Gaspar de Alba, Alicia 1958–

(Alicia Gaspar De Alba)

PERSONAL: Born July 29, 1958, in El Paso, TX. Education: University of Texas at El Paso, B.A. (magna cum laude), 1980, M.A., 1983; doctoral study at University of Iowa, 1985–86; University of New Mexico, Ph.D. (with distinction), 1994.

ADDRESSES: Office—César Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana and Chicano Studies, Box 951559, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1559. E-mail—agdealba@ucla.edu.

CAREER: Instituto Interlingua, Juarez, Mexico, teacher of English as a second language to automotive executives, 1979; University of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, lecturer in English and linguistics, c. 1981, 1986; National Braille Press, Boston, MA, computer Braille transcriber, 1987; University of California, Los Angeles, assistant professor, 1994–99, associate professor at César Chávez Center for Interdisciplinary Instruction in Chicana and Chicano Studies, 1999–, associate director of Chicano Studies Research Center, 2002–04, and member of editorial board, Chicana/ Latina Research Center. Pomona College, minority scholar in residence, 1994–95; University of Texas at El Paso, Roderick Professor of English, 1999; guest lecturer at other institutions in the United States and elsewhere, including Royal Holloway College, London, Universidad del País Vasco, University of California, Irvine, Smithsonian Institution, and University of New Mexico; gives readings from her works; conference participant and organizer; judge of fiction competitions.

AWARDS, HONORS: Poetry fellow, Massachusetts Artists Foundation, 1989; Premio Aztlán Award, 1994, for The Mystery of Survival and Other Stories; BorderFord/Pellicer-Frost Award in Poetry, c. 1998; Rockefeller Foundation fellow, 1998–99; first-place award in historical novel category, Latino Literary Hall of Fame Book Awards, c. 2000.

WRITINGS:

(With María Herrera-Sobek and Demetria Martínez) Three Times a Woman: Chicana Poetry (includes Beggar on the Córdoba Bridge), Bilingual Press (Tempe, AZ), 1989.

The Mystery of Survival and Other Stories, Bilingual Press (Tempe, AZ), 1993.

Chicano Art inside/outside the Master's House: Cultural Politics and the CARA Exhibit, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1998.

Sor Juana's Second Dream (novel), University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque, NM), 1999.

(Editor and contributor) Velvet Barrios: Popular Culture and Chicana/o Sexualities, Palgrave Macmillan (New York, NY), 2003.

La Llorona on the Longfellow Bridge: Poetry y otros movidas, 1985–2001, Arte Público Press (Houston, TX), 2003.

Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders, Arte Público Press (Houston, TX), 2005.

Contributor to books, including Culture and Difference: Critical Perspectives on the Bicultural Experience, edited by Antonia Darder, Bergin & Garvey, 1995; Latina: Women's Voices from the Borderlands, edited by Lillian Castillo-Speed, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995; Claiming the Spirit Within: A Sourcebook of Women's Poetry, edited by Marilyn Sewell, Beacon Press (Boston, MA), 1996; Living Chicana Theory, edited by Carla Trujillo, Third Woman Press (Berkeley, CA), 1998; and Feminism, Nation, and Myth: La malinche, edited by Rolando Romero, Arte Público Press (Houston, TX), 2005. Contributor of articles, poetry, short stories, and reviews to periodicals, including Colorado Review, Massachusetts Review, Centennial Review, American Quarterly, Latino Studies, and Bilingual Review. Coeditor, Aztlán: Journal of Chicano Studies, 2002–04.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Studies International, February, 1999, D. Rae Greiner, "Living Chicana Theory," p. 110.

Aztlán: Journal of Chicano Studies, fall, 2001, Paul Allaston, review of Sor Juana's Second Dream, pp. 231-237.

Belles Lettres: Review of Books by Women, summer, 1994, review of The Mystery of Survival and Other Stories, p. 56.

Booklist, February 15, 2005, Jenny McLarin, review of Desert Blood: The Juárez Murders, p. 1064.

Hispanic, October, 1999, Mary Helen Ponce and Katharine A. Diaz, review of Sor Juana's Second Dream, p. 96.

Library Journal, June 15, 1993, Harold Augenbraum, review of The Mystery of Survival and Other Stories, p. 99; August, 1999, Mary Margaret Benson, review of Sor Juana's Second Dream, p. 138; March 1, 2005, Rex E. Klett, review of Desert Blood, p. 70.

Publishers Weekly, June 14, 1993, review of The Mystery of Survival and Other Stories, p. 64; July 26, 1999, review of Sor Juana's Second Dream, p. 63.

ONLINE

University of California, Los Angeles Web site: Alicia Gaspar de Alba Home Page, http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/chavez/gaspar (January 25, 2006).