By Christian Park-Gastelum, Nov. 5th, 2024
Cal Poly Pomona’s History Department introduced Francisco Beltrán as its newest assistant professor in the fall 2024 semester.
Beltrán is among 7% of Latinos in the United States who hold a graduate degree, according to the most recent Pew Research Center report. Only a tenth of Latinos with the graduate degree hold a doctoral degree, according to the same report.
Beltrán teaches classes in U.S. history and ethnic and women studies that include Chicano and Latino history, offering his shared experience of the culture to his students.
“It’s great to be here,” said Beltrán. “This is it for me, I have made it, and this is usually the dream that a lot of students have, a lot of grad students, specifically those who are first-generation graduates.”
As a first-generation college student, he earned his associate degree from San Diego City College, then attended University of California, San Diego for his baccalaureate, following with his master’s and doctorate from UC Santa Barbara.
Beltrán is a representative of a large demographic that first-generation Latino students at CPP. Many students, like Rery Rodriguez, a physics student, are excited to welcome a Latino professor and mentor.
“He’s going to be able to connect with students that are within that diverse area,” Rodriguez said. “Students would feel more comfortable and have more connection with the professor since they have more areas where they relate to him.”
After graduate school, Beltrán dedicated his time to research, taking part in multiple research projects that explore Mexican American history through U.S. history events.
He co-authored “Almost All Aliens: Immigration, Race, and Colonialism in American History and Identity,” and is currently working on two books, “American Immigration: Facts and Fictions (co-author),” and “Voices of the People: The Mexican American Community Press of San Diego.”
“They say that history doesn’t repeat, but it tends to rhyme, and to my teaching activities, I help students find those instances of referring to make history much more relevant, specifically to the first-generation students who perhaps haven’t had an opportunity to learn about their own community’s history in school,” said Beltrán.
Beltrán was also a visiting assistant professor at San Francisco State University and Reed College, worked remotely at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor as a postdoctoral research fellow, and became an assistant professor at Oklahoma State University before taking the same position at CPP.
Beltrán spent half a decade away from Southern California, experiencing different sociocultural approaches in other states and regions.
At CPP he relates to the students that have similar backgrounds as him, according to Beltrán.
“A lot of first-generation students that I want to work with that inspired me when I was a student myself, and as a way of giving back to them. This (CPP) is a place where one could say, this is the university I envision myself working at once I got my PhD,” said Beltrán.
Beltrán’s journey as the newest assistant professor began early, from his passion and desire to search for answers through history.
His parents immigrated from Mexico to San Diego, where Beltrán spent his childhood watching telenovelas, soap operas in Spanish, about history, inciting the curiosity of his community’s past.
Beltrán had always been interested in history during his K-12 education, mainly learning about U.S. and European history. However, he still had questions about the past of Mexican Americans in the U.S.
Through elementary school, Beltrán walked through Chicano Park, founded in the ‘70s by Mexican American activists Mario Solis and Salvador Torres in San Diego, instilling more curiosity about the past lives depicted on murals surrounding the park.
After not receiving the answers he was looking for from early education, Beltrán took his first Chicano studies class at SDCC, which pointed him in the direction of some clarity.
“Now, if we are a multicultural nation, then we should also be learning history through a multicultural lens,” Beltrán said. “So really, that’s what inspired me to pursue history degree, where I could learn a little bit more about all these different histories of the United States but also learn about my own community’s history.”
Beltrán’s findings of Chicano and Latino history through time in U.S. history motivated him to educate those looking for the same answers to questions he had as a boy when watching telenovelas.
He also noted history is essential in understanding why communities are constructed as they are now despite the distant occurrence time.
For students to understand their situation, it is crucial to understand their past and CPP’s learn by doing mantra aligns with his teaching philosophy, allowing him to incorporate interactions with the student’s family history, he said.
“I love teaching because there’s something special in introducing students to something new and seeing just how they respond,” said Beltrán. “It’s almost like a sixth sense that that instructors have where you can see the wheels in there and begin to turn and make the connections.”
Beltrán has felt a rewarding aspect when it came to teaching his students by seeing their expressions when it comes to a subject that has not been taught to them before.
Beltrán’s teaching outlook is getting his students to piece together history and the current day. He presents oral projects to invite students to bring their family and community stories into the classroom, turning the environment into a multidirectional space.
According to Beltrán, he uses his personal experience through higher education as a guide for all his students, especially the first-generation college students searching for answers about their diverse past as he did.
For Oscan Cojulun, a marketing management student, he sees the importance of being the first to graduate as a first-generation college student. He takes inspiration from professors, like Beltrán, that have the same shared experience as him.
“It’s not just a personal achievement,” said Cojulun. “It’s a family generational achievement, so it’s great to see someone like me and countless others first-gen hopefuls here. It’s great to have a professor like that on campus.”
Feature image courtesy of Francisco Beltrán