LAII Lecture Considers Banned Chicana Literature

December 2, 2013

The UNM Latin American & Iberian Institute (LAII) is pleased to announce the seventh and final presentation in its Fall 2013 Lecture Series: "Banned in Arizona: Dark Gifts, Taboos, Secrets and Transformations in Chicana Literature" with Dr. Tey Diana Rebolledo, Distinguished Professor Emerita with the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and faculty affiliate with the LAII. The presentation will be held Thursday, December 6, 2013, from 4:00-5:00 p.m. in the LAII Conference Room. An open reception will follow the lecture.

Rebolledo is the author/editor of many books, book chapters, and articles, including The Chronicles of Panchita Villa and Other Guerrilleras: Essays on Chicana/Latina Literature and Criticism, (University of Texas Press, 2005), Women's Tales from the New Mexico WPA: La diabla a pie (Arte Público Press, 2000), and Women Singing in the Snow: An Analysis of Chicana Literature (University of Arizona Press, 1995). She has been named a Distinguished Professor, a UNM Regents' Professor and a New Mexico Eminent Scholar. She has been the recipient of an NEH Fellowship, a Bogliasco Institute Fellowship, a Rockefeller Fellowship and a Danforth Fellowship. Her current research focuses on Chicana/o literature and contemporary Southwest Hispano/a literature and culture.

This lecture will discuss the issues of banned books, beginning with the banning of Chicano Studies books in Tucson, Arizona, several years ago. Among the books banned was Rebolledo's anthology, Infinite Divisions: An Anthology of Chicana Literature (co-edited by Eliana Rivero) (University of Arizona Press, 1995). Why ban Chicano books? What do these writers discuss that is so dangerous? The lecture will be accompanied by PowerPoint illustrations.