Descriptive Summary
Access
Publication Rights
Preferred Citation
Acquisition Information
Historical Note
Scope and Content
Indexing Terms
Descriptive Summary
Title: Rigoberto Gonzalez Papers,
Date (inclusive): 1993-2008
Collection number: 99
Creator: Gonzalez,
Rigoberto 1970 - 1970-
Extent:
7 linear feet
Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Chicano Studies Research Center, UCLA
Los Angeles, California 90095-1490
Abstract: Born in Bakersfield, California on July 18,
1970, and raised in Michoacán, Mexico, he is the son and grandson
of migrant farmworkers, both parents now deceased. His extended family
migrated back to California in 1980 and returned to Mexico in 1992.
González remained alone in the U.S. to complete his education.
Details of his troubled childhood in Michoacán and his difficult
adolescence as an immigrant in California are the basis for his coming
of age memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa. During his
college years he also performed with various Baile Folklorico and
Flamenco dance troupes. He earned a B.A. in Humanities and Social
Sciences Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California,
Riverside [1], and graduate degrees from the University of California,
Davis, and Arizona State University in Tempe. His former teachers
include the Chicano poets Gary Soto, Francisco X. Alarcón, Lorna
Dee Cervantes, Pat Mora and Alberto Ríos, and the African
American writers Clarence Major and Jewell Parker Rhodes. This
collection consists of correspondence, books, syllabi, newspaper
clippings, manuscripts, and the personal papers of the writer, scholar,
and professor Rigoberto Gonzalez. Researchers who would like to indicate
errors of fact or omissions in this finding aid can contact the research
center at www.chicano.ucla.edu
Physical location: Currently stored at the UCLA Chicano
Studies Research Center Library Archive. In the future the collection
will be stored off-site at the UCLA Southern Regional Library Facility.
Language of Material: Collection materials in English, Spanish
Access
Collection is open for research.To view the collection or any part of
it, please contact the CSRC at http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/
Publication Rights
All publication rights by permission only. Copyright has not been
assigned to the Chicano Studies Research Center. All requests for
permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in
writing to the Archivist and/or the Librarian at the Chicano Studies
Research Center Library. Permission for publication is given on behalf
of the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the
copyright holder, which must also be obtained.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Rigoberto Gonzalez Papers, 99, Chicano
Studies Research Center, UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles.
Acquisition Information
Donated to the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center Library Archive.
Deed on file at the archive office.
Historical Note
Born in Bakersfield, California on July 18, 1970, and raised in
Michoacán, Mexico, he is the son and grandson of migrant
farmworkers, both parents now deceased. His extended family migrated
back to California in 1980 and returned to Mexico in 1992.
González remained alone in the U.S. to complete his education.
Details of his troubled childhood in Michoacán and his difficult
adolescence as an immigrant in California are the basis for his coming
of age memoir Butterfly Boy: Memories of a Chicano Mariposa.
During his college years he also performed with various Baile Folklorico
and Flamenco dance troupes. He earned a B.A. in Humanities and Social
Sciences Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of California,
Riverside, and graduate degrees from the University of California,
Davis, and Arizona State University in Tempe. His former teachers
include the Chicano poets Gary Soto, Francisco X. Alarcón, Lorna
Dee Cervantes, Pat Mora and Alberto Ríos, and the African
American writers Clarence Major and Jewell Parker Rhodes.
In 1997 González enrolled in a PhD program at the University
of New Mexico in Albuquerque, but dropped out a year later to join his
partner in New York City and to pursue a writing career. The two
published their first books only a few months apart in the spring of
1999 and received numerous awards and recognitions for their works. In
2001, González pursued a career as an academic, holding
distinguished teaching appointments at The New School, the University of
Toledo, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Queens
College/City University of New York.
González has lived and worked mostly in New York City and
currently teaches at the writing program of Rutgers University in
Newark, where he is Associate Professor of English. He also holds a
part-time appointment with the Vermont College of Fine Arts in
Montpelier. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a National
Endowment for the Arts fellowship, the American Book Award from the
Before Columbus Foundation, The Poetry Center Book Award from San
Francisco State University, and of various international artist
residencies including stays in Spain, Brazil, Costa Rica, Scotland and
Switzerland, he writes a monthly Chicano/Latino book review column, now
entering its seventh year, for the El Paso Times of Texas. He is also
contributing editor for 'Poets & Writers,' an executive board member
of the National Book Critics Circle, and is on the Advisory Circle of
Con Tinta, a collective of Chicano/Latino activist-writers.
In 2008 he was named to the position of 2009 Poet-in-Residence by the
Board of Trustees of The Frost Place, the farm house of Robert Frost
located in New Hampshire. He was also named one of 100 Men and Women Who
Made 2008 a Year to Remember by Out Magazine. In 2009, 'My Latino Voice'
named him one of the 25 most influential GLBT Latinos in the country.
Gonzalez is an award-winning author of poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and
bilingual children's books, and self-identifies in his writing as a gay
Chicano. He is also contributing editor for Poets & Writers
Magazine, an executive board member of the National Book Critics Circle,
and is on the Advisory Circle of Con Tinta, a collective of
Chicano/Latino activist-writers.
Respected for his versatility with literary genres and for his
generosity toward writers, González has championed a number of
efforts to give visibility to marginalized voices. He curates and hosts
'The Quetzal Quill', a reading series in Manhattan, and has featured a
number of poets on The Poetry Foundation blog 'Harriet', and on the
National Book Critics Circle blog 'Critical Mass' through the Small
Press Spotlight Series.
Scope and Content
This collection consists of correspondence, books, syllabi, newspaper
clippings, manuscripts, and the personal papers of the writer, scholar,
and professor Rigoberto Gonzalez.
Indexing Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this
collection in the library's online public access catalog.
Subjects
Butterfly Boy
Chicano Mariposa
Michoacan
Rigoberto Gonzalez