Tomás Rivera

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Tomás Rivera (December 22, 1935—May 16, 1984) was a Chicano author, poet, and educator. He was chancellor of the University of California, Riverside, the first Mexican American to hold the position at any university of the University of California. He is best remembered for his 1971 Faulknerian stream-of-consciousness novella Y no se lo tragó la tierra, translated into English as And the Earth did not Devour Him.

Contents 1 Youth and family 2 Education and career 3 Civic activities 4 Works 5 Legacy 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Youth and family

Rivera was born in Crystal City, Texas to migrant farmworkers. In his youth, he accompanied his parents as they labored in various parts of the Midwest. These experiences had a discernable impact on his writing and his determination to succeed. He married Concepción Garza on November 27 1978, and the couple had three children.

[edit] Education and career

Rivera graduated from Crystal City High School and worked in the fields alongside his family before attending Texas State University-San Marcos, where he earned a B.S. in English in 1958 and a MEd in education administration in 1964. He taught in public schools and at Southwest Texas Junior College in Uvalde, Texas. He then attended the University of Oklahoma where he earned a Master's degree in Spanish literature and a doctorate in Romance languages and literature in 1960. He then taught at Sam Houston State University and helped plan the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he filled several positions before becoming the chief executive officer of the University of Texas at El Paso in 1978. He left to become chancellor of UCR in 1979, a position he held until 1984.

[edit] Civic activities

Besides writing, educating, and administering, Rivera traveled worldwide and was active in the professional community. Both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan appointed him to commissions on higher education, and he headed the National Council of Chicanos in Higher Education, which he helped to found. He was the driving force behind the establishment of the Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at Pomona College, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2005. He also served on the boards of the Carnegie Institute, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and the Educational Testing Service.

[edit] Works

• Contributed:

• • The Ties that bind : questioning family dynamics and family discourse in Hispanic literature. edited, with an introduction and notes by Sara E. Cooper. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2004. ISBN 0761826491

• Poetry:

• • Always and Other Poems. Tomás Rivera. 1973.
  • The searchers : collected poetry. Tomás Rivera; edited by Julián Oliveres. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1990. ISBN 155885018X

• Complete works:

• • Tomás Rivera : the complete works. Tomás Rivera, edited by Julián Olivares. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1991. ISBN 1558850392

• In translation:

• • This migrant earth; Rolando Hinojosa’s rendition in English of Tomás Rivera’s ... y no se tragó la tierra. Houston: Arte Publico Press, 1987. ISBN 0934770557 (pbk.)
  • --y no se lo tragó la tierra. Tomás Rivera; [translated by Evangelina Vigil-Piñón]. Houston: Arte Público Press, 1987. ISBN 0934770727 (pbk.)

• Discussed in:

• • Countering the counterculture: rereading postwar American dissent from Jack Kerouac to Tomás Rivera. Manuel Luis Martinez. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. ISBN 0299192806
  • La teoría de "La dialéctica de la diferencia" en la novela chicana, de Ramón Saldívar : un análisis metacrítico del texto. Justo S. Alarcón. Hermosillo, México; Phoenix: Editorial Orbis Press, 1997. ISBN 9687472006
  • The Latino reader : an American literary tradition from 1542 to the present. Edited and with an introduction by Harold Augenbraum and Margarite Fernández Olmos. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. ISBN 0395765293

Tomás Rivera, 1935-1984 : the man and his work. Edited by Vernon E. Lattin, Rolando Hinojosa, Gary D. Keller. Tempe: Bilingual Review/Press, 1988. ISBN 0916950891 (pbk.)

• Film:

• • --and the earth did not swallow him. American Playhouse Theatrical Films presents a production of KPBS and Severo Perez Films; produced by Paul Espinosa; written and directed by Severo Perez. New York, NY : Kino International : Kino Video, c1997.

[edit] Legacy

Dr. Rivera died in his Fontana home in 1984. In addition to having a University of Texas at Austin professorship, a UCR plaza, a Riverside county elementary and middle school, and a Mexican American children's book award named in his honor, he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Santa Clara University and was named a distinguished alumnus by Texas State University-San Marcos. His work is studied in courses of American and Chicano literature, and the Pomona College institute bearing his name continