His father immigrated from Sinaloa, Mexico, and his parents, Juanita Rodriguez-Ramirez and Refugio Rochin-Diazsalcedo, owned wholesale food companies and restaurants in Coachella, California, and Carlsbad.
He received an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters[4] from Northeastern University in 2000 for his work as founding director of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives.
As a graduate student, Rochin worked for the Ford Foundation, where he was a member[5] of the Green Revolution team of Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Berkeley); professor, program director, and chair, Chicana/o Studies; associate dean for outreach, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources; and council member of the Academic Senate.
As professor emeritus, Rochin's focus has been to build recognition of the participation and accomplishments of Chicanas/os in the development and the social institutions of the United States.
From 1994 to 1998, Rochin was director of the Julian Samora Research Institute[6] and professor of sociology and agricultural economics at Michigan State University, where he was principal investigator and administrator[7] for the Midwest Consortium for Latino Research.
In 1998 Rochin became founding director[8] of the Smithsonian Center for Latino Initiatives, where he oversaw exhibitions, programs, collections, and studies.
[9] He is a recipient of the Academic Achievement Award[10] from the American Society of Hispanic Economists (ASHE).
"A Micro-Economic Analysis of Smallholder Response to High-Yielding Varieties of Wheat in West Pakistan."
"Preassessing Social Returns to Farm Mechanization Research: A Suggested Method and Cases."
Chapter 5 in Rural Development Issues of the Nineties: Perspectives from the Social Sciences, edited by T.T.
"Immigration, Colonia Formation, and Latino Poor in Rural California: Evolving 'Immiseration.
[13]'" Research Report, Tomas Rivera Center, Claremont, California, 68 pp.
"The Performance of Latinos in Rural Public Schools: A Comparative Analysis of Test Scores in Grades 3, 6, and 12.
"Latino Colonization and White Emigration: Ethnic Transformation in Agricultural Communities of California.
“Latinos in Science: Trends and Opportunities,” Journal of Hispanic Higher Education: Vol.
Edited by David J. Spielman, Sohail J. Malik, Paul Dorosh, and Nuzhat Ahmad.
In American Journal of Agricultural Economics: Volume 100, Issue 5, October 2018, pp.