Data Bases • Custom Term Papers • Free Term Papers • Free Research Papers • Free Essays • Free Book Reports • Plagiarism? Links • Top 100 Term Paper Sites • Top 25 Essay Sites • Top 50 Essay Sites • Search 97,000 Papers @ DirectEssays.com • Search 101,000 Papers @ ExampleEssays.com • Search 90,000 Papers @ MegaEssays.com Free Essays • Term Paper Sites • Chuck III's Free Essays • Free College Essays • TermPaperSites.com • My Term Papers • Get Free Essays • Essay World • Planet Papers	Search Lots of Essays Back to Subjects - Speech na na The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda . “Vastly entertaining, slyly heretical, and probably the most important book of stories since Joyce’s DUBLINERS.” Department: Foreign Languages, ESL and Background: I was asked to portrait myself in this presentation in the way I like to be seen. I like to be seen the way I am or at least the way I believe I am. In this fragile and beloved city of New York full of immigrants, I have been one more for the last thirty four years but every day at some moment I return to Cuba, where I lived until I was twenty eight years old. And when my mind is in the island , while I walk on Second street, I often remember the first time I thought that teaching was an important thing to do. I was seven years old when the superintendent of the tenement house where I lived in Old Havana, a Galician refugee from the Spanish Civil War, died of tuberculosis and my mother cried as if the man would had been her relative. She told me that night, while holding my hand and walking to the super’s wake, that what she lamented the most from that death, even more than the fact that he was only forty five years old and left two children and a wife, was that he never learned how to read and write. My mother’s life would have been unbearable without the novels she read avidly, often stealing time from cooking for the family or doing the laundry. Reading was the most effective palliative to alleviate her perpetual sadness. I was so shocked to find out that grown ups could be illiterates that the discovery accompanied me for days as an obsession. To me, up to that moment, learning to read and write was a biological process, like walking or speaking. Then, I said to myself, everybody needs a person to teach her or him. Mine had been my grandmother, “the only sane person in my family…the only one I didn’t worry about, who combed my hair the way I asked her to, parted carefully in the middle, with four braids instead of two. The one who taught me to read when my parents didn’t send me to school, who taught me to embroider little handkerchiefs and braid hair, plant flowers and tell the night-jessamines from the impatiens.” © I didn’t know it at that time, but I am sure that during that walk to the funeral home my vocation as a teacher was born. My mother’s peculiar upbringing method was far from perfect. However, it provided me with the necessary persistence to complete my education against all odds. The secret of her pedagogical methodology consisted in giving me, on one side, her model: to love knowledge and literature above all, and on the other side not sending me to school when it was raining or when she failed to hear the alarm in the morning. She never “broke my will,” paraphrasing the psychologist Alice Miller, never forced me to do anything I did not want to do. She was incapable of such an effort. Luckily, in reaction to her negligence I adopted the firm decision to wake up by myself and go to school. I was going to be as educated as the heroines of the novels that she read. Those novels that she shared with me as soon as I was able to understand what the letters impressed on the pages meant. Finally she had somebody to comment her readings with. These stories are written in El libro de los aniversarios (The Book of the Aniversaries) a work in progress almost finished in which I have been working for the last twenty years. Several chapters have already been published: ¤ “Grandmother’s Night.” Bridges to Cuba : Michigan Quarterly Review Summer 1994: 226-228. “El beso de la patria.”Album: Cuentos del mundo hispánicos. Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993: 100-108. “Siete de enero, cumpleaños de mi papá.” Confluencias, Revista de Cultura y Literatura. Spring 1995. Publications and Publications about my literary work. I have worked as Assistant Professor at York College since 1977, but I have been teaching since 1970. Preparing this portfolio has not been easy. It was difficult to condense in a few pages what I have done over all these years. Much of what I do in the classroom is spontaneous, addressing the needs of my students at a particular moment, it has not be written in the syllabus and cannot be repeated. Still, I believe that both the classroom observations made by my colleagues and the evaluations presented by my students reflect their satisfaction with my work. I hope the material herein fulfills the expectations of this committee, and that my work meets the demands of my position at York College. Thank you for taking the time to consider this portfolio. In the spring of 1996, when I was appointed Substitute Assistant Professor at York College, I was teaching Spanish language at beginning, intermediate and advanced levels, as well as Caribbean and Latin American literature courses. My relationship with the students was already solidly established since I had been teaching part-time at York College for more than fifteen years, with some short interruptions. Perhaps the best example of my students’ appreciation was their nomination for my inclusion in the 1994 Who is Who Among the Best American Teachers. Nonetheless, since my 1996 appointment, my role within the Foreign Language Department has evolved in several ways and aside from the Spanish courses, I have also taught Puerto Rican Studies. As a member of the 30th Year Celebration Committee I organized an International Film Festival which will take place again in the spring of 1999. Since September 1998, I have been a Senator and I have been appointed Coordinator of Cultural Events and Ethnic Studies. My relationship with the students has been broadened and strengthened. I am Academic Advisor to fifteen students. I have served on the committee for the annual Poetry Contest sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages, and for the past two years have been advisor to Inquietudes Hispanas, the Spanish students’ literary magazine. I am also advisor to the Spanish Film Club, organized in the fall of 1998. As a member of the Dominican Studies Association Board of Directors, I helped organize the association’s conference, “The Education of Dominicans: A Dialogue,” held at York College in April, 1998. For three consecutive years, Professor Daisy Cocco DeFilippis and I have organized the conference “Hispanic Caribbean Women Writers: A Conversation.” The conference, sponsored by the CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program at Hunter College, has been extremely beneficial to our students, since it has afforded us the opportunity to bring some of the most prestigious women writers from the Hispanic Caribbean to York College. Given that my principal areas of professional research involve women writers from the Hispanic Caribbean and the culture of the Hispanic Caribbean, my work at York College allows me to connect to the college community in ways that enrich me and, at the same time, benefit my students. “Teaching is an act of faith,” said Cuban writer and poet Lourdes Casal back in the late seventies, while she was teaching Psychology at Rutgers University. I have been teaching for thirty years and think the same thing, although not necessarily about the course objectives in the syllabus. Those objectives are verifiable at least in part at the end of the semester. However, I think the course material is merely the point of departure for the real experience of teaching. From the late sixties until 1976, I taught courses at business schools-Spanish, Filing, Typing, Shorthand, Commercial Writing. I taught arts and crafts in Puerto Rico and for the ASPIRA program here in New York City. I have taught at the university level since 1977. My deepest aspiration, in all the courses and workshops I have conducted throughout the years-regardless of their subject or academic level-has been to encourage students to begin to develop or increase their existing ability to accept the differences which make up life, society, and the universe. Using the pedagogical objectives designed for each course, I also try to encourage them to develop or increase their potential to observe the relationships and the profound unity underlying circumstances that appear to be different. I consider these two elements essential for living in harmony with oneself. Once this is understood mentally and emotionally, in the heart as well as the mind, learning becomes much easier, and inner peace more attainable. I feel this, in the end, should be the purpose of education. Remember Desiderata: “And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” In every course that I teach, from basic Spanish 101 to more advanced courses like Spanish 414, I take the objectives of the course as steps leading to this final objective. In the classroom, I believe in establishing good communication with this students and in creating an atmosphere in which they are free to inquire and feel confident that neither I nor the other students will find their questions inadequate. I received one of the greatest compliments three or four semesters ago, in a Spanish 106 class at York College. It came from one of the students, a woman over sixty, herself a high school Math teacher nearing retirement, with a Masters degree in Italian Literature. At the end of the semester she said to me that the one thing she would always remember about the course was having learned, even with all her gray hair and years of teaching, how I was able to take any question made by a student-even a seemingly “dumb” one-and transform it into an answer that was useful to the entire class. I believe it is imperative that when students finish a course, they feel motivated to continue their studies. I try to convey the pleasure I obtain from literature. I believe that seeing a person enjoy something is the best way to get to desiring to do it. In basic Spanish courses I take special interest in reading exercises, in class, so that students learn pronunciation. At the end of the semester, in addition to covering the material included in the syllabus, I expect my students to be clear about the reasons why native English speakers make the mistakes they commonly make in Spanish. For example, inversely, when a Spanish speaker says “people is”, she is using a pattern in Spanish, since the work for “people” in that language is used singularly most of the time. Whenever I have the chance, I try to give students examples that show how learning a foreign language is also learning to see the world in a different way. The differences in the use of prepositions are excellent examples for this purpose, as is the structure of sentences with the verb gustar (to like), and idiomatic expressions such as ¿Cuánto tiempo hace? (How long has it been?). Writing has a prominent place in my classes, at every level. Students write regularly, for homework assignments as well as exercises during class. I frequently make use of a comment, or a subject that comes up by chance or during a text book reading, to have them write for ten minutes. Thus they have written about their own perception of the moon, or they have written about a landscape, either outer or inner, after reading a poem by Antonio Machado describing the Castilian countryside. We did this exercise during the current semester, Fall 1998, in an advanced Spanish grammar class. It served to analyze the structure and syntax of several sentences in the students’ writing and to