SOU English Professor to Highlight the Chicano Movement’s Literary and Artistic Legacy

(Ashland, Ore.) – Dr. Alma Rosa Alvarez, Southern Oregon University Professor of English and Writing, will present “40 years later, is the Chicana/o Arts Movement Dead?” Tuesday, October 23 at 4:00 p.m. in the Meese Room of the Hannon Library on the SOU campus. A reception follows immediately. The talk is free and open to the public.
The Chicana/o Literary Arts Movement was a powerful cultural force in the 1970s. Dr. Alvarez will take us on a journey through the complex history of the movement to its impact on today’s global society.
Included will be a highlight of the elements that have traditionally been included in Chicano literature, elements that have served to create a narrow perspective of what it means to be Chicano. Dr. Alvarez will demonstrate that while many Chicana/o literature professors champion the teaching of a literature inclusive of a variety of Chicana/o experiences, the themes, the elements articulated during the Movement have as much currency today as they did forty years ago.
“I believe this currency accounts for a ‘pause’ in the evolution of the Chicana/o Literary Movement which creates a paradox in light of Latino Literature being the fastest growing field of literary studies in the United States,” says Dr. Alvarez.
Professor Alvarez has taught English and writing at Southern Oregon University since 1996. She also helps advise Southern Oregon University’s Latino Student Union and Newman Center Club and is a McNair Scholar mentor. Dr. Alvarez has spent summers teaching writing to young Native American students through SOU’s Konaway Nika Tillicum camp. She has participated in workshops and delivered keynotes at Rogue Community College’s Club Latino.

Dr. Alvarez holds a bachelor’s degree in English and Mexican American Studies from California State University, Dominguez Hills, a master’s in English from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and a Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of California at Santa Barbara.
The Insights Distinguished Lecture Series was created by SOU President Mary Cullinan “to showcase the excellent work of our faculty and to share the high caliber of SOU teaching and research with audiences from on and off campus.”
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