Miriam Damaris Maldonado joins Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage/Arte Público Press at the University of Houston as Program Manager for “El proyecto de la literatura puertorriqueña/The Puerto Rican Literature Project” (PLPR). Damaris Maldonado brings to the project years of experience as an award-winning poet and community organizer. She is an active promoter of cultural events in Houston and founder/member of the Houston-based Colectivo Colibrí, a feminist community organization. She participates and coordinates literary festivals and performs outreach as a social worker and as a member of the Colectivo de Grupos Puertorriqueños. Damaris Maldonado has a background in Human Behavior, Gender and Diversity and is currently studying Creative Writing at the Universidad de Sagrado Corazón in Puerto Rico. Her recent publication is Enraizada (Valparaíso Ediciones). The Mellon Foundation awarded the University of Houston (UH) a grant to establish PLPR, a free, public-facing open-access digital portal for Puerto Rican literature. PLPR …
National Museum of the American Latino to Feature Documents from University of Houston Program
HOUSTON, TX—The Molina Family Latino Gallery, the first physical presence of the National Museum of the American Latino, will open at the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. on June 18, 2022. Established by Congress in December 2020, the new National Museum of the American Latino will feature documents and artifacts from the University of Houston’s Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage project (Recovery), directed by Dr. Nicolás Kanellos, the Brown Foundation Professor of Hispanic Studies and founder/director of Arte Público Press. Dr. Kanellos was a consultant for the gallery, which will exhibit periodicals, photos, documents and books related to his research on the history of Latino printing presses and newspapers, dating back to the late eighteenth century in areas that became part of the United States. Other items on loan from the Recovery Project include documents from the 1929 founding of the League of United Latin American Citizens …
USLDH lanza conjunto de datos sobre mujeres
HOUSTON, TX- El Centro de Humanidades Digitales Latinas de los Estados Unidos (USLDH, por sus siglas en inglés) de la Universidad de Houston anuncia el lanzamiento de un vasto Conjunto de datos sobre autoras que publicaron en revistas y periódicos latinos de los Estados Unidos. Desde 1996, académicos y estudiantes de posgrado del programa Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage (Programa de recuperación del legado escrito hispano de de los Estados Unidos), también conocido como Recovery, han trabajado en la indizacación de periódicos a nivel de artículo para producir metadatos en inglés y español que faciliten a los investigadores la ardua labor de encontrar estos materiales. El resultado se refleja en varios conjuntos de datos que hablan de la diversidad de la vida cultural, política e intelectual de las comunidades atinas en los Estados Unidos. De las 288 publicaciones periódicas indizadas, este extenso conjunto de datos muestra la actividad de …
USLDH Releases Dataset on Women Writers
HOUSTON, TX–The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces the release of a comprehensive dataset on over 900 women authors. This dataset documents articles published by women in Hispanic periodicals. Since 1996 Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage (Recovery) scholars and graduate students have worked on indexing newspapers at an article level to produce metadata in English and Spanish to facilitate discoverability for researchers. The output is reflected in several datasets that speak of the diversity of the cultural, political and intellectual life of the Hispanic/Latina/Latino/Latinx community in the United States. This dataset, created from 288 indexed periodicals, demonstrates the activity of Hispanic women writers, including poetry, short stories, essays, serialized fiction, literary notices, speeches, travel writing, interviews and more. Among the writers included are feminists Clotilde Betances and Hortensia Elizondo, activists like Jovita Idar, anarchists such as Blanca de Moncaleano, and poets such as Elvira Yañez de …
Debut Collection Spotlighting Hispanic and Indigenous Peoples in the Southwest Wins Award
HOUSTON, TX—Oscar Mancinas’s evocative collection, To Live and Die in El Valle, has been awarded the 2021 Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association. The thirteen thought-provoking stories highlight the struggles of Hispanic and indigenous people in Arizona whose lives are impacted by migration, systemic racism and settler colonialism. The Border Regional Library Association (BRLA) was founded in 1966 to promote library service and librarianship in the El Paso/Las Cruces/Ciudad Juárez metroplex. More than 100 library professionals from Trans-Pecos Texas, Southern New Mexico and Northern Chihuahua are members of the organization. The group created the Southwest Book Award in 1971 to recognize books about the region. Vividly depicting working-class communities, Oscar Mancinas creates characters whose lives are shaped by circumstances beyond their control, including migration and discrimination. His characters frequently struggle with a sense of belonging, and their stories eloquently illuminate Hispanic and indigenous experiences in the Southwest. …
