The University of Houston’s US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces the digital publication of Predicting College Student Loan Repayment: The Texas Hinson-Hazlewood College, a dissertation submitted by Salvador Gómez for the Ph.D. degree at the University of Texas at Austin in 1978. The text analyzes the evolution of financial aid to college students in Texas and especially the relationship between student indebtedness, ethnicity and academic dropout. It also critically examines notions such as “ethnicity” and “delinquency” and the various social and administrative factors that condition this phenomenon. This is an ideal text for researchers in different areas (from administration to psychology to economics) who seek to address the phenomenon of university indebtedness or the causes of dropping out of school after high school. This digital text will soon be complimented by a digital exhibit of Salvador Gómez’s scrapbook and an oral history interview with his daughter, Rosanna Moreno. This …
Fitting In Is Hard to Do: Children’s Picture Book Wins Prize
HOUSTON, TX—The Poetry Center at Passaic County Community College in New Jersey has named Do I Belong Here? / ¿Es este mi lugar? (Piñata Books, 2023) the co-winner of the 2024 Paterson Prize for Books for Young People. Awarded to the most outstanding book for young people published in the previous year, the book tied for the prize in the Pre-K-Grade 3 category with Ted Kooser: More than a Local Wonder by Carla Ketner. It comes with a cash award. Immigrant, educator and acclaimed Salvadoran-American author René Colato Laínez artfully explores the experiences of immigrant children in his award-winning book. An immigrant boy stands “in the middle of a whirlwind of children,” and wonders where he is supposed to go. Finally, a woman speaks to him in a language he doesn’t understand and takes him to his classroom. A boy named Carlos helps orient him, but later when he reads …
Children’s Book Celebrating Mexican Folk Art Wins Prize
HOUSTON, TX—A bilingual picture book loosely based on the life of artist Pedro Linares, Pedro and the Monster Eaters / Pedro y los devoradores de monstruos by Xequina María Berbér (ISBN 978-1-55885-991-3, hardcover, $18.95), is the winner of the 2024 Salinas de Alba Award for Latino Children’s Literature. Forthcoming May 31, 2024, this strikingly illustrated story shares with young readers the fascinating origin of one of Mexico’s most well-known folk arts: the alebrije. According to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, just 351 of the 3,173 children’s books it received that were published in the United States in 2022 were written by Latinos; only 231 were about Latinos. Diversity statistics for 2023 are not yet available. The Salinas de Alba Award seeks 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 …
2024 USLDH-Mellon Grants-in-Aid Recipients
The US Latino Digital Humanities (USLDH) Grants-in-Aid program, funded by the Mellon Foundation, is designed to provide a stipend of up to $7,500 to scholars for research and development of digital scholarship in the form of a digital publication and/or a digital project. Congratulations to the 2024 Grants-in-Aid Recipients: Marina del Sol, PhD (Howard University), Chicanx Arts Activism among Prison Poets and Writ Writers in Texas from 1848-1979 Diana Flores Ruíz, PhD (University of Washington, Seattle), Recovering Latinx Resistance Aldo Lauria Santiago, PhD (Rutgers University, New Brunswick) and Ismael García Colón, PhD (City University of New York, College of Staten Island and Graduate Center), Documenting the Narratives of Puerto Rican Migration, 1940-1980 Sarah McNamara (Texas A&M University), Nuestra Historia: A Public Art and Public History Project in Ybor City, Florida Anna Nogar (University of New Mexico), Aurora Lucero-White Lea (1893-1963), 20th-Century Pan- Americanism, and Indo-Hispano Folklore Annemarie Perez (California State …
Chicana Author to Share Testimony During Book Reading
HOUSTON, TX—Acclaimed LGBTQ+ author Emma Pérez will read from her new book, Testimony of a Shifter, at Brazos Bookstore (2421 Bissonnet St, Houston, TX 77005) at 6:30 pm Friday, April 26, 2024. This fascinating speculative narrative delving into gender transmutation and discrimination has been lauded by Booklist as the “queer, feminist dystopian novel readers [fans of Ursula K. Le Guin and Margaret Atwood] have been searching for.” Imprisoned by the totalitarian government, Dr. Benito Espinoza practices for his weekly interrogations by recounting his story to his thirteen-year-old daughter. He tells her about turning his back on his ability to shift his gender from male to female—to Alejandra—to become a scholar in the Grand Library. Most academics are Residents who inherited their seats and believe Descendants like Ben don’t have the intellectual ability to be a person of letters. Ben conforms to the laws against transmuting, so he manages to secure …
2024 USLDH Summer Internship Opportunities
