G. Aron Ramirez

Assistant Professor

Fields

• Twentieth-century United States
• Latines in the United States
• Urban History
• Inequality

Education

• Yale University, Ph.D (History)
• Stanford University, B.A. (History)

Research and Teaching Interests

I write and teach about the modern United States. My primary specialty is Latine history. My book project, The Death of the American Dream, en Español: The Problem of Latine Homeownership in the Late Twentieth Century (in progress), traces the patterns of homeownership attainable by the nation's Spanish-speaking minority after the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. My book argues that Latines, who were only enumerated by the Census for the first time in 1970, provide an excellent case study to see how the federal government managed its commitment to antidiscrimination and equal opportunity with its newfound aversion to direct subsidies of the housing market. The book is based on my dissertation, which won the Edwin W. Small Prize from the Yale Department of History and the Theron Rockwell Field Prize from the Yale Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. I have also published articles about the formation of a Mexican American middle class in Downey, California (my hometown), and the tension between use-value and exchange-value in the history of Black homeownership.

I teach courses in modern US history, Latine history, and urban history. At every level, I emphasize the acquisition of skills which will help students refine their abilities as readers, writers, and thinkers at Cal Poly and beyond.

Articles

• "Use-Value, Exchange-Value, and the Empty Promise of Black Homeownership, '' Modern American History 7, no. 2 (July 2024) 
• "Business as Usual: Ethnic Commerce and the Making of a Mexican American Middle Class in Southeast Los Angeles, 1981-1995,'' Journal of Urban History 50, no. 5 (Sep. 2024)

Courses

• HIST 202: The United States since 1865