Author Rudolfo Anaya will come full circle Thursday evening, reflecting on his famous works and his career as a UNM professor.
The lecture is part of the annual Literature of the Southwest series, which focuses on the works of Chicano and indigenous writers. The event will take place at 5:30 p.m. in the George Pearl Hall auditorium. It is free and open to the public.
Kathleen Washburn, an English professor, said Arizona State University professor Simon Ortiz will speak at the event. An Acoma Pueblo native, Ortiz will talk about the significance of southwestern and indigenous literature.
“He’s really one of the foundational figures in the field, one of the first people publishing (Native American literature) in the late 60s and early 70s,” Washburn said. “We wanted to have someone from New Mexico for the first lecture.”
Without Anaya’s contribution, Washburn said, the lecture series would not have been possible. She said Anaya, the author of Bless Me Ultima and a retired UNM English professor, wished to keep his donation amount a secret.
“It was a generous donation,” Washburn said. “It was an endowment that will provide for this lecture for 10 years.”
Anaya said the series is designed to educate people about the Southwest’s unique art. He said he and Ortiz have been friends for many years, and that Ortiz has been an important Southwest literary figure.
“We just want to let the world know that we have literature in the Southwest, and it’s very important and very interesting,” Anaya said. “Every literature has a sense of place. … As we describe our place, other people learn about it. That’s what literature is all about.”
Ortiz said his native roots and upbringing have influenced him. He said Native American writing continues to be a vibrant, if overlooked, field.
“The indigenous American has been a central voice, and a very basic voice of the American
southwest,” Ortiz said. “We’re not just interesting anthropological data, or something to see in exhibits, but we are a living, thriving, simply vigorous and dynamic people.”
Ortiz also said that his writing has been shaped by the social movements and political tumult of the 1960s, when he began his writing career.
“The civil rights struggle really opened the gates for literature and artistic expression,” he said. “It was a very liberating time, and I would say that my voice thrives because of that liberation.”
