Contact: Dennis Evans, Associate Dean of the College of Humanities, University of Arizona (520-621-3701), [email protected]; or Paula Randall, Assistant Director of College of Humanities External Affairs (520-621-5372); [email protected]
Noted Latina professor, Eliana Rivero, says there is wide interest in Latin American and U.S. Latino/a cultures and literatures at colleges and universities across the country. The University of Arizona Professor of Spanish and native of Cuba bases her conclusions on a Phi Beta Kappa tour she made of eight campuses in 2000-2001. The academic honor society chose Rivero for its Visiting Scholar Program in recognition of her work in the area.
Rivero spoke to hundreds of Latino and non-Latino students and faculty at such diverse institutions as Carnegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA; St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and the prestigious women's school Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. Two hundred of the 900 students at Illinois College in western central Illinois turned out for her lecture. Illinois College is located in a predominantly Anglo, rural area. "They were very interested in what I had to say, and had so many questions," notes Rivero.
Rivero visited institutions in seven states, sharing her scholarly and creative work on theoretical and autobiographical approaches to Latina identity and consciousness, and Latin American representation of women's images in literature and popular culture. She found the greatest response to topics which contained material about her experiences as an immigrant, a woman, and a Cuban American living in the Southwest. "They could read my articles, they could read my books, but they wanted to hear what the person was like. They wanted to hear my experiences growing up, going to school in this country, how my life as a scholar and a professor had developed," says Rivero.
Her topics included "Nun on the Web: Latin American Popular Cultures and Their Icons"; "Dreaming, Hollering, and Dancing: U.S. Latina Writers; and Border Islander: American(o) Living/Writing at the Margins." "Nun on the Web" is a lecture on the construction of two cultural icons in Mexico and Latin America: the Surrealist painter Frida Kahlo and the 17th century nun poet Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz. "Border Islander" is an autobiographical and theoretical lecture on immigration, survival, and transculturation of U.S. Latino populations: how Latinos and Latinas get assimilated--or not--into the mainstream, what compels them to maintain ethnic differences and to affirm their own diversity.
Young Latinos who had themselves immigrated or were first, second or third generation U.S. born were eager to talk to her about their experiences growing up "different." "They not only came to lunches and asked me questions at receptions, some of them called my hotel room, wanted to talk to me, and called me from their homes," says Rivero. "They were eager to see people like them who are scholars, professors and writers. I was the Latino professor--they had rarely had one before, especially the Latino students." Students from all Latin ethnicities, Chicano, Puerto Rican, Cuban American, and South American flocked to her lectures.
Students and faculty extended their contact with Rivero after her visit. In October 2001, Latina students at Mt. Holyoke College called her to request an essay or poem on the aftermath of Sepember 11th for a Latina magazine they were putting out. They said, 'Please send us whatever you can. It's very important for us to hear your words,'" she reports. Rivero sent them an essay on fear and the impact the terrorist attacks have had on people of color.
Faculty members in humanities and the social sciences also maintained contact with Rivero, sharing their research and asking for copies of the talks she gave on their campuses. As work of her tour spread, additional colleges have requested visits. She also lectured on a Latina theme, taught classes, and met with faculty at Colgate University in upstate New York in September.
The interest reflects significant change from what Rivero has seen and experienced during her 33 years in academia. "Twenty years ago Latino writers and teachers were marginal to the main academic fields," she writes in "Of Borders and Self: A Latina Writer on the Margins." "We were people dreaming, hollering, and dancing at the borders of academia and society at large, insisting on our right to be let in, but most of all, on using our voices to tell our own stories."
Rivero has written extensively on borders, marginality, and hybridity. These are concepts that she notes "figure predominantly in postcolonial discussions of marginal identities." She sees "the concern for revisioning and redefining our spaces of being--whether they be geographical or spiritual, public or private"--as "an explicit endeavor of the times."
Rivero has authored or co-edited five scholarly books, most recently Telling to Live: Latina Feminist Testimonios (Duke University Press, 2001) and Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature. She is one of eighteen Latina/Latin American scholars, the Latina Feminist Group, who collaborated on Telling To Live. It contains autobiographical essays, testimonials, poems, stories, and other pieces. Rivero has also published two books of poetry in Spanish, De cal y arena and Cuerpos breves.
Phi Beta Kappa's Visiting Scholar program sends twelve well-known scholars each year to colleges and universities located outside of major metropolitan centers or that lack access to resources for similar programs. Scholars make two-day visits that include one public lecture and class, and seminar meetings arranged by department members in the scholar's field of interest.
Rivero, who received her Ph.D. from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Florida, is the second Latina professor to be appointed a Phi Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar honor in the program's 44-year history.
Photos are available upon request. These include a photo of Rivero with Freida Kahlo paraphernalia from her lecture/talk on Latin American popular cultures and their icons.
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