correct spelling errors. In addition, an essay by a student praising the tattooed human body inspired a dialogue which, according to the students, broke with the prejudices and misinterpretations about people who get tattoos. The Latin American student who wrote the piece, who practices an Eastern religion and has traveled to India, explained that tattoos are not rejected in that culture. The above exercise met the course objectives of improving Spanish grammar and also contributed to the students’ increased tolerance of other people’s customs and practices. It reminds me that York College, with its diversity of cultures, is a perfect place for me to practice my teaching philosophy. The syllabi and the student works that follow illustrate how I implement my teaching philosophy in the classroom. All three syllabi (Spanish 106, 208, and 209) reflect the emphasis I place on writing. However, the attached work samples all relate to Spanish 208, an advanced Spanish grammar course I taught last semester. The class guide was planned according to the course description and designed to obtain its objectives.However, the homework and the class writing exercises are meant to go beyond the immediate objectives and reach my goal in the learning process: to establish connections and accept human and social differences. Naturally, syllabi are frequently modified in some way during the semester. In this case, the course required two 300 to 500 words essays. The first one was to be about the Halloween tradition and the second about the language and dialect concept. After they wrote the Halloween essay and a writing exercise in class about an outer or inner landscape, I decided to change the subject for the second essay they were required to write. During that exercise a student wrote about the tattooed body, which I mentioned in my reflective statement. The class reaction to this theme was very positive-leading the students to reflect about their prejudices, values and principles. The second essay was about the religion they practiced in their countries of origin and discussed whether or not their immigration experience had changed their concepts of good and bad from a religious perspective. Only one student was born in this country, but her parents are Latin-Americans. She wrote about her position in the family and the discrepancies between her parents’ religion and her spirituality. My decision to change the topic for the second essay was based on the fact that the students were highly motivated to write about their religion, and that both subjects were equally suitable for practicing grammar. Department of Foreign Languages/ESL/Humanities Course Description: A systematic review of Spanish Grammar and a study of the syntactic peculiarities of modern Spanish. Course Objectives: By the end of the semester the student should be able to analyze Spanish texts in terms of spelling, morphology and syntax . The study of advanced grammar will improve the student’s written and spoken Spanish. Text: Lázaro, Fernando y Vicente Tuzón. Lengua Española 1. Madrid: Grupo Anaya S.A. 1994. 1. Asistencia y participación en clase. La asistencia es muy importante. Es sumamente difícil que un estudiante recupere en su totalidad el material trabajado en una clase, incluyendo la participación de los estudiantes, casi siempre importante para clarificar puntos que no han quedado claros durante la esplicación de la profesora. Esto es irrecuperable. 2.Una actividad cultural. Las/los estudiantes asistirán a un evento cultural durante el semestre. La actividad, el día y la hora será dada por la profesora durante las primeras semanas de clase. 3. Tarea. Se recogerá todas las semanas. No se aceptan tareas atrasadas, a no ser por enfermedad o accidente probado o verdaderas emergencias, como sería un incendio de la casa o apartamento o una muerte en la familia. Asistencia y participación en clase: 10% Dos ensayos: 20%: 10 puntos cada uno Department of Foreign Languages/ESL/Humanities Semana 1. Septiembre 5. Capítulo 1• La comunicación. El lenguaje y sus funciones. (p.4-12). Tarea: Estudiar el capítulo 1. Leer los capítulos 2 y 3. Leer el cuento Gato, de Lourdes Vázquez, en el libro Tertuliando (p.160-162) y escribir dos párrafos sobre el cuento. En el primero escribe tu impresión del cuento y en el segundo explica las funciones del lenguaje en el mismo cuento. Semana 2. Septiembre 12. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulo 2• La lengua como sistema. (p.13-23). Capítulo 3• El lenguaje y las lenguas (p.24-33). Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 2 y 3. Leer los capítulos 4 y 5. Leer los poemas de José de la Rosa en el libro Tertuliando (p.212-218) y explica las funciones del lenguaje en estos poemas y los símbolos. Semana 3. Septiembre 19. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulos 4 y 5. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 4 y 5. Estudiar para el examen de la semana próxima Semana 4. Septiembre 26. Revisión de la tarea. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos 4 y 5. Primer examen. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 6 y 7 y leer todas las lecturas y hacer todo el trabajo complementario de los capítulos 6 y 7. Leer los capítulos 8 y 9. Semana 5. Octubre 3. Entrega y revisión del examen. Capítulos 8 y 9. Escribir, en clase, un párrafo sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos 6 y 7. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 8 y 9. Lee los capítulos 10 y 11. Leer en Tertuliando los cuentos “Buch’ y pluma no’ ma’” y “Venganza” (p. 180-184) de Ynoemia Villar y escribir un párrafo sobre cada uno, expresando tu opinión. Semana 6. Octubre 10. Revisión de la tarea. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre las lecturas de los capítulos 8 y 9 del libro de texto. Capítulos10 y 11. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 10 y 11. Leer los capítulos 12 y 13. Leer todas las lecturas y hacer todos los trabajos complementarios de los capítulos 12 y 13. Semana 7. Octubre 17. Revisión de la tarea. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre una de las lecturasde los capítulos 10 y 11. Capítulos 12 y 13. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 12 y 13. Estudiar para el examen de Midterm. Semana 8. Octubre 24. Revisión de la tarea. Examen de Midterm. Tarea: Leer los capítulos 14 y 15 Escribir un ensayo sobre la tradición de Halloween. Busca cuál es el origen. Explica si en tu país existe una celebración igual o parecida y cuenta la mejor historia de fantasmas, espíritus, experiencia sobrenatural que te haya ocurrido o te hayan contado. Son dos páginas de computadora, a doble espacio. Una estará dedicada al ensayo y la otra a tu experiencia personal. Semana 9. Octubre 31. Noche de Brujas. Revisión de la tarea. Entrega de la composición. Lecturas de la composición sobre la noche de brujas. Capítulos 14 y 15. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 14 y 15. Leer los capítulos 16 y 17. Leer todas las páginas de las lecciones 12 y 13 donde aparecen las secciones: Comentarios, Lecturas y Prácticas complementarias. Leer en Tertuliando el poema Nueva York 1977, de Chiqui Vicioso (p. 226 y 227) y el Poema para Ana Velford, de Lourdes Casal, que la profesora entregará en una hoja suelta. Escribe entre dos y cuatro párrafos comparando los dos poemas. Piensa en la forma y en el contenido. Presta especial atención a la percepción de Nueva York que ofrece cada poeta. Semana 10. Noviembre 7. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulos 16 y 17. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos16 y 17. Leer todas las secciones de Comentarios, Lecturas y Prácticas complementarias. Leer los capítulos 18 y 19. Escribir un ensayo sobre el concepto de lengua y dialecto. ¿Por qué la lengua de un pueblo completo, como el quechua, el nahualt o el creole haitiano ha sido considerado por siglos, y lo es aún por algunos, como dialecto y no lengua? ¿Qué opinas sobre esto? Semana 11. Noviembre 14. Revisión de la tarea. Entrega del ensayo. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos16 y 17. Capítulos18 y 19. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 20 y 21. Leer todas las secciones complementarias. Leer el capítulo 24. Estudiar para el segundo examen parcial. Semana 12. Noviembre 21. Revisión de la tarea: Segundo examen parcial. Capítulo 24. Escribir un párrafo sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos 20 y 21. Tarea: Estudiar el capítulo 24. Leer todas las secciones complementarias. Leer los capítulos 25 y 26. Semana 13. Diciembre 5. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulos 25 y 26. Escribir un párrafo sobre una de las lecturas del capítulo 24. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 25 y 26. Estudiar para el examen final. Semana 14. Diciembre 12. Repaso general para el examen final. Fiesta de fin de curso. ¡Ojalá que aprendan y disfruten el curso! Enclosed you will find two examples of my published literary work. The first one, the short story “El beso de la Patria” (Homeland’s Kiss) was originally published in 1986 in Nosotras: Latina Literature today (Bilingual Review/Press), and reprinted in 1993 in the second edition of Album, a short stories anthology edited by Rebecca M. Valette & Joy Renjilian-Burgi (D.C. Heath and Company). The book has been adopted by the New York City Board of Education and is taught in advanced Placement Spanish in New York High Schools. “El beso de la Patria” is a chapter from El libro de los aniversarios (The Book of Anniversaries) a work in progress that is almost finished. Several chapters of this book have been published as individual pieces: “Mi tía Zoila,” (My Aunt Zoila), in Nosotras: Latina Literature Today: New York: Bilingual Review Press 1986. “La noche de la abuela” (Grandmother’s Night), in Bridges to Cuba, Michigan Quarterly Review (Summer 1994). “Siete de enero, cumpleaños de mi papa”, (January Seventh, My Daddy’s Birthday), Confluencia, Revista de Cultura y Literatura, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Northern Colorado. Vol. 10 num, 2 (Spring 1995). The second example, my book entitled, Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda (The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda) won the Extraordinary Literary Prize for Hispanic Literature in United States, awarded by Casa de las Américas, Havana, in 1997. It has been reprinted in Havana and a second edition, with an additional short story, will be published in Spain by Editorial Txalaparta in January 1999. In the fall of 1985 Dr. Louise Mirrer Singer, now Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the City University of New York, observed my Intermediate Spanish class at Fordham University, where I taught as a part time instructor. After this evaluation I was exempted from the procedure. 226 E. 2nd St. Apt. 4A New York, NY 10009-8076 Tel & Fax: (212) 979-5144 E-mail: venerand@aol.com Ph. D. Spanish Graduate Center, CUNY, May 1989 Dissertation topic: “El mito del puertorriqueño dócil en la literatura de Puerto Rico: La charca, Master of Philosophy Graduate Center, CUNY, 1982 Spanish toward M. A. Kent State Univ., 1976-77 Spanish B. A. Univ. of the Sacred Heart, Puerto Rico, 1975 Education with an Specialization in Spanish. May 1999 Literary Panelist, Bronx Council on the Arts. July 1999-June 2000 PSC-CUNY Research Award. Spring 1998 Interview by Dr. Francisca Suárez Coalla and Margarita Drago. DACTYLUS/Journal, University of Texas at Austin. Spring 1998 Interview by Dr. Francisca Suárez Coalla and Margarita Drago. ALDEEU, (Asociación de licenciados de España en los Estados Unidos), New York. April 7, 1998 Telephone interview by Dr. Amalia Mondríguez, University of the Incarnated Verb, San Antonio, Texas. May 2, 1997 Homenaje a Labor Creativa. Comité Ejecutivo de la Unión de Mujeres Escritoras de las Antillas, New York. January 1997 Literary Award: Premio Casa de las Américas for Hispanic Literature in the United States. Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda. (short stories). November 22, 1996 Honored Guest. Hispanic Heritage Day at Norman Thomas High School for Commercial Education, New York City. Summer 1996 CUNY Caribbean Exchange Travel Grant. Spring 1996 CUNY Caribbean Exchange Grant to pay for partial transcription of Cuba’s Women Writers Anthology (a work in progress). Summer 1994 CUNY Caribbean Exchange Travel Grant Summer 1980. Ford Foundation Grant Sep. 1978-Aug. 1979 Ford Foundation Travel Grant Sep. 1977-Aug. 1978 Graduate Research Fellowship I have received the CUNY Caribbean Exchange Travel Grant in two ocassions to travel to Cuba for research and collection of material for the book “Autobiography and Mask: Cuba’s Women Writers Anthology” (a work in progress with research and compilation completed). Title of proposed project for which I have received the PSC CUNY Award 1999-2000: “Más allá de La Habana: Antología e historias personales de escritoras de Cuba”. (Beyond Havana: Literary Anthology and Personal Histories of Women Writers in Cuba). This text will be the second part for my book, now completed and in the process of publishing: “Autobiography and Mask: Cuba’s Women Writer Anthology.” “Beyond Havana...” will bring together samples of the literary production (narrative and poetry) of women writers residing outside the city of Havana. The book will include works from women in literary circles such as Vigia in the northern province of Matanzas, Cabaiguán in the center of the island and writers from Santiago, in Eastern Cuba. The personal testimonies about their lives and work as women, will have a focus on the impact of family and romantic love relationships, educational ecperiences and rapid social change on their writing. The proposed anthology will include a greater number of writers of diverse generations, racial, class and religious backgrounds and with different approaches to sexuality. Because of this diversity and given the quality of the selected texts, the book will be useful in the study of Literature and Spanish and in departments of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Women Studies, Black Studies, Gay and Lesbian Studies, and even Sociology. Readers in general will also be drawn to it. As a literary panelist for the Bronx Council on the Arts I read twenty nine literary texts (plays, screen plays, testimonies and short stories) in order to evaluate them. On May 25th I participated in a panel to choose the grantees. Membership in Professional Societies: Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Member Caribbean Studies Association. Member. Dominican Studies Association. Member of the Board of Directors. CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program. Member of the Board of Directors. Jiribilla. Cuban Cuilture Association. Member of the Executive Board. MOCHA (Museum of Contemporary Hispanics Arts). Member of theBoard of Directors: Professor of Hispanic American Literature and Literary Theory Professor of Black and Puerto Rican Studies Graduate School and University Center Feb. 1998-Present Dept. of Foreing Lang. Assistant Professor Sept. 1996-Jan.1997 –––––––––––––––. Subs. Assistant Professor Sept. 1990-May 1996 _______________, Adj. Assistant Professor, Sep. 1978-May 1988 _______________, Adjunct Instructor, Sep. 1985-May 1988 Department of Humanities Adjunct Instructor, Lincoln Center, New York, N. Y. Sep. 1982-June 1983 Modern Foreign Languages Full-time Instructor, Jan. 1981-Aug. 1982 Romance Languages Full-time Instructor, Summer 1981- Romances Languages Adjunct Instructor, Sep. 1980- Modern Foreign Lang. Adjunct Instructor, Sep 1979-June 1980 Modern Foreign Languages Subs. Full Time Instructor, Sep. 1978-Dec. 1981 Tutorial Program in Spanish Tutor/Spanish, Sep. 1976-May 1977 Graduate Teaching Assistant Instructor, Jan. 1975-July 1976 Puerto Rican Inst. of Psychiatry Instructor /Spanish, May 1974-July 1976 Benedict School, Instructor/Spanish, Jan. 1973-Jan. 1974 Palmas del Mar, Inc. Instructor/Spanish, Jan. 1970-Dec. 1972 Benedict School, Instructor/Commercial Spanish, I taught Spanish to foreign doctors in residence at the Puerto Rican Institute of Psychiatry. I also taught Spanish and Business courses at the Benedict School, also in Puerto Rico, to a variety of students of of all ages: 12 years to 80. At Palmas del Mar, a beach resort located in the East coast of the island, I taught Spanish to American and foreign executives who did not speak the language. It was a boring job, but the place was a paradise. Workshops in Methodology of Language Teaching: 1970 Berlitz Method, Benedict School, Santurce, P. R. 1973 MLA Spanish Materials, Palmas del Mar, Inc. Humacao, P. R. 1981 Dartmouth Method, Spanish Lehman College, CUNY Bronx , N. Y. 1988 Linden Institute for Advanced Learning, New York Open Center, N.Y. Nov. 1986-Feb. 1989 Free Lance Writer, Diario La Prensa, New York, N. Y. Oct. 1988-1991 Consultant and Translator, Marazul Tours, New York, N.Y. Jan. 1979-May 1985 Founding Member and Consultant, Círculo de Cultura Cubana, New York, N. Y. Jan. 1984-May 1985 Consultant, Areíto Magazine, New York, N. Y. May 1985-1989 Consultant and Speaker, Punto de Vista, Latin American Film. Women Make Movies, New York, Feb. 1981-May 1981 Consultant, Latin American Film Festival, NYU. May. 1981 Consultant, Alternative Latin American Cinema, NYU. Sep. - Dec. 1982 Consultant, Mt. Top Films, New York/ICAIC, La Habana, Co-Production, Haití, el camino de la libertad. My work as a consultant in newspapers and magazines consisted in editing, proof reading and writing articles. I have also done consulting work related to film, as in organization of film festivals, and serving as consultant about Latin American and Caribbean culture and history. I wrote film criticism, interviews with Latin American directors and have participated as speaker at film presentations, panels and discussions. Papers presented and other activities: “Historias Paralelas (Home is Struggle)” Film Presentation and Original works read by Mireya Cruz, Sandra A. García and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Casa de las Américas, New York City, January 8, 1993. “Ana y la luna”, “Carta a Ana Mendieta en el octavo aniversario de su muerte”, Original works read by Franklin Gutiérrez, Sandra García, Pedro Pietri and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, The Nuyorican Poets Café, New York City, October 3, 1993. “Carpentier and his Influence in Solás Cinema”Forum with Humberto Solás, Ilka Tanya Payán and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, sponsored by Videoteca del Sur, CUNY Graduate Center Auditoriun, October 7, 1993. “Tres escritores en York”, original works read by Franklin Gutiérrez, Julia Ortiz Griffin and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, sponsored by El Club Cervantes y El Club de Español. Coordinator: María Arrillaga, New York, York College/CUNY. November 10, 1993. “Celebration of One Hundred Years of La charca”, round table with Juan Flores, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Edna Acosta Belén y Amílcar Tirado, Puerto Rican Studies Asociation, Westin Hotel, Boston, September 30, 1994. Respondent at the panel “Cross Cultural and Pedagogical Concerns Regarding Latin America and the Caribbean”. Exploring the Cultures of Latin American and the Caribbean. Conference at York College/CUNY. November 30, 1994. Guest Speaker for the initiation’s ceremony of the Spanish Honorary Society Sigma Delta Pi, Chapter Iota Iota. York College/CUNY, December 8, 1994. Guest Speaker for Conmemoración del natalicio de José Martí. Work presented: “Los últimos años de José Martí”. Club Cubano Inter-Americano, Bronx, NY. January “La noche de la abuela”, Original Works read by Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Consuelo Corretjer, Mireya Cruz y Sandra García. Un homenaje para nosotras, las mujeres. Casa de las Américas, New York. March 18, 1995 “The Root and New Directions of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Literary Traditions.” Panel with Norma Cantú, Daisy Cocco De Filippis,. Orlando Hernández and Elizabeth R. Horan. Crossing Oceans, Crossing Borders, Conference at Jersey City State College. March 23, 1995. “Celebración para un siete de agosto”, Symposium dedicated to the Cuban Poet Nancy Morejón. University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. April 29, 1995. “La fe y la vida”, Primer encuentro socio religioso. University of Havana. Havana, Cuba. July 7, 1995. “Un pequeño tema: las niñas que fuimos vistas por las mujeres que somos”, Lecture at Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature. University of Boulder, Colorado. October 12-15, 1995. “Dominican Women Writers of the Diaspora”, Panel and Narrative and Poetry Reading. Moderators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis and Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Participants: Isabel Espinal, Marianela Medrano, Virginia Moore, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Yrene Santos, Miriam Ventura, Ynoemia Villar. York College CUNY, Jamaica, NY. March 27, 1996. “Homenaje a Emilio Bejel” (Tribute to Emilio Bejel). Panel on his literary work and poetry reading. Moderator: Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Participants: Professor Emilio Bejel, University of Colorado. Prof. Rubén Ríos Avila, Harvard University. Prof. Arnaldo Cruz Malavé, Fordham Univ. Prof. Margarita Fazzolari, Retired, Borough of Manhattan C.C. York College CUNY, Jamaica. April 12, 1996. “Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers: A Conversation”, Conference sponsored by The CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program, as a recipient of a grant from The Ford Foundation. Coordinators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Sonia Rivera-Valdés and Marta Rodríguez . I was also a Moderator of the Poetry Reading, and a participant in the Narrative Reading. Hunter College, New York, May 2-3, 1996. Interview at El Hurón Azul, T.V. Program. Hostess: Lissette Vila. La Habana, Cuba, January 1997. Narrative Reading: “Los venenitos,” La Peña de Marta Valdés. La Casa de la Música, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba, January 1997. Narrative Reading: “Los venenitos,” RadioProgreso, La Habana, January, 1997. “Sortileio de Tifinagh: El Lenguaje de las Mujeres.” Narrative and Poetry Reading. Original texts by the participants of La Tertulia de Escritoras Dominicas. Director, Daisy Cocco De Filippis. Reading’s Director: Josefina Báez. Participants: Daisy Cocco de Filippis, Marianela Medrano, Virginia Moore, Sonia Rivera-Valdéas, Yrene Santos, Ynoemia Villar. City College and Hunter College at CUNY, New York, March 14, 1997. Jiribilla Culture Association Poetry and Narrative Reading. Narrative reading:“Los venenitos,“ Casa de Las Américas, New York, April 10, 1997 Celebración del Día del Libro. Narrative Reading: “Cinco ventanas del mismo lado,” York College of CUNY, Jamaica, New York, April 16, 1997. Boricua College Poetry Series. Narrative Reading: “Cinco ventanas del mismo lado.” Coordinator Myrna Nieves, Sponsored by Boricua College and Poets and Writers, Brooklyn, April 28, 1997. “Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers: A Conversation”, Second International Conference sponsored by The CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program, as a recipient of a grant from The Ford Foundation. Coordinators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Sonia Rivera-Valdés and Marta Rodríguez . I was also a Moderator of the Poetry Reading, and a participant in a Narrative Reading. Hunter College, New York, May 1-2, 1997 Narrative and Poetry Reading: “El octavo pliegue,” Casa de Lezama Lima, La Habana, Cuba, Julio 22, 1997. Poets Celebrate Latino Heritage Month: Narrative and Poetry Reading: “Los venenitos,” “The Scent of Wild Desire.” Other participants: Jack Agüero and Lourdes Vázquez, Norwalk Public Library, Norwalk, Connecticut, Sept. 27, 1997. San Antonio Inter-American Bookfair & Literary Festival. Narrative & Poetry Reading: “The Scent of Wild Desire.” Other participants: Nancy Morejón, Virgil Suárez. Conversation on Latin American and Latino Literature. Other participants: Juana María Cordones Cook, Gwendolyn Díaz, Nancy Morejón and Virgil Suárez. San Antonio, Tejas, October 23-26, 1997 Narrative Reading and Lecture: “Los venenitos,” College of The Incarnated Word, San Antonio, Texas, October 24, 1997. Narrative Reading: “Los ojos lindos de Adela.” Other participants: Gerardo Piña and Milagros Torres. Borough of Manhattan Community College of CUNY, 11th Annual Hispanic Heritage Month, November 12th, 1997. Dominican Women Writers’ Tales of Survival, Narrative and Poetry Reading: “El olor del desenfreno.” Other Participants: José de la Rosa, Nelly Rosario, Josefina Báez. Moderator: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Barnard College, Columbia University, November 13, 1997. York College 30th Anniversary Celebration/ Dominican Women Writers and Their Friends. Tertuliando/Hanging Out. Poetry and Narrative Reading: “De Tulum a Candún.” “Dominicans and Other Latinos and the Public Education System: Drafting of an Agenda,” Panel in the conference, The Education of Dominicans: A Dialogue. Panelists: Rosita romero, Pedro Pedraza and Martha Bautís. Moderator: Sonia Rivera-Valdés. York College, April 7, 1998. “Cinco ventanas del mismos lado,” Narrative and Poetry Reading, Celebration of the Hispanic Heritage Month and the 20th Anniversary of New York is Book Country, El Museo del Barrio, September 24, 1998. “El quinto río,” Narrative and Poetry Reading sponsored by Tercera Conferencia Internacional de Escritoras del Caribe Hispanoparlante” Hunter College, Latino Artists & Writers Round Table (New York Cultural Organization) and UMEDAS (Unión de Mujeres Escritoras de Las Antillas), Casa de las Américas, New York, November 7, 1998. “Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers: Third Conversation”, Conference sponsored by The CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program, as a recipient of a grant from The Ford Foundation. Coordinators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Sonia Rivera-Valdés and Marta Rodríguez. I was also a panel’s Moderator, and a participant in the Narrative Reading. Hunter College, New York, November 4-5, 1998. Conversation with the students about my literary work and Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda. Hispanic Literature course taught by Professor Susana Reisz in Lehman College at CUNY. Bronx, NY, February 18, 1999. Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda, reading. El Sur, bookstore on 1 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, March 10, 1999. Writers Voices/Homosexual Identities. Panel. Participants: Sonia Rivera-Valdés, angel Lozada, Mariana Romo Carmona, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes. Chair: Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé. Crossing Borders ‘99: latino/a Gay Testimony, Autobiography, and Self-Figuration. Conference at The Graduate School and University Center. The City University of New York, March 13, 1999. “La escritura de las mujeres y su publicación: liberación y autocensura”. Conference in Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística, La Habana, Cuba, April 11, 1999. Interview at El Hurón Azul, T.V. Program. Hostess: Lissette Vila. La Habana, Cuba, April 12, 1999. Reading from Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda and conversation with the students about my literary work . Hispanic Literature course taught by Professor Marithelma Costa in Hunter College at CUNY. New York, NY, April 19, 1999. “Diálogo entre escritores y escritoras,” Morning Plenary Session. Participants: Jack Agüero, Puerto Rico, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Cuba, Ana Rossetti, Spain and Alejandro Varderi, Venezuela. Conference sponsored by Montclair State University and El Instituto Cervantes. 20th Conference of Hispanic and Latinoamerican Literature: Ciudadanía: apropiaciones y definiciones. Montcleair State University, New Jersey, April 23, 1999. Reading. Book party to present Dream With No Name. Coordinators: Dan Simon, Juana Ponce de León and Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Seven Stories Press, New York, NY, June 17, 1999. “Alzheimer’s Disease: Fourth Leading Cause of Death Among the Elderly in U.S.” in Visión, July/August 1993. “El beso de la patria,” in Album: Cuentos del mundo hispánico, Lenxington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993. “José Martí en Nueva York,” Areíto Magazine (Spring 1994). “Grandmother’s Night,” in ”Bridges to Cuba”, Michigan Quarterly Review (Summer 1994 ). “Siete de enero, cumpleaños de mi papá”, in Confluencias, Revista de Cultura y Literatura, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Northern Colorado. Vol. 10 num.. 2 (Spring 1995). “Celebración para un siete de agosto,” in Afro-Hispanic Review. (Spring 1996). ”El olor del desenfreno”, Las estatuas de sal. La Habana: Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas Cubanos (UNEAC). 1996. El olor del desenfreno. Festival de Monólogos presented by Producciones Artistas Unidos. New York: La Tea Theater. October 2 - December 1, 1996. ”Wish-ky Sour.“ Review essay about the play written by Chiqui Vicioso. El Listín. Santo Domingo, (November, 1996) “El octavo pliegue.” Tertuliando. Hanging Out. Ed. by Daisy Cocco De Filippis. Santo Domingo: Publicación de la Feria Internacional del Libro. 1997. Las Historias Prohibidas de Marta Veneranda. La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Casa de Las Américas. 1997 Cinco ventanas del mismo lado. La Candelaria 5. New York: Unesco/Planet Society, 1997 “Scent of Wild Desire” (Translated by Dick Cluster), Cubana. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. Sortilegio de Tifinagh: El lenguaje de las mujeres. Production: Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Texts by: Annecy Báez, Josefina Báez, Daisy Cocco de Filippis, Marianela Medrano, Virginia Moore, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Yrene Santos, Lourdes Vázquez, Ynoemia Villar. New York: Ediciones Alcance, Colección Tertuliando No. 1, 1998. “Los venenitos” (Translated by Alan West). Dream Without a Name. Introduction by Sonia Rivera-Valdés. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999. “Entre un tango y un danzón.” in “Escritoras del Caribe Hispano: Una conversación.” Editors: Daisy Cocco DeFilippis and Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Pending publication. “Autobiografía y máscara: El proceso creador de las escritoras de Cuba durante los últimos treinta y cinco años: Testimonios y Antología”. Edited by Sonia Rivera-Valdés. New York: Editorial Campana. Pending Publication. “El libro de los aniversarios” (Autobiography-Fiction). “Historias de mujeres grandes y chiquitas.” (Short Stories). “¿Quién es ésta que habla por mi boca?” (Novel). IV. COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS (should reflect the level of participation) 30th Celebration Department Committee: International Film Festival Organizer and Commentator. Department of Foreign Languages Poetry Contest Committee: Organization and student advisor. Inquietudes Hispanas. Journal Committee: Coordination and student orientation. Academic advisor for fifteen students. General advicement for language placement. Academic Advisor for fifteen students. General advicement for language placement. Student Counselor for the Hispanic Writers Club. VI. PUBLIC AND PROFESSIONAL WORKS IN FIELD OF SPECIALTY: VII. Coordinator for the following activities: Poetry Reading and Lectures about Caribbean Literature: Poeta, narrative and radio-novel writer, professor of Literature. Poet, narrative writer, literary critic. Poet, literary critic, Professor of Literature. Poet, Resarcher on Puerto Ricans Migration Process and Filmaker. Cuban poet and narrator, editor of Cubaneo, an independent cultural magazine. Dominican poet, performer and playwright. Dominican poet, narrator and playwright. Argentinian filmaker and college professor. Cuban filmaker, director of the Television and Radio Section of UNEAC (National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba). Narrative Reading and Lecture at Sage/Queens Clubhouse, St. Andrew’s Church, Astoria, New York. Speaker Series Coordinator: Joseph Nicholas DeFilippis, February 20, 1998. “When Life Give You Lemons, Make Lemonade: Latino Immigrants and Success,” Lecture sponsored by The Hispanic Employment Program Committee, at the Northeastern Program Service Center. Jamaica Center Plaza, Jamaica, New York, September 16, 1998. “Grandmother’s Night,” Reading for children at The Little Red School, New York, NY, December 5, 1998. VIII. ADDITIONAL NARRATIVE WHERE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE INDIVIDUAL PROFILE. (Particular problems, special assets, etc.) Dr. Sonia Rivera-Valdés was appointed Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Spring 1998. However, since Dr. rivera-Valdés has served the College for a number of years first as Adjunct Assistant Professor and later as Substitute Assistant Professor she has been able to accomplish much in her first year as Assistant Professor. Dr. Rivera-Valdés is an award winning fiction writer whose stories have appeared in the past in some of the most prestigious publications on Latino literature, including Gloria Anzaldúa’s Esta puente, mi espalda, Ruth Behar’s Bridges to Cuba and Mirta Yáñez’ Cubanas. Dr. rivera-Valdés collection of stories Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda received the prestigious “Casa de las Américas” award in 1997. More recently, Las historias prohibidas have been reprinted in Cuba and have had a second, augmented edition published in Spain. Her interests and standing have benefited our students much. A very dynamic and student-centered instructor, Dr. Rivera-Valdés regularly involves the students in the creative process by serving as one of the advisors to the recently created “Writers Club”, organizing “A Celebration of Hispanic Culture Month” and advising the “International Film Club”. Professor Rivera-Valdés has joined generously and enthusiastically in many of the Department’s activities. During her first semester as a newly appointed Assistant Professor of Spanish she took over as advisor to the students’ journal Inquietudes Hispanas. An active participant in academic and cultural events, in the past year Dr. Rivera-Valdés has been invited to make presentation in a number of panels at such institutions as El Museo del Barrio, the CUNY University Center and Graduate School, Montclair State College, the University of Texas, Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, Hunter College, Lehman College, New York State Council for the Arts, Bronx Council for the Arts, Librería El Sur to name a few. She co-organized the Third Conference of Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers at Hunter College, CUNY and was in the planning committee for the conference “The Education of Dominicans: A Dialogue” which took place in May 1998 at York College. This, in turn, has afforded Professor Rivera-Valdés the opportunity to invite to campus such notable figures as Josefina Báez, Emilio Bejel and Nemir Matos. Professor rivera-Valdés student evaluations and classroom observations continue to be quite high. She is known as a “gifted teacher” whose ability to reach students where they are and move them towards a successful academic career was one of the major reason the Department enthusiastically supported her appointment and subsequent reappointments as Assistant Professor of Spanish. We look forward to her continued involvement and generous contributions to the Department and the college in years to come. IX. THE OVERALL EVALUATION OF THIS FACULTY MEMBER AS A MEMBER OF HER DISCIPLINE OF ITS PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS IS: Satisfactory––––––––––––––––––– Unsatisfactory–––––––––––––––––– Signed–––––––––––––––––––––––––– I have read the above report. My initials do not necessarily signify agreement. I understand that I may submit a rebuttal. 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The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda . “Vastly entertaining, slyly heretical, and probably the most important book of stories since Joyce’s DUBLINERS.” Department: Foreign Languages, ESL and Background: I was asked to portrait myself in this presentation in the way I like to be seen. I like to be seen the way I am or at least the way I believe I am. In this fragile and beloved city of New York full of immigrants, I have been one more for the last thirty four years but every day at some moment I return to Cuba, where I lived until I was twenty eight years old. And when my mind is in the island , while I walk on Second street, I often remember the first time I thought that teaching was an important thing to do. I was seven years old when the superintendent of the tenement house where I lived in Old Havana, a Galician refugee from the Spanish Civil War, died of tuberculosis and my mother cried as if the man would had been her relative. She told me that night, while holding my hand and walking to the super’s wake, that what she lamented the most from that death, even more than the fact that he was only forty five years old and left two children and a wife, was that he never learned how to read and write. My mother’s life would have been unbearable without the novels she read avidly, often stealing time from cooking for the family or doing the laundry. Reading was the most effective palliative to alleviate her perpetual sadness. I was so shocked to find out that grown ups could be illiterates that the discovery accompanied me for days as an obsession. To me, up to that moment, learning to read and write was a biological process, like walking or speaking. Then, I said to myself, everybody needs a person to teach her or him. Mine had been my grandmother, “the only sane person in my family…the only one I didn’t worry about, who combed my hair the way I asked her to, parted carefully in the middle, with four braids instead of two. The one who taught me to read when my parents didn’t send me to school, who taught me to embroider little handkerchiefs and braid hair, plant flowers and tell the night-jessamines from the impatiens.” © I didn’t know it at that time, but I am sure that during that walk to the funeral home my vocation as a teacher was born. My mother’s peculiar upbringing method was far from perfect. However, it provided me with the necessary persistence to complete my education against all odds. The secret of her pedagogical methodology consisted in giving me, on one side, her model: to love knowledge and literature above all, and on the other side not sending me to school when it was raining or when she failed to hear the alarm in the morning. She never “broke my will,” paraphrasing the psychologist Alice Miller, never forced me to do anything I did not want to do. She was incapable of such an effort. Luckily, in reaction to her negligence I adopted the firm decision to wake up by myself and go to school. I was going to be as educated as the heroines of the novels that she read. Those novels that she shared with me as soon as I was able to understand what the letters impressed on the pages meant. Finally she had somebody to comment her readings with. These stories are written in El libro de los aniversarios (The Book of the Aniversaries) a work in progress almost finished in which I have been working for the last twenty years. Several chapters have already been published: ¤ “Grandmother’s Night.” Bridges to Cuba : Michigan Quarterly Review Summer 1994: 226-228. “El beso de la patria.”Album: Cuentos del mundo hispánicos. Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993: 100-108. “Siete de enero, cumpleaños de mi papá.” Confluencias, Revista de Cultura y Literatura. Spring 1995. Publications and Publications about my literary work. I have worked as Assistant Professor at York College since 1977, but I have been teaching since 1970. Preparing this portfolio has not been easy. It was difficult to condense in a few pages what I have done over all these years. Much of what I do in the classroom is spontaneous, addressing the needs of my students at a particular moment, it has not be written in the syllabus and cannot be repeated. Still, I believe that both the classroom observations made by my colleagues and the evaluations presented by my students reflect their satisfaction with my work. I hope the material herein fulfills the expectations of this committee, and that my work meets the demands of my position at York College. Thank you for taking the time to consider this portfolio. In the spring of 1996, when I was appointed Substitute Assistant Professor at York College, I was teaching Spanish language at beginning, intermediate and advanced levels, as well as Caribbean and Latin American literature courses. My relationship with the students was already solidly established since I had been teaching part-time at York College for more than fifteen years, with some short interruptions. Perhaps the best example of my students’ appreciation was their nomination for my inclusion in the 1994 Who is Who Among the Best American Teachers. Nonetheless, since my 1996 appointment, my role within the Foreign Language Department has evolved in several ways and aside from the Spanish courses, I have also taught Puerto Rican Studies. As a member of the 30th Year Celebration Committee I organized an International Film Festival which will take place again in the spring of 1999. Since September 1998, I have been a Senator and I have been appointed Coordinator of Cultural Events and Ethnic Studies. My relationship with the students has been broadened and strengthened. I am Academic Advisor to fifteen students. I have served on the committee for the annual Poetry Contest sponsored by the Department of Foreign Languages, and for the past two years have been advisor to Inquietudes Hispanas, the Spanish students’ literary magazine. I am also advisor to the Spanish Film Club, organized in the fall of 1998. As a member of the Dominican Studies Association Board of Directors, I helped organize the association’s conference, “The Education of Dominicans: A Dialogue,” held at York College in April, 1998. For three consecutive years, Professor Daisy Cocco DeFilippis and I have organized the conference “Hispanic Caribbean Women Writers: A Conversation.” The conference, sponsored by the CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program at Hunter College, has been extremely beneficial to our students, since it has afforded us the opportunity to bring some of the most prestigious women writers from the Hispanic Caribbean to York College. Given that my principal areas of professional research involve women writers from the Hispanic Caribbean and the culture of the Hispanic Caribbean, my work at York College allows me to connect to the college community in ways that enrich me and, at the same time, benefit my students. “Teaching is an act of faith,” said Cuban writer and poet Lourdes Casal back in the late seventies, while she was teaching Psychology at Rutgers University. I have been teaching for thirty years and think the same thing, although not necessarily about the course objectives in the syllabus. Those objectives are verifiable at least in part at the end of the semester. However, I think the course material is merely the point of departure for the real experience of teaching. From the late sixties until 1976, I taught courses at business schools-Spanish, Filing, Typing, Shorthand, Commercial Writing. I taught arts and crafts in Puerto Rico and for the ASPIRA program here in New York City. I have taught at the university level since 1977. My deepest aspiration, in all the courses and workshops I have conducted throughout the years-regardless of their subject or academic level-has been to encourage students to begin to develop or increase their existing ability to accept the differences which make up life, society, and the universe. Using the pedagogical objectives designed for each course, I also try to encourage them to develop or increase their potential to observe the relationships and the profound unity underlying circumstances that appear to be different. I consider these two elements essential for living in harmony with oneself. Once this is understood mentally and emotionally, in the heart as well as the mind, learning becomes much easier, and inner peace more attainable. I feel this, in the end, should be the purpose of education. Remember Desiderata: “And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.” In every course that I teach, from basic Spanish 101 to more advanced courses like Spanish 414, I take the objectives of the course as steps leading to this final objective. In the classroom, I believe in establishing good communication with this students and in creating an atmosphere in which they are free to inquire and feel confident that neither I nor the other students will find their questions inadequate. I received one of the greatest compliments three or four semesters ago, in a Spanish 106 class at York College. It came from one of the students, a woman over sixty, herself a high school Math teacher nearing retirement, with a Masters degree in Italian Literature. At the end of the semester she said to me that the one thing she would always remember about the course was having learned, even with all her gray hair and years of teaching, how I was able to take any question made by a student-even a seemingly “dumb” one-and transform it into an answer that was useful to the entire class. I believe it is imperative that when students finish a course, they feel motivated to continue their studies. I try to convey the pleasure I obtain from literature. I believe that seeing a person enjoy something is the best way to get to desiring to do it. In basic Spanish courses I take special interest in reading exercises, in class, so that students learn pronunciation. At the end of the semester, in addition to covering the material included in the syllabus, I expect my students to be clear about the reasons why native English speakers make the mistakes they commonly make in Spanish. For example, inversely, when a Spanish speaker says “people is”, she is using a pattern in Spanish, since the work for “people” in that language is used singularly most of the time. Whenever I have the chance, I try to give students examples that show how learning a foreign language is also learning to see the world in a different way. The differences in the use of prepositions are excellent examples for this purpose, as is the structure of sentences with the verb gustar (to like), and idiomatic expressions such as ¿Cuánto tiempo hace? (How long has it been?). Writing has a prominent place in my classes, at every level. Students write regularly, for homework assignments as well as exercises during class. I frequently make use of a comment, or a subject that comes up by chance or during a text book reading, to have them write for ten minutes. Thus they have written about their own perception of the moon, or they have written about a landscape, either outer or inner, after reading a poem by Antonio Machado describing the Castilian countryside. We did this exercise during the current semester, Fall 1998, in an advanced Spanish grammar class. It served to analyze the structure and syntax of several sentences in the students’ writing and to correct spelling errors. In addition, an essay by a student praising the tattooed human body inspired a dialogue which, according to the students, broke with the prejudices and misinterpretations about people who get tattoos. The Latin American student who wrote the piece, who practices an Eastern religion and has traveled to India, explained that tattoos are not rejected in that culture. The above exercise met the course objectives of improving Spanish grammar and also contributed to the students’ increased tolerance of other people’s customs and practices. It reminds me that York College, with its diversity of cultures, is a perfect place for me to practice my teaching philosophy. The syllabi and the student works that follow illustrate how I implement my teaching philosophy in the classroom. All three syllabi (Spanish 106, 208, and 209) reflect the emphasis I place on writing. However, the attached work samples all relate to Spanish 208, an advanced Spanish grammar course I taught last semester. The class guide was planned according to the course description and designed to obtain its objectives.However, the homework and the class writing exercises are meant to go beyond the immediate objectives and reach my goal in the learning process: to establish connections and accept human and social differences. Naturally, syllabi are frequently modified in some way during the semester. In this case, the course required two 300 to 500 words essays. The first one was to be about the Halloween tradition and the second about the language and dialect concept. After they wrote the Halloween essay and a writing exercise in class about an outer or inner landscape, I decided to change the subject for the second essay they were required to write. During that exercise a student wrote about the tattooed body, which I mentioned in my reflective statement. The class reaction to this theme was very positive-leading the students to reflect about their prejudices, values and principles. The second essay was about the religion they practiced in their countries of origin and discussed whether or not their immigration experience had changed their concepts of good and bad from a religious perspective. Only one student was born in this country, but her parents are Latin-Americans. She wrote about her position in the family and the discrepancies between her parents’ religion and her spirituality. My decision to change the topic for the second essay was based on the fact that the students were highly motivated to write about their religion, and that both subjects were equally suitable for practicing grammar. Department of Foreign Languages/ESL/Humanities Course Description: A systematic review of Spanish Grammar and a study of the syntactic peculiarities of modern Spanish. Course Objectives: By the end of the semester the student should be able to analyze Spanish texts in terms of spelling, morphology and syntax . The study of advanced grammar will improve the student’s written and spoken Spanish. Text: Lázaro, Fernando y Vicente Tuzón. Lengua Española 1. Madrid: Grupo Anaya S.A. 1994. 1. Asistencia y participación en clase. La asistencia es muy importante. Es sumamente difícil que un estudiante recupere en su totalidad el material trabajado en una clase, incluyendo la participación de los estudiantes, casi siempre importante para clarificar puntos que no han quedado claros durante la esplicación de la profesora. Esto es irrecuperable. 2.Una actividad cultural. Las/los estudiantes asistirán a un evento cultural durante el semestre. La actividad, el día y la hora será dada por la profesora durante las primeras semanas de clase. 3. Tarea. Se recogerá todas las semanas. No se aceptan tareas atrasadas, a no ser por enfermedad o accidente probado o verdaderas emergencias, como sería un incendio de la casa o apartamento o una muerte en la familia. Asistencia y participación en clase: 10% Dos ensayos: 20%: 10 puntos cada uno Department of Foreign Languages/ESL/Humanities Semana 1. Septiembre 5. Capítulo 1• La comunicación. El lenguaje y sus funciones. (p.4-12). Tarea: Estudiar el capítulo 1. Leer los capítulos 2 y 3. Leer el cuento Gato, de Lourdes Vázquez, en el libro Tertuliando (p.160-162) y escribir dos párrafos sobre el cuento. En el primero escribe tu impresión del cuento y en el segundo explica las funciones del lenguaje en el mismo cuento. Semana 2. Septiembre 12. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulo 2• La lengua como sistema. (p.13-23). Capítulo 3• El lenguaje y las lenguas (p.24-33). Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 2 y 3. Leer los capítulos 4 y 5. Leer los poemas de José de la Rosa en el libro Tertuliando (p.212-218) y explica las funciones del lenguaje en estos poemas y los símbolos. Semana 3. Septiembre 19. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulos 4 y 5. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 4 y 5. Estudiar para el examen de la semana próxima Semana 4. Septiembre 26. Revisión de la tarea. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos 4 y 5. Primer examen. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 6 y 7 y leer todas las lecturas y hacer todo el trabajo complementario de los capítulos 6 y 7. Leer los capítulos 8 y 9. Semana 5. Octubre 3. Entrega y revisión del examen. Capítulos 8 y 9. Escribir, en clase, un párrafo sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos 6 y 7. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 8 y 9. Lee los capítulos 10 y 11. Leer en Tertuliando los cuentos “Buch’ y pluma no’ ma’” y “Venganza” (p. 180-184) de Ynoemia Villar y escribir un párrafo sobre cada uno, expresando tu opinión. Semana 6. Octubre 10. Revisión de la tarea. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre las lecturas de los capítulos 8 y 9 del libro de texto. Capítulos10 y 11. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 10 y 11. Leer los capítulos 12 y 13. Leer todas las lecturas y hacer todos los trabajos complementarios de los capítulos 12 y 13. Semana 7. Octubre 17. Revisión de la tarea. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre una de las lecturasde los capítulos 10 y 11. Capítulos 12 y 13. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 12 y 13. Estudiar para el examen de Midterm. Semana 8. Octubre 24. Revisión de la tarea. Examen de Midterm. Tarea: Leer los capítulos 14 y 15 Escribir un ensayo sobre la tradición de Halloween. Busca cuál es el origen. Explica si en tu país existe una celebración igual o parecida y cuenta la mejor historia de fantasmas, espíritus, experiencia sobrenatural que te haya ocurrido o te hayan contado. Son dos páginas de computadora, a doble espacio. Una estará dedicada al ensayo y la otra a tu experiencia personal. Semana 9. Octubre 31. Noche de Brujas. Revisión de la tarea. Entrega de la composición. Lecturas de la composición sobre la noche de brujas. Capítulos 14 y 15. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 14 y 15. Leer los capítulos 16 y 17. Leer todas las páginas de las lecciones 12 y 13 donde aparecen las secciones: Comentarios, Lecturas y Prácticas complementarias. Leer en Tertuliando el poema Nueva York 1977, de Chiqui Vicioso (p. 226 y 227) y el Poema para Ana Velford, de Lourdes Casal, que la profesora entregará en una hoja suelta. Escribe entre dos y cuatro párrafos comparando los dos poemas. Piensa en la forma y en el contenido. Presta especial atención a la percepción de Nueva York que ofrece cada poeta. Semana 10. Noviembre 7. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulos 16 y 17. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos16 y 17. Leer todas las secciones de Comentarios, Lecturas y Prácticas complementarias. Leer los capítulos 18 y 19. Escribir un ensayo sobre el concepto de lengua y dialecto. ¿Por qué la lengua de un pueblo completo, como el quechua, el nahualt o el creole haitiano ha sido considerado por siglos, y lo es aún por algunos, como dialecto y no lengua? ¿Qué opinas sobre esto? Semana 11. Noviembre 14. Revisión de la tarea. Entrega del ensayo. Escribir un párrafo en clase sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos16 y 17. Capítulos18 y 19. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 20 y 21. Leer todas las secciones complementarias. Leer el capítulo 24. Estudiar para el segundo examen parcial. Semana 12. Noviembre 21. Revisión de la tarea: Segundo examen parcial. Capítulo 24. Escribir un párrafo sobre una de las lecturas de los capítulos 20 y 21. Tarea: Estudiar el capítulo 24. Leer todas las secciones complementarias. Leer los capítulos 25 y 26. Semana 13. Diciembre 5. Revisión de la tarea. Capítulos 25 y 26. Escribir un párrafo sobre una de las lecturas del capítulo 24. Tarea: Estudiar los capítulos 25 y 26. Estudiar para el examen final. Semana 14. Diciembre 12. Repaso general para el examen final. Fiesta de fin de curso. ¡Ojalá que aprendan y disfruten el curso! Enclosed you will find two examples of my published literary work. The first one, the short story “El beso de la Patria” (Homeland’s Kiss) was originally published in 1986 in Nosotras: Latina Literature today (Bilingual Review/Press), and reprinted in 1993 in the second edition of Album, a short stories anthology edited by Rebecca M. Valette & Joy Renjilian-Burgi (D.C. Heath and Company). The book has been adopted by the New York City Board of Education and is taught in advanced Placement Spanish in New York High Schools. “El beso de la Patria” is a chapter from El libro de los aniversarios (The Book of Anniversaries) a work in progress that is almost finished. Several chapters of this book have been published as individual pieces: “Mi tía Zoila,” (My Aunt Zoila), in Nosotras: Latina Literature Today: New York: Bilingual Review Press 1986. “La noche de la abuela” (Grandmother’s Night), in Bridges to Cuba, Michigan Quarterly Review (Summer 1994). “Siete de enero, cumpleaños de mi papa”, (January Seventh, My Daddy’s Birthday), Confluencia, Revista de Cultura y Literatura, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Northern Colorado. Vol. 10 num, 2 (Spring 1995). The second example, my book entitled, Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda (The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda) won the Extraordinary Literary Prize for Hispanic Literature in United States, awarded by Casa de las Américas, Havana, in 1997. It has been reprinted in Havana and a second edition, with an additional short story, will be published in Spain by Editorial Txalaparta in January 1999. In the fall of 1985 Dr. Louise Mirrer Singer, now Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs at the City University of New York, observed my Intermediate Spanish class at Fordham University, where I taught as a part time instructor. After this evaluation I was exempted from the procedure. 226 E. 2nd St. Apt. 4A New York, NY 10009-8076 Tel & Fax: (212) 979-5144 E-mail: venerand@aol.com Ph. D. Spanish Graduate Center, CUNY, May 1989 Dissertation topic: “El mito del puertorriqueño dócil en la literatura de Puerto Rico: La charca, Master of Philosophy Graduate Center, CUNY, 1982 Spanish toward M. A. Kent State Univ., 1976-77 Spanish B. A. Univ. of the Sacred Heart, Puerto Rico, 1975 Education with an Specialization in Spanish. May 1999 Literary Panelist, Bronx Council on the Arts. July 1999-June 2000 PSC-CUNY Research Award. Spring 1998 Interview by Dr. Francisca Suárez Coalla and Margarita Drago. DACTYLUS/Journal, University of Texas at Austin. Spring 1998 Interview by Dr. Francisca Suárez Coalla and Margarita Drago. ALDEEU, (Asociación de licenciados de España en los Estados Unidos), New York. April 7, 1998 Telephone interview by Dr. Amalia Mondríguez, University of the Incarnated Verb, San Antonio, Texas. May 2, 1997 Homenaje a Labor Creativa. Comité Ejecutivo de la Unión de Mujeres Escritoras de las Antillas, New York. January 1997 Literary Award: Premio Casa de las Américas for Hispanic Literature in the United States. Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda. (short stories). November 22, 1996 Honored Guest. Hispanic Heritage Day at Norman Thomas High School for Commercial Education, New York City. Summer 1996 CUNY Caribbean Exchange Travel Grant. Spring 1996 CUNY Caribbean Exchange Grant to pay for partial transcription of Cuba’s Women Writers Anthology (a work in progress). Summer 1994 CUNY Caribbean Exchange Travel Grant Summer 1980. Ford Foundation Grant Sep. 1978-Aug. 1979 Ford Foundation Travel Grant Sep. 1977-Aug. 1978 Graduate Research Fellowship I have received the CUNY Caribbean Exchange Travel Grant in two ocassions to travel to Cuba for research and collection of material for the book “Autobiography and Mask: Cuba’s Women Writers Anthology” (a work in progress with research and compilation completed). Title of proposed project for which I have received the PSC CUNY Award 1999-2000: “Más allá de La Habana: Antología e historias personales de escritoras de Cuba”. (Beyond Havana: Literary Anthology and Personal Histories of Women Writers in Cuba). This text will be the second part for my book, now completed and in the process of publishing: “Autobiography and Mask: Cuba’s Women Writer Anthology.” “Beyond Havana...” will bring together samples of the literary production (narrative and poetry) of women writers residing outside the city of Havana. The book will include works from women in literary circles such as Vigia in the northern province of Matanzas, Cabaiguán in the center of the island and writers from Santiago, in Eastern Cuba. The personal testimonies about their lives and work as women, will have a focus on the impact of family and romantic love relationships, educational ecperiences and rapid social change on their writing. The proposed anthology will include a greater number of writers of diverse generations, racial, class and religious backgrounds and with different approaches to sexuality. Because of this diversity and given the quality of the selected texts, the book will be useful in the study of Literature and Spanish and in departments of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, Women Studies, Black Studies, Gay and Lesbian Studies, and even Sociology. Readers in general will also be drawn to it. As a literary panelist for the Bronx Council on the Arts I read twenty nine literary texts (plays, screen plays, testimonies and short stories) in order to evaluate them. On May 25th I participated in a panel to choose the grantees. Membership in Professional Societies: Latin American Studies Association (LASA). Member Caribbean Studies Association. Member. Dominican Studies Association. Member of the Board of Directors. CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program. Member of the Board of Directors. Jiribilla. Cuban Cuilture Association. Member of the Executive Board. MOCHA (Museum of Contemporary Hispanics Arts). Member of theBoard of Directors: Professor of Hispanic American Literature and Literary Theory Professor of Black and Puerto Rican Studies Graduate School and University Center Feb. 1998-Present Dept. of Foreing Lang. Assistant Professor Sept. 1996-Jan.1997 –––––––––––––––. Subs. Assistant Professor Sept. 1990-May 1996 _______________, Adj. Assistant Professor, Sep. 1978-May 1988 _______________, Adjunct Instructor, Sep. 1985-May 1988 Department of Humanities Adjunct Instructor, Lincoln Center, New York, N. Y. Sep. 1982-June 1983 Modern Foreign Languages Full-time Instructor, Jan. 1981-Aug. 1982 Romance Languages Full-time Instructor, Summer 1981- Romances Languages Adjunct Instructor, Sep. 1980- Modern Foreign Lang. Adjunct Instructor, Sep 1979-June 1980 Modern Foreign Languages Subs. Full Time Instructor, Sep. 1978-Dec. 1981 Tutorial Program in Spanish Tutor/Spanish, Sep. 1976-May 1977 Graduate Teaching Assistant Instructor, Jan. 1975-July 1976 Puerto Rican Inst. of Psychiatry Instructor /Spanish, May 1974-July 1976 Benedict School, Instructor/Spanish, Jan. 1973-Jan. 1974 Palmas del Mar, Inc. Instructor/Spanish, Jan. 1970-Dec. 1972 Benedict School, Instructor/Commercial Spanish, I taught Spanish to foreign doctors in residence at the Puerto Rican Institute of Psychiatry. I also taught Spanish and Business courses at the Benedict School, also in Puerto Rico, to a variety of students of of all ages: 12 years to 80. At Palmas del Mar, a beach resort located in the East coast of the island, I taught Spanish to American and foreign executives who did not speak the language. It was a boring job, but the place was a paradise. Workshops in Methodology of Language Teaching: 1970 Berlitz Method, Benedict School, Santurce, P. R. 1973 MLA Spanish Materials, Palmas del Mar, Inc. Humacao, P. R. 1981 Dartmouth Method, Spanish Lehman College, CUNY Bronx , N. Y. 1988 Linden Institute for Advanced Learning, New York Open Center, N.Y. Nov. 1986-Feb. 1989 Free Lance Writer, Diario La Prensa, New York, N. Y. Oct. 1988-1991 Consultant and Translator, Marazul Tours, New York, N.Y. Jan. 1979-May 1985 Founding Member and Consultant, Círculo de Cultura Cubana, New York, N. Y. Jan. 1984-May 1985 Consultant, Areíto Magazine, New York, N. Y. May 1985-1989 Consultant and Speaker, Punto de Vista, Latin American Film. Women Make Movies, New York, Feb. 1981-May 1981 Consultant, Latin American Film Festival, NYU. May. 1981 Consultant, Alternative Latin American Cinema, NYU. Sep. - Dec. 1982 Consultant, Mt. Top Films, New York/ICAIC, La Habana, Co-Production, Haití, el camino de la libertad. My work as a consultant in newspapers and magazines consisted in editing, proof reading and writing articles. I have also done consulting work related to film, as in organization of film festivals, and serving as consultant about Latin American and Caribbean culture and history. I wrote film criticism, interviews with Latin American directors and have participated as speaker at film presentations, panels and discussions. Papers presented and other activities: “Historias Paralelas (Home is Struggle)” Film Presentation and Original works read by Mireya Cruz, Sandra A. García and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Casa de las Américas, New York City, January 8, 1993. “Ana y la luna”, “Carta a Ana Mendieta en el octavo aniversario de su muerte”, Original works read by Franklin Gutiérrez, Sandra García, Pedro Pietri and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, The Nuyorican Poets Café, New York City, October 3, 1993. “Carpentier and his Influence in Solás Cinema”Forum with Humberto Solás, Ilka Tanya Payán and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, sponsored by Videoteca del Sur, CUNY Graduate Center Auditoriun, October 7, 1993. “Tres escritores en York”, original works read by Franklin Gutiérrez, Julia Ortiz Griffin and Sonia Rivera-Valdés, sponsored by El Club Cervantes y El Club de Español. Coordinator: María Arrillaga, New York, York College/CUNY. November 10, 1993. “Celebration of One Hundred Years of La charca”, round table with Juan Flores, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Edna Acosta Belén y Amílcar Tirado, Puerto Rican Studies Asociation, Westin Hotel, Boston, September 30, 1994. Respondent at the panel “Cross Cultural and Pedagogical Concerns Regarding Latin America and the Caribbean”. Exploring the Cultures of Latin American and the Caribbean. Conference at York College/CUNY. November 30, 1994. Guest Speaker for the initiation’s ceremony of the Spanish Honorary Society Sigma Delta Pi, Chapter Iota Iota. York College/CUNY, December 8, 1994. Guest Speaker for Conmemoración del natalicio de José Martí. Work presented: “Los últimos años de José Martí”. Club Cubano Inter-Americano, Bronx, NY. January “La noche de la abuela”, Original Works read by Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Consuelo Corretjer, Mireya Cruz y Sandra García. Un homenaje para nosotras, las mujeres. Casa de las Américas, New York. March 18, 1995 “The Root and New Directions of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Literary Traditions.” Panel with Norma Cantú, Daisy Cocco De Filippis,. Orlando Hernández and Elizabeth R. Horan. Crossing Oceans, Crossing Borders, Conference at Jersey City State College. March 23, 1995. “Celebración para un siete de agosto”, Symposium dedicated to the Cuban Poet Nancy Morejón. University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri. April 29, 1995. “La fe y la vida”, Primer encuentro socio religioso. University of Havana. Havana, Cuba. July 7, 1995. “Un pequeño tema: las niñas que fuimos vistas por las mujeres que somos”, Lecture at Mid-America Conference on Hispanic Literature. University of Boulder, Colorado. October 12-15, 1995. “Dominican Women Writers of the Diaspora”, Panel and Narrative and Poetry Reading. Moderators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis and Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Participants: Isabel Espinal, Marianela Medrano, Virginia Moore, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Yrene Santos, Miriam Ventura, Ynoemia Villar. York College CUNY, Jamaica, NY. March 27, 1996. “Homenaje a Emilio Bejel” (Tribute to Emilio Bejel). Panel on his literary work and poetry reading. Moderator: Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Participants: Professor Emilio Bejel, University of Colorado. Prof. Rubén Ríos Avila, Harvard University. Prof. Arnaldo Cruz Malavé, Fordham Univ. Prof. Margarita Fazzolari, Retired, Borough of Manhattan C.C. York College CUNY, Jamaica. April 12, 1996. “Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers: A Conversation”, Conference sponsored by The CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program, as a recipient of a grant from The Ford Foundation. Coordinators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Sonia Rivera-Valdés and Marta Rodríguez . I was also a Moderator of the Poetry Reading, and a participant in the Narrative Reading. Hunter College, New York, May 2-3, 1996. Interview at El Hurón Azul, T.V. Program. Hostess: Lissette Vila. La Habana, Cuba, January 1997. Narrative Reading: “Los venenitos,” La Peña de Marta Valdés. La Casa de la Música, Vedado, La Habana, Cuba, January 1997. Narrative Reading: “Los venenitos,” RadioProgreso, La Habana, January, 1997. “Sortileio de Tifinagh: El Lenguaje de las Mujeres.” Narrative and Poetry Reading. Original texts by the participants of La Tertulia de Escritoras Dominicas. Director, Daisy Cocco De Filippis. Reading’s Director: Josefina Báez. Participants: Daisy Cocco de Filippis, Marianela Medrano, Virginia Moore, Sonia Rivera-Valdéas, Yrene Santos, Ynoemia Villar. City College and Hunter College at CUNY, New York, March 14, 1997. Jiribilla Culture Association Poetry and Narrative Reading. Narrative reading:“Los venenitos,“ Casa de Las Américas, New York, April 10, 1997 Celebración del Día del Libro. Narrative Reading: “Cinco ventanas del mismo lado,” York College of CUNY, Jamaica, New York, April 16, 1997. Boricua College Poetry Series. Narrative Reading: “Cinco ventanas del mismo lado.” Coordinator Myrna Nieves, Sponsored by Boricua College and Poets and Writers, Brooklyn, April 28, 1997. “Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers: A Conversation”, Second International Conference sponsored by The CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program, as a recipient of a grant from The Ford Foundation. Coordinators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Sonia Rivera-Valdés and Marta Rodríguez . I was also a Moderator of the Poetry Reading, and a participant in a Narrative Reading. Hunter College, New York, May 1-2, 1997 Narrative and Poetry Reading: “El octavo pliegue,” Casa de Lezama Lima, La Habana, Cuba, Julio 22, 1997. Poets Celebrate Latino Heritage Month: Narrative and Poetry Reading: “Los venenitos,” “The Scent of Wild Desire.” Other participants: Jack Agüero and Lourdes Vázquez, Norwalk Public Library, Norwalk, Connecticut, Sept. 27, 1997. San Antonio Inter-American Bookfair & Literary Festival. Narrative & Poetry Reading: “The Scent of Wild Desire.” Other participants: Nancy Morejón, Virgil Suárez. Conversation on Latin American and Latino Literature. Other participants: Juana María Cordones Cook, Gwendolyn Díaz, Nancy Morejón and Virgil Suárez. San Antonio, Tejas, October 23-26, 1997 Narrative Reading and Lecture: “Los venenitos,” College of The Incarnated Word, San Antonio, Texas, October 24, 1997. Narrative Reading: “Los ojos lindos de Adela.” Other participants: Gerardo Piña and Milagros Torres. Borough of Manhattan Community College of CUNY, 11th Annual Hispanic Heritage Month, November 12th, 1997. Dominican Women Writers’ Tales of Survival, Narrative and Poetry Reading: “El olor del desenfreno.” Other Participants: José de la Rosa, Nelly Rosario, Josefina Báez. Moderator: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Barnard College, Columbia University, November 13, 1997. York College 30th Anniversary Celebration/ Dominican Women Writers and Their Friends. Tertuliando/Hanging Out. Poetry and Narrative Reading: “De Tulum a Candún.” “Dominicans and Other Latinos and the Public Education System: Drafting of an Agenda,” Panel in the conference, The Education of Dominicans: A Dialogue. Panelists: Rosita romero, Pedro Pedraza and Martha Bautís. Moderator: Sonia Rivera-Valdés. York College, April 7, 1998. “Cinco ventanas del mismos lado,” Narrative and Poetry Reading, Celebration of the Hispanic Heritage Month and the 20th Anniversary of New York is Book Country, El Museo del Barrio, September 24, 1998. “El quinto río,” Narrative and Poetry Reading sponsored by Tercera Conferencia Internacional de Escritoras del Caribe Hispanoparlante” Hunter College, Latino Artists & Writers Round Table (New York Cultural Organization) and UMEDAS (Unión de Mujeres Escritoras de Las Antillas), Casa de las Américas, New York, November 7, 1998. “Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers: Third Conversation”, Conference sponsored by The CUNY Caribbean Exchange Program, as a recipient of a grant from The Ford Foundation. Coordinators: Daisy Cocco De Filippis, Sonia Rivera-Valdés and Marta Rodríguez. I was also a panel’s Moderator, and a participant in the Narrative Reading. Hunter College, New York, November 4-5, 1998. Conversation with the students about my literary work and Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda. Hispanic Literature course taught by Professor Susana Reisz in Lehman College at CUNY. Bronx, NY, February 18, 1999. Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda, reading. El Sur, bookstore on 1 Bleecker Street, New York, NY 10012, March 10, 1999. Writers Voices/Homosexual Identities. Panel. Participants: Sonia Rivera-Valdés, angel Lozada, Mariana Romo Carmona, Lawrence La Fountain-Stokes. Chair: Arnaldo Cruz-Malavé. Crossing Borders ‘99: latino/a Gay Testimony, Autobiography, and Self-Figuration. Conference at The Graduate School and University Center. The City University of New York, March 13, 1999. “La escritura de las mujeres y su publicación: liberación y autocensura”. Conference in Instituto de Literatura y Lingüística, La Habana, Cuba, April 11, 1999. Interview at El Hurón Azul, T.V. Program. Hostess: Lissette Vila. La Habana, Cuba, April 12, 1999. Reading from Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda and conversation with the students about my literary work . Hispanic Literature course taught by Professor Marithelma Costa in Hunter College at CUNY. New York, NY, April 19, 1999. “Diálogo entre escritores y escritoras,” Morning Plenary Session. Participants: Jack Agüero, Puerto Rico, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Cuba, Ana Rossetti, Spain and Alejandro Varderi, Venezuela. Conference sponsored by Montclair State University and El Instituto Cervantes. 20th Conference of Hispanic and Latinoamerican Literature: Ciudadanía: apropiaciones y definiciones. Montcleair State University, New Jersey, April 23, 1999. Reading. Book party to present Dream With No Name. Coordinators: Dan Simon, Juana Ponce de León and Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Seven Stories Press, New York, NY, June 17, 1999. “Alzheimer’s Disease: Fourth Leading Cause of Death Among the Elderly in U.S.” in Visión, July/August 1993. “El beso de la patria,” in Album: Cuentos del mundo hispánico, Lenxington, Massachusetts: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993. “José Martí en Nueva York,” Areíto Magazine (Spring 1994). “Grandmother’s Night,” in ”Bridges to Cuba”, Michigan Quarterly Review (Summer 1994 ). “Siete de enero, cumpleaños de mi papá”, in Confluencias, Revista de Cultura y Literatura, Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Northern Colorado. Vol. 10 num.. 2 (Spring 1995). “Celebración para un siete de agosto,” in Afro-Hispanic Review. (Spring 1996). ”El olor del desenfreno”, Las estatuas de sal. La Habana: Unión Nacional de Escritores y Artistas Cubanos (UNEAC). 1996. El olor del desenfreno. Festival de Monólogos presented by Producciones Artistas Unidos. New York: La Tea Theater. October 2 - December 1, 1996. ”Wish-ky Sour.“ Review essay about the play written by Chiqui Vicioso. El Listín. Santo Domingo, (November, 1996) “El octavo pliegue.” Tertuliando. Hanging Out. Ed. by Daisy Cocco De Filippis. Santo Domingo: Publicación de la Feria Internacional del Libro. 1997. Las Historias Prohibidas de Marta Veneranda. La Habana, Cuba: Editorial Casa de Las Américas. 1997 Cinco ventanas del mismo lado. La Candelaria 5. New York: Unesco/Planet Society, 1997 “Scent of Wild Desire” (Translated by Dick Cluster), Cubana. Boston: Beacon Press, 1998. Sortilegio de Tifinagh: El lenguaje de las mujeres. Production: Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Texts by: Annecy Báez, Josefina Báez, Daisy Cocco de Filippis, Marianela Medrano, Virginia Moore, Sonia Rivera-Valdés, Yrene Santos, Lourdes Vázquez, Ynoemia Villar. New York: Ediciones Alcance, Colección Tertuliando No. 1, 1998. “Los venenitos” (Translated by Alan West). Dream Without a Name. Introduction by Sonia Rivera-Valdés. New York: Seven Stories Press, 1999. “Entre un tango y un danzón.” in “Escritoras del Caribe Hispano: Una conversación.” Editors: Daisy Cocco DeFilippis and Sonia Rivera-Valdés. Editorial de la Universidad de Puerto Rico. Pending publication. “Autobiografía y máscara: El proceso creador de las escritoras de Cuba durante los últimos treinta y cinco años: Testimonios y Antología”. Edited by Sonia Rivera-Valdés. New York: Editorial Campana. Pending Publication. “El libro de los aniversarios” (Autobiography-Fiction). “Historias de mujeres grandes y chiquitas.” (Short Stories). “¿Quién es ésta que habla por mi boca?” (Novel). IV. COMMITTEE ASSIGNMENTS (should reflect the level of participation) 30th Celebration Department Committee: International Film Festival Organizer and Commentator. Department of Foreign Languages Poetry Contest Committee: Organization and student advisor. Inquietudes Hispanas. Journal Committee: Coordination and student orientation. Academic advisor for fifteen students. General advicement for language placement. Academic Advisor for fifteen students. General advicement for language placement. Student Counselor for the Hispanic Writers Club. VI. PUBLIC AND PROFESSIONAL WORKS IN FIELD OF SPECIALTY: VII. Coordinator for the following activities: Poetry Reading and Lectures about Caribbean Literature: Poeta, narrative and radio-novel writer, professor of Literature. Poet, narrative writer, literary critic. Poet, literary critic, Professor of Literature. Poet, Resarcher on Puerto Ricans Migration Process and Filmaker. Cuban poet and narrator, editor of Cubaneo, an independent cultural magazine. Dominican poet, performer and playwright. Dominican poet, narrator and playwright. Argentinian filmaker and college professor. Cuban filmaker, director of the Television and Radio Section of UNEAC (National Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba). Narrative Reading and Lecture at Sage/Queens Clubhouse, St. Andrew’s Church, Astoria, New York. Speaker Series Coordinator: Joseph Nicholas DeFilippis, February 20, 1998. “When Life Give You Lemons, Make Lemonade: Latino Immigrants and Success,” Lecture sponsored by The Hispanic Employment Program Committee, at the Northeastern Program Service Center. Jamaica Center Plaza, Jamaica, New York, September 16, 1998. “Grandmother’s Night,” Reading for children at The Little Red School, New York, NY, December 5, 1998. VIII. ADDITIONAL NARRATIVE WHERE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE THE INDIVIDUAL PROFILE. (Particular problems, special assets, etc.) Dr. Sonia Rivera-Valdés was appointed Assistant Professor of Spanish in the Spring 1998. However, since Dr. rivera-Valdés has served the College for a number of years first as Adjunct Assistant Professor and later as Substitute Assistant Professor she has been able to accomplish much in her first year as Assistant Professor. Dr. Rivera-Valdés is an award winning fiction writer whose stories have appeared in the past in some of the most prestigious publications on Latino literature, including Gloria Anzaldúa’s Esta puente, mi espalda, Ruth Behar’s Bridges to Cuba and Mirta Yáñez’ Cubanas. Dr. rivera-Valdés collection of stories Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda received the prestigious “Casa de las Américas” award in 1997. More recently, Las historias prohibidas have been reprinted in Cuba and have had a second, augmented edition published in Spain. Her interests and standing have benefited our students much. A very dynamic and student-centered instructor, Dr. Rivera-Valdés regularly involves the students in the creative process by serving as one of the advisors to the recently created “Writers Club”, organizing “A Celebration of Hispanic Culture Month” and advising the “International Film Club”. Professor Rivera-Valdés has joined generously and enthusiastically in many of the Department’s activities. During her first semester as a newly appointed Assistant Professor of Spanish she took over as advisor to the students’ journal Inquietudes Hispanas. An active participant in academic and cultural events, in the past year Dr. Rivera-Valdés has been invited to make presentation in a number of panels at such institutions as El Museo del Barrio, the CUNY University Center and Graduate School, Montclair State College, the University of Texas, Unión de Escritores y Artistas de Cuba, Hunter College, Lehman College, New York State Council for the Arts, Bronx Council for the Arts, Librería El Sur to name a few. She co-organized the Third Conference of Spanish Speaking Caribbean Women Writers at Hunter College, CUNY and was in the planning committee for the conference “The Education of Dominicans: A Dialogue” which took place in May 1998 at York College. This, in turn, has afforded Professor Rivera-Valdés the opportunity to invite to campus such notable figures as Josefina Báez, Emilio Bejel and Nemir Matos. Professor rivera-Valdés student evaluations and classroom observations continue to be quite high. She is known as a “gifted teacher” whose ability to reach students where they are and move them towards a successful academic career was one of the major reason the Department enthusiastically supported her appointment and subsequent reappointments as Assistant Professor of Spanish. We look forward to her continued involvement and generous contributions to the Department and the college in years to come. IX. THE OVERALL EVALUATION OF THIS FACULTY MEMBER AS A MEMBER OF HER DISCIPLINE OF ITS PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS IS: Satisfactory––––––––––––––––––– Unsatisfactory–––––––––––––––––– Signed–––––––––––––––––––––––––– I have read the above report. My initials do not necessarily signify agreement. I understand that I may submit a rebuttal. Initialed by staff member: –––––––––––––––– Date:–––––––––––––––––– 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