The 20th anniversary of the Luis Leal Award was celebrated on Feb. 5 at the Interdisciplinary Humanities Center, with this year’s recipient being Manuel Muñoz, a MacArthur fellow and English professor at the University of Arizona. His publications of short stories and novel involve his Chicanx heritage stemming from the Central Valley in California.

The Luis Leal Award recipient, Manuel Muñoz said he felt very honored and humbled to receive the award. Salma Maytorena / Daily Nexus

Luis Leal, whom the award was named after, became a professor emeritus in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies at UC Santa Barbara in 1976. He was a scholar both domestically and internationally as well as a published author whose career continued until his death in 2010, at the age of 102. In his honor, the award was created by the Santa Barbara Book Council 22 years ago as a form of outreach toward the Latine community in academia, using Leal’s name to recognize Chicanx Literature. 

Muñoz was born and raised in Fresno, California, the youngest of five children in a family that worked in farm fields until the 1990s. His interest in writing had taken off in high school and he said his teachers had a “huge impact” on writing about his experiences as a Mexican American. Muñoz said he felt honored and humbled to receive the award, noting it was a lifetime achievement at the age of 52.

“I’m only 52, lifetime achievement … When we are creating we are always thinking ahead, I’m at a crossroads right now … the meaning of time has changed,” Muñoz said after receiving the award.

Mario Garcia, a professor emeritus in the Department of Chicana and Chicano Studies and the award’s key founder and organizer, presented the award. 

“[The Luis Leal Award] continues to impress among people the experiences of Chicano and Latinos in this country … which are of significant importance, and that leads to what we need to recognize, that importance and to make sure that our students in one form or another learn about that experience,” Garcia said.

Garcia brought the award to UCSB in 2010. As the award celebrates its 20th anniversary, Garcia said it’s become more prestigious over time.

“I think that UCSB is at the forefront of promoting that knowledge, and the fact that we are a Hispanic Serving Institution only adds to the importance of that connection, of promoting an understanding through our courses and in public events and so forth, the experiences of the Chicano and Latino population,” Garcia said.

The event included a sit down Q&A with Garcia where Muñoz describes his path to publication, as well as the conflicts of intersectionality with the queer community and the Chicanx community. Publishers pushed back when he tried to talk about these communities in his writings in the 1990s, until one publishing press picked him up. Muñoz said the award “really speaks volumes” about not only his own work but the message of achievement that transcends Chicanx literature. 

“We don’t have to be recognized by a lifetime achievement to feel that our work is important. But if we’re lucky enough for it to happen, it should push us forward and remind us, you know, we’re all part of a legacy. People have come before us and people will come after. So it’s solidifying the literature. That’s what I’m happy about,” Muñoz said.

Roughly 75 attendees were present, including students, staff and faculty in various departments in the humanities sector, who highlighted the importance of the event and what it means to have representation through such an accolade.

“I haven’t really heard of many books about Mexican American history or about the culture, and this event is really taking a second to appreciate a bunch of stories about very real things that are happening and about real historical experiences,” Annabel Willey, a third-year biology major and student of Garcia, said.

Not only through representation, the award also presents a form of celebration in the academic field for the Chicanx community and allows the audience to see and hear of his story in a more personable way. 

“I think it’s probably the best possible example to kind of experience one of the current major figures in the entire Chicano literature movement right now … it’s a very lucky opportunity for us to just have such a close experience and ability to communicate with someone who’s so tapped into the core of the field of Chicano literature itself,” Alexander Salcido, fourth-year history of public policy and law and student of Garcia, said. 

As UCSB is a Hispanic Serving Institution, Muñoz reflected on how his work allows him to connect with students from the Central Valley on campus and all across California.

“It’s important to me anytime I connect with a student who knows the Central Valley and UCSB brings in people who know those little pueblitos [little towns]. They know what life is like, and they have their family histories too that they can compare. So it is important that it’s a very distinct student population and an important one for me. It’s always, anytime I come to a California school, it feels deeper to me,” Muñoz said.

Muñoz’s most recent work, “The Consequences,” was released in 2022; his next work will be a similar theme of short stories, but Muñoz expressed he is in “no rush” to publish. 

Garcia mentioned how if Leal were to still be with us today, he would be very supportive and would agree that it was something of importance. Garcia concluded by saying Leal’s image helped bring to light the achievements of not only the writers but the entire Chicanx community.

“Now we look back and we see so many more scholarly publications that relate to the Chicano American experience … that maybe [Leal] had something to do with that by first championing the concept of Chicano literature,” Garcia said.

A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the Feb. 13, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.