Conference on Gender, Families,
and Latino Immigration in Oregon

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Erlinda Gonzales-Berry

Emerita Professor, former chair Chicana/o and Latina/o Studies, Oregon State University

Erlinda Gonzales-Berry received her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in Romance Languages. She has held professorial positions at Earlham College, New Mexico State University, the University of New Mexico, and Oregon State University, where she served as chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies from 1997 until 2007. She has published extensively on Chicano/a literature and culture and more recently has turned her attention to immigration.

Dr. Erlinda Gonzales-Berry was born in rural Northeastern New Mexico where her ancestors homesteaded in the 1880s, having moved there from Central New Mexico, where their ancestors had settled in the 1700s. Gonzales-Berry taught public school in Santa Maria, California and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her first university position was at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana. In 1978 she returned to New Mexico where she taught one year at New Mexico State University before moving on to the University of New Mexico where she held a position, including department chair, until 1997. In 1997 she took a position as chair of the newly established Department of Ethnic Studies at Oregon State University. Her graduate study of Spanish and Latin American literature encouraged Gonzales-Berry to explore the culture and experiences of the Mexican origin population in the United States. She has written extensively on Hispanos in New Mexico and is currently doing research on Mexican immigration to Oregon. She has edited seven books, including Pasó Por Aquí: Critical Essays on the New Mexican Literary Tradition, and The Contested Homeland: A Chicano History of New Mexico. In addition to more than fifty articles on various topics related to Latino culture published in the United States, Spain, Germany, and Mexico, Gonzales-Berry is author of Paletitas de Guayaba, a short novel.

Most recently Gonzales-Berry has been selected by the Oregon Humanities Council to participate in the Oregon Chautauqua Lecture Program; Her Chautauqua title is, "Sojourners, Settlers, and New Immigrants: Mexicanos in Oregon, 1030-2006." She has also been named to serve on the Governor's Commission on Hispanic Affairs, pending approval by the state Senate.