Richard Griswold del Castillo was born and raised in Santa Ana California; his father was born in Minneapolis Minnesota and his mother was born in Mexico City, Mexico. He graduated from Santa Ana High school in 1960, went on study at UC Berkeley and the University of Dijon, France before receiving his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from UCLA . In 1992 he was a Fulbright Scholar in Mexico City, he was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley in 1994, and he became Professor Emeritus at San Diego State University in 2005.