Fernandez Olmos, Margarite 1949–

PERSONAL: Born February 24, 1949, in New York, NY; daughter of Peter Fernandez and Virginia Ortiz; married Enrique R. Olmos, March 23, 1973; children: Gabriela Olmos. Ethnicity: "Puerto Rican." Education: University of Madrid, certificado de estudios hispanicos, 1969; Montclair State College (now University), B.A. (cum laude), 1970; New York University, M.A., 1972, Ph.D., 1979.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, 2900 Bedford Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11210-2813. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER: New York University, New York, NY, lecturer, 1972–76; Brooklyn College of the City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, instructor, 1976–81, assistant professor, 1981–84, associate professor, 1984–90, professor of Spanish and of Latin American and Caribbean literature and culture, 1990–, Tow Professor, 1997–98, faculty fellow of Wolfe Institute, 1993–94. Eugenio Maria de Hostos Community College of the City University of New York, adjunct lecturer, 1973–76; Fordham University, adjunct lecturer, 1975–76.

AWARDS, HONORS: Ford Foundation fellowship for minorities, 1970–75; postdoctoral fellowship for minorities, Ford Foundation and National Research Council, 1985–86; research grant, Recovering the U.S. Hispanic Literary Heritage Project, 1996.

WRITINGS:

La cuentística de Juan Bosch: un análisis críticocultural, Editora Alfa y Omega (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), 1982.

Sobre la literatura puertorriqueña de aquí y de allá: aproximaciones feministas (essays), Editora Alfa y Omega (Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic), 1989.

Rudolfo A. Anaya: A Critical Companion, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1999.

(With Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert) Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santería to Obeah and Espiritismo, New York University Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Contributor to periodicals, including Third Woman.

EDITOR

(With Doris Meyer) Contemporary Women Authors of Latin America: Introductory Essays, Brooklyn College Press (Brooklyn, New York, NY), 1983.

(With Doris Meyer) Contemporary Women Authors of Latin America: New Translations, Brooklyn College Press (New York, NY), 1983.

(With Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert) El placer de la palabra: literatura erótica femenina de América Latina (critical anthology), Editorial Planeta Mexicana (Mexico City, Mexico), 1991, translation published as Pleasure in the Word: Erotic Writings by Latin American Women, White Pine Press (Fredonia, NY), 1993.

(And translator; with Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert) Remaking a Lost Harmony: Short Stories from the Hispanic Caribbean, White Pine Press (Fredonia, NY), 1995.

(With Harold Augenbraum; and coauthor of introduction) The Latino Reader: An American Literary Tradition from 1542 to the Present, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1997.

(With Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert) Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santería and Obeah, and the Caribbean, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ), 1997.

(With Harold Augenbraum) U.S. Latino Literature: A Critical Guide for Students and Teachers, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 2000.

(With Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert) Healing Cultures: Art and Religion as Curative Practices in the Caribbean and Its Diaspora, Palgrave-St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Some of Fernandez Olmos's work has been published in German.

SIDELIGHTS: Margarite Fernandez Olmos is noted for her analyses of Latin American and Caribbean literature and culture, particularly the work of Latina writers.

Fernandez Olmos originally wanted to study fashion design, but the college she attended did not offer that field of study, so she majored in Spanish language and literature. At college Fernandez Olmos found the academic inspiration she was seeking from several female Hispanic professors. In 1974, during a car trip to Mexico and after later travels through Latin America, Fernandez Olmos became convinced that she should study the literature and cultures of Latin America. Later, with Doris Meyer, Fernandez Olmos edited Contemporary Women Authors of Latin America: Introductory Essays and Contemporary Women Authors of Latin America: New Translations, a two-volume collection of translated writings by Latina authors. Originally created as a classroom text, it calls attention to a previously unrecognized group of writers.

Despite its title, U.S. Latino Literature: A Critical Guide for Students and Teachers is intended mainly as a resource for teachers, according to Booklist reviewer Hazel Rochman. Based on recommendations from high school teachers of Latino students, Fernandez Olmos and coeditor Harold Augenbraum selected and analyzed the work of nearly twenty Latino writers living in the United States. Their emphasis was on the ways in which these authors adapted to the U.S. lifestyle without sacrificing their ethnic identities. Guidelines for teachers include appendices containing a sample course outline, a guide to related Internet resources, and information on gay and lesbian Latino writers.

Fernandez Olmos also teaches and writes about Caribbean literature and culture. Her book La cuentística de Juan Bosch: un análisis crático-cultural, discusses the writings of Juan Bosch, the former president of the Dominican Republic. Sobre la literatura puertorriqueña de aquí y de allá: aproximaciones feministas is a collection of essays that address the similarities and differences between Puerto Ricans who stay on the Caribbean island and Puerto Ricans who move to the United States. She also edited several works with Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert. Barbara Mujica, writing in the English edition of Americas, found one of these collaborations, Remaking a Lost Harmony: Short Stories from the Hispanic Caribbean, to be a "fine new anthology" that establishes cultural links among Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico. Mujica praised Fernandez Olmos and Paravisini-Gebert for doing "a wonderful job of balancing the works of some of the Caribbean's most renowned writers with those of emerging stars." Booklist contributor Michele Leber voiced similar praise, calling Remaking a Lost Harmony "an impressive collection."

In Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santería to Obeah and Espiritismo, Fernandez Olmos and collaborator Paravisini-Gebert depart from the prevalent theological approach to studies of Caribbean religions to offer what Elizabeth Peréz described in her Journal of Religion review as a "generally inviting and lucid" introduction for readers with no prior background in the subject. They define the process of "creolization" as one of assimilation: extracting elements from various European and African religious practices to create new religions unique to the Caribbean experience. They describe and compare a wide variety of these religions: both well known and obscure, ranging from life-enveloping religious commitments to the healing arts used on an as-needed basis. Though Peréz did not hesitate to identify the book's weaknesses, she made a point of noting that "the authors should be commended for refusing to place disproportionate emphasis on the most sensational, and sensationalized, aspects of their subject matter and focusing instead on questions of identity, power, and representation." She also appreciated the authors' success at integrating colorful examples and other enhancements from literary works and travel experiences with the more scholarly presentations in the book.

Fernandez Olmos once told CA: "Perhaps the best way to describe my research interests over the past several years would be to consider my work as a type of bridge-building in which I have attempted to forge connections across cultures, languages and diverse peoples. The concern for cross-cultural links is probably a natural product of my personal background as a U.S. Puerto Rican; my interest in language and translation is also undoubtedly influenced by my bilingual and bicultural origins. And my endeavor to produce scholarly research that reaches beyond a limited group of highly trained specialists, while maintaining value and significance, reflects a concern that scholarship be inclusive as it breaks new ground, broadens the field, and transforms knowledge."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

The Hispanic-American Almanac, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1993.

Notable Hispanic American Women, Volume 2, Gale (Detroit, MI), 1998.

PERIODICALS

American Anthropologist, June, 1998, Joseph O. Palacio, review of Sacred Possessions: Voudou, Santería, Obeah, and the Caribbean, p. 546.

American Book Review, December, 1994, review of Pleasure in the Word: Erotic Writings by Latin American Women, p. 10.

Americas: Quarterly Review of Inter-American Cultural History, May-June, 1996, Barbara Mujica, review of Remaking a Lost Harmony: Short Stories from the Hispanic Caribbean, pp. 62-63; January, 2002, Arvilla Payne-Jackson, review of Healing Cultures: Art and Religion as Curative Practices in the Caribbean and Its Diaspora, p. 484.

Anthropological Quarterly, fall, 2003, Aisha Khan, review of Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Voudou and Santería to Obeah and Espiritismo, pp. 761-774.

Bloomsbury Review, March-April, 1994, review of Pleasure in the Word, p. 3.

Booklist, May 1, 1995, Michele Leber, review of Remaking a Lost Harmony, p. 1553; March 1, 1997, review of The Latino Reader: An American Literary Tradition from 1542 to the Present, p. 1104; March 15, 2001, Hazel Rochman, review of U.S. Latino Literature: A Critical Guide for Students and Teachers, p. 1407.

Choice, October, 1997, S.D. Glazier, review of Sacred Possessions, p. 336; March, 2001, review of U.S. Latino Literature; February, 2004, review of Creole Religions of the Caribbean.

Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 16, 1997, Jesse Tinsley, "Expanding Literary Voices of Latinos."

Hispanic American Historical Review, August, 1998, Joseph M. Murphy, review of Sacred Possessions, p. 495; February, 2003, Theron Corse, review of Healing Cultures, pp. 210-211.

Hispanic Review, winter, 1998, review of Sacred Possessions.

Hungry Mind Review, spring, 1994, Dwight Garner, review of Pleasure in the Word.

Journal of Religion, July, 1998, Kelly Hayes, review of Sacred Possessions, p. 485; October, 2004, Elizabeth Peréz, review of Creole Religions of the Caribbean, p. 670.

Library Journal, June 1, 1995, Rebecca Stuhr-Rommereim, review of Remaking a Lost Harmony, pp. 166-167; March 15, 1997, review of The Latino Reader; July, 2003, L. Kriz, review of Creole Religions of the Caribbean, p. 88.

MultiCultural Review, March, 1994, Susan Smith Nash, review of Pleasure in the Word, p. 64; December, 1995, Patricia Rubio, review of Remaking a Lost Harmony; spring, 2004, Diana Budhai, review of Creole Religions of the Caribbean.

Publishers Weekly, August 23, 1993, review of Pleasure in the Word, p. 61; April 17, 1995, review of Remaking a Lost Harmony, pp. 52-53; February 17, 1997, review of The Latino Reader.

Reference and Research Book News, February, 2000, review of Rudolfo A. Anaya: A Critical Companion, p. 172; August, 2001, review of Healing Cultures, p. 69.

Religious Studies Review, October, 1999, review of Sacred Possessions.

San Diego Union-Tribune, March 30, 1997, Luisa Alberto Urrea, review of The Latino Reader.

School Library Journal, February, 2001, Sylvia V. Meisner, review of U.S. Latino Literature, p. 147.

Village Voice Literary Supplement, November, 1994, review of Pleasure in the Word, p. 11.

Western American Literature, fall, 2001, review of Rudolfo A. Anaya, p. 309.

Women's Review of Books, May, 1995, Carol Maier, review of Pleasure in the Word, p. 19.

World Literature Today, winter, 1985, Sonja Karsen, review of Contemporary Women Authors of Latin America.