The US Latino Digital Humanities Center (USLDH) announces two summer internship opportunities for University of Houston undergraduate students. These internships will expose students to archival research, best practices, digital scholarship and tools, US Latino DH methodology and research approaches. These skills will help interns to pursue academic careers and introduce them to a network of scholars, practitioners and community members. Students will be able to receive both professional and intellectual formation during the course of the program. The internship sessions offer different opportunities and take place during different times of the summer (please see below for details). No prior experience in digital humanities required. Near-native Spanish reading and writing knowledge is preferred. Applicants must be current University of Houston undergraduates (Main campus). Internships take place at the Arte Público Press offices at the University of Houston’s Technology Bridge Annex, Building 19. Arte Público Press is open Monday-Friday, 8:00 am – …
Bank Street College of Education Honors Three Piñata Books as Best of 2024 in Spanish
HOUSTON, TX—The Bank Street College of Education Children’s Book Committee named three new Piñata Books to its Best Children’s Books of the Year in Spanish list for 2024: Mariano’s First Glove / El primer guante de Mariano by Robert Casilla, Do I Belong Here? / ¿Es este mi lugar? by René Colato Laínez and Tierra, Tierrita / Earth, Little Earth by Jorge Argueta. Additionally, Colato Laínez’s and Argueta’s books were both starred as exceptional for cultural authenticity, engaging style and appealing illustrations, among other characteristics. In Mariano’s First Glove / El primer guante de Mariano, Robert Casilla shares the life story of New York Yankees relief pitcher and closer Mariano Rivera, from his childhood in a small fishing village in Panama to the Baseball Hall of Fame. A School Library Journal review said, “The realistic illustrations depict not only his life but the many hours he spent practicing; the bilingual …
Arte Público Executive Editor Promoted to Deputy Director
HOUSTON, TX—With an eye to the future, Arte Público Press has promoted Executive Editor Dr. Gabriela Baeza Ventura to deputy director in what Director Nicolás Kanellos called “a long-overdue recognition of her dedication and commitment to the work of Hispanic writers.” Baeza Ventura began working for the press as a research assistant while studying for her doctorate in Spanish at the University of Houston, which she completed in 2001. Now an associate professor of US Latino literature, she became the full-time managing editor in 1999 and executive editor in 2000. “This is such an honor,” Baeza Ventura said of her promotion. “Having worked closely with Dr. Kanellos for many years, I look forward to continuing Arte Público’s mission to promote Latino literature and expand community outreach through our various publications and programming.” In addition to overseeing the editing of Arte Público’s publications, Baeza Ventura has translated over 50 picture books …
A Rare Gem in the City: Publisher Named Houston Cultural Treasure
HOUSTON, TX—Arte Público Press, the nation’s oldest and largest publisher of US Hispanic literature, has been named one of eleven Houston Cultural Treasures by the BIPOC Arts Network & Fund (BANF). The acknowledgement of the press’ importance comes with $500,000 in general operating support over a two-year period and additional funds for technical support. Dr. Nicolás Kanellos, the founder and director of Arte Público Press, said, “We are tremendously honored by this recognition. Arte Público has suffered from being one of Houston’s best-kept secrets, and we feel certain this opportunity will empower us to continue our efforts to help the community, its art and culture.” The Houston Cultural Treasures initiative invests in the arts organizations that have anchored Houston’s communities of color and shaped the city’s dynamic and diverse culture, benefiting current arts groups. It is part of a larger national project sponsored by the Ford Foundation to honor the …
2023-24 Graduate Research Fellows
University of Houston Graduate Research Fellows at Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage (Recovery) work closely with archival texts, such as periodicals, manuscripts, photographs, albums, correspondence, books, ephemera and other documents. In doing so, they gain valuable experience with archival collections and asset management. The US Latino Digital Humanities Program (USLDH) at Recovery provides training in digital tools and students contribute to digital humanities data and projects. They have the opportunity to learn the following skills: Scanning of archival items Microfilm scanning Handling and preserving archival texts Inventory of primary documents Organizing collections Creating finding aids Curating exhibits Database research Primary document research Asset management Data management (with spreadsheets) Metadata creation Metadata translation Familiarity with Library of Congress Subject Headings E-book editing and translation (APP Digital) Digital archives (Omeka) Digital tools (mapping, timelines, digital collections, OpenRefine) Archival theory Digital humanities theory Academic conference presentations Academic conference posters Planning an academic …