Celebrating Women’s History Month
Amplify Your Library with Women Centric Writings Chola Salvation by Estella Gonzalez In the title story of this collection, Isabela is minding her family’s restaurant, drinking her dad’s beer, when Frida Kahlo and the Virgen de Guadalupe walk in. Even though they’re dressed like cholas, the girl immediately recognizes Frida’s uni-brow and La Virgen’s crown. They want to give her advice about the quinceañera her parents are forcing on her. In fact, their lecture (don’t get pregnant, go to school, be proud of your indigenous roots) helps Isabela to escape her parents’ physical and sexual abuse. But can she really run away from the self-hatred they’ve created? These inter-related stories, mostly set in East Los Angeles, uncover the lives of a conflicted Mexican-American community. In “Sábado Gigante,” Bernardo drinks himself into a stupor every Saturday night. “Aquí no es mi tierra,” he cries, as he tries to ease the sorrow of a …
USLDH lanza conjunto de datos editoriales
HOUSTON, TX- El Centro de Humanidades Digitales Latinas en los Estados Unidos (USLDH, por sus siglas en inglés) de la Universidad de Houston anuncia el lanzamiento de un vasto Conjunto de datos editoriales originalmente publicados en revistas y periódicos hispanos de la historia de los Estados Unidos. Desde 1996, los académicos y estudiantes de posgrado del programa Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage (Recuperando la herencia literaria hispana de los Estados Unidos), también conocido como Recovery, han trabajado en la indexación de periódicos a nivel de artículo para producir metadatos en inglés y español que faciliten a los investigadores la ardua labor de encontrar estos materiales. El resultado se refleja en varios conjuntos de datos que hablan de la diversidad de la vida cultural, política e intelectual de las comunidades hispanas y latinas en los Estados Unidos. De las 288 publicaciones periódicas indexadas, este extenso conjunto de datos incluye editoriales …
USLDH Releases Dataset on Editorials
HOUSTON, TX–The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH) Center announces the release of a comprehensive dataset on Editorials published in Hispanic periodicals. Since 1996 Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage (Recovery) scholars and graduate students have worked on indexing newspapers at an article level to produce metadata in English and Spanish to facilitate discoverability for researchers. The output is reflected in several datasets that speak of the diversity of the cultural, political and intellectual life of the Hispanic/Latina/Latino/Latinx community in the United States. Out of 288 indexed periodicals, this rich dataset includes editorials and letters to the editor. This dataset demonstrates the breadth of topics represented in Spanish-language periodicals published in the United States between 1808 and 1960; some of the topics include politics, women’s rights, intellectual life and social conditions, among others. The dataset is hosted on the Cougar ROAR’s (Research Open Access Repositories) Dataverse Repository, a …
Children’s Book Awards Support Latino Kids and Authors
HOUSTON, TX—Generations of Hispanic children in US schools had to do without books reflecting their culture and heritage. In 2019, according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, only 225 of the 4,029 children’s books published were written by Latinos; only 235 were about Latinos. To fill that gap, Arte Público Press is accepting children’s book manuscripts to be considered for two awards: the Salinas de Alba Award for Latino Children’s Literature and The Reyes-Olivas Award for Best First Book of Latino Children’s and Young Adult Literature. Both seek to stimulate the work begun by Arte Público Press and its imprint, Piñata Books, which is dedicated to the publication of children’s and young adult literature that authentically and realistically portrays themes, characters and customs unique to US Hispanic culture. In addition to the publication of the book and royalties from sales, the winning authors will receive a $5,000 prize. Submissions for …
New Children’s Book Award Created to Support First-Time Latino Authors
HOUSTON, TX—Long-time Arte Público Press supporters Dr. Augustina “Tina” Reyes and Dr. Michael Olivas, both retired University of Houston professors, have donated the funding to create an endowment in support of a new book award to inspire first-time Latino authors of books for children or teens. Dr. Olivas chaired the press’ advisory board for a decade and published two scholarly books with Arte Público, and Dr. Reyes has worked to introduce immigrant and migrant children to Arte Público’s books. “We feel our love and dedication to UH are aligned with the goals of the Press, and we hope our gift will not only recognize budding authors but will provide longstanding financial support.” The couple donated $80,000 to create an endowment to support the award, and they intend to raise an additional $45,000 to ensure a $5,000 prize can be given annually to debut authors using endowment interest. “We call upon …
