on June 4, 1917, in Covington, Kentucky.

Education

After serving in the Army during World War II, Matt Meier went to college after the war. He attended the University of Miami, where he earned his bachelor's degree in 1948. The next year, he studied at Mexico City College (now Universidad de las Americas), receiving a master's degree before taking his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley in 1954.

Career

Matt Meier's interest in Latin American history and culture began while attending the University of Miami. After graduating, he then taught in Argentina for a year while on a Fulbright scholarship, returning to the United States to lecture at Bakersfield College from 1955 to 1963. Meier was also on the faculty of Fresno State College in the early 1960s. He joined Santa Clara University in 1966 as an associate professor, chairing the Latin American and Mexican American department from 1968 to 1971 and from 1976 to 1979, and retiring in 1989. Besides, he was guest teaching at such universities as California State University at Hayward, Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco, and Fresno. Meier's enthusiasm for Latin American history and culture did much to help establish these subjects as areas of study in academia.

As a writer, Matt Meier wrote and co-wrote more than a dozen books on Mexican Americans. He was especially noted as the author, with Feliciano Rivera, of The Chicanos: A History of Mexican Americans, which was later revised as Mexican Americans/American Mexicans: From Conquistadors to Chicanos, and for his solo works, Bibliography of Mexican American History and Mexican American Biographies. Other works by Meier include Notable Latino Americans and Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement.

Achievements

• Matt Meier was best known as a writer and educator. He taught at Santa Clara University for more than thirty years. As a writer, he was the author and co-author of more than a dozen books on Mexican Americans.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Encyclopedia of the Mexican-American Civil Rights Movement

    (Bringing together a wealth of information on the Mexican ...)

    2000
  • Mexican Americans/American Mexicans

    (This extensively revised edition with a new title-include...)

    1993
  • Notable Latino Americans

    (United States Latinos have made important contributions t...)

    1997
  • The Chicanos 1972
  • Bibliography of Mexican American History 1984
  • Mexican American Biographies 1988

Connections

Matt Meier had a wife, Betty Meier, who died in 1998. They had five sons, Phil, Gary, Patrick, Paul, and Pepe Meier.

Wife:

Betty Meier

Son:

Phil Meier

Son:

Gary Meier

Son:

Patrick Meier

Son:

Paul Meier

Son:

Pepe Meier

Sister:

Margaret Crout

Sister:

Katherine Hedges

Sister:

Jean House

Sister:

Genevive Broschardt

Sister:

Rita Kennedy

Brother:

Richard Meier

colleague:

Feliciano Rivera