Jesus Luna, a  former Fresno State history professor and pioneer of the Chicano and Latino American Studies program, died this month of cancer at age 70.

Mr. Luna, born in 1944, grew up in Edinburg, Texas, in a family of agriculture workers. The seventh of 11 children, he was the first in his family to graduate from high school and attend college. He received a doctorate degree in history from North Texas State University in 1973, where he was a Woodrow Wilson Scholar specializing in Latin American history.

Yolanda Luna said her husband had a huge influence on his family. All his younger siblings followed his example and attended college, she said. 

Mr. Luna started working at Fresno State in 1976, joining the La Raza Studies Program before it was renamed. 

“He always used to say that he loved teaching so much that if they didn’t pay him he would still teach,” Yolanda Luna said....