Mexican author Rosario Sanmiguel read her short story, "Bajo el Puente," included in her longer work, Under the Bridge: Stories from the Border/Bajo el Puente: Relatos desde la frontera, in Spanish to a U.S. Hispanic civilization and culture class of 30 students on Thursday.
"The story is basically about the immigration process and coming to the United States and how people in Mexico and on the border lived," Associate professor of Hispanic Literature and event organizer Gabriela Baeza Ventura said. "The book tries to demystify crossing the border – about what it’s like to cross the border and it demystifies the American dream for immigrants."
Students in Ventura’s class learn about U.S. Latino culture and the Latino effect on the U.S. from colonial to contemporary times.
Ventura said she tries to illustrate contemporary times with stories like Rosario’s and show the presence of Latinos in print and journalism throughout history in her class.
"Students are starting to realize that (Latinos) should be in the history books and that they are integral citizens of the United States," she said.
Ventura required her class to read Rosario’s short story and come prepared with questions.
Under the Bridge: Stories from the Border was one of 28 books published this year by UH’s Arte Publico Press, a major distributor of Hispanic literature founded by Director Nicol’aacute;s Kanellos.
Arte Publico Press launched the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project in 1992 to recover, index and publish lost Latino writings dating from the American colonial period through 1960.
Sanmiguel will read her story at the 10th biennial Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Conference at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1700 Smith St. The event will be followed by a fundraising dinner for the Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage project.
The fee to register for the conference is $30 for professors and $10 for students. The ticket for the fundraising dinner is $40. The event is sponsored by UH, Rice University and Texas Southern University.
