MALCS Archive

(MALCS) Women Active in Letters and Social Change

Cecilia Burciaga at Natl Hispanic Univ, San Jose

MALCS chair Adriana Ayala is immensely pleased to note that as of July 1, veteran Chicana educator Cecilia Burciaga has been at the helm of Academics as Interim Provost at the National Hispanic University. Cecilia comes to NHU with over twenty years experience in higher education at Stanford University and at California State University, Monterey Bay. Cecilia has more honors and awards than we can possibly list here, but here’s one gorgeous example of a tribute to Cecilia and her late husband Tony Burciaga–the mural below is at Casa Zapata, the Chicana/o & Latina/o theme residence at Stanford University, where the couple mentored students for over twenty years (the image of Cecilia & Tony is foregrounded against a copy of one of Tony’s most popular murals).

Burciaga tribute

Otra tenured chingona….Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs

Kudos to newly-tenured Associate Professor of Spanish Gabriella Gutierrez y Muhs at Seattle University, Washington. Gabriella is a gifted teacher, researcher, and poet from Watsonville in Santa Cruz County, California. Her current academic projects include Rebozos de Palabras: An Helena María Viramontes Reader and the forthcoming Chilean and Chicana Authors: Chicanas, Chilenas and Other Cultural Exiles (Lexington Books). Her works of poetry include The Plastic Book (CD Rom) and the poetry collection A Most Improbable Life (Finishing Line Press, 2003).

A recent interview with Sandra Cisneros

Q: Chicana is one of those words that not all Mexican Americans claim. Why do you?

A: It’s like the word “feminist.” You’re not born with it. You have to understand the political history of the word. Just because you have a uterus does not a feminist make you. The same thing with Chicano. My father feared the word. He used to associate it with World War II and zoot suits.

Chicano is being used for picking up the struggle for people on both sides of the border. It became a political term, the same way feminist did. You have to understand the history of the movement before you can claim the word. People can’t pick up a word just because it’s dumped on them.

Read the rest of the interview here at the Detroit Free Press.  (Alt link here)

Congratulations Rusty!

Way Rusty Barcelooverdue here is congratulations to veteran Malcsista Rusty Barcelo, newly appointed Vice President and Vice Provost for Equity and Diversity at the University of Minnesota. Her office oversees Disability Services, Equal Opportunity & Affirmative Action, the GLBT Programs Office, the Multicultural Center, and the Office for University Women.

After five years at the University of Washington, Rusty is returning to familiar territory. From 1996 to 2001, she served as Minnesota’s associate vice president for multicultural and academic affairs; two of those years, she also chaired the Chicano studies department on the Twin Cities campus. A grants program for collaborative multicultural projects was established in 2002 and named in her honor.

Here’s a link to more details.