Dr. Antonio Rios-Bustamante

Dr. Antonio Rios Bustamante — historian, academic, writer, intellectual, loving husband and supportive companion to my mother, for over thirty years — passed away this weekend, on April, 19 2024.

Antonio will be greatly missed by his wife, family, friends and community. This is a personal reflection to honor his memory.

Antonio departed peacefully, at home, in Tucson. He suffered from a neurological illness that affected his body, mind and overall health. He faced his illness as he did other challenges in his life—doing research, rebelling against the authorities that gave him five years to live, refusing to let his sickness take away his dignity. He looked to a sometimes indifferent healthcare system for answers, desperately wanting to known what was the disease weakening his muscles, his ability to move, or breathe freely.

Dr. Ríos defined for himself what being Chicano meant. He loved his community and his city of El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles. He wrote several books about the towns and rancherías that make up the Mexican city of Los Angeles. Antonio dedicated his life to preserving and researching the history, and struggles of Chicanos and Mexicans in the Southwest and the Borderlands. An internationalist, Dr. Ríos Bustamante linked the processes of dispossession, displacement, exploitation and marginality, experienced by his people to the colonial and post colonial experiences of peoples in the Global South.

Personally, I want tho thank him for all the stimulating conversations, ideas, the articles and books he shared with me. For his interest in my own work when I was a student More importantly, I want to thank him for the love, tenderness and support he had towards my mom and her projects. I want to apologize for not always understanding the effects of the horrible illness that afflicted him.

Personally, I want tho thank him for all the stimulating conversations, ideas, the articles and books he shared with me. For his interest in my own work when I was a student More importantly, I want to thank him for the love, tenderness and support he had towards my mom and her projects. I want to apologize for not always understanding the effects of the horrible illness that afflicted him.

I hope his colleagues and friends who shared his interests and experience will demand that the institutions where he taught, will honor and preserve his legacy and work. That they will demand for his archive to be preserved. For his unfinished work to be published and, for his completed research to guide younger generations wanting to understand their histories.

Gracias Antonio. Descansa tranquilo y con el orgullo de haber sido un ser noble, caballeroso, atento y valiente. ¡Chicano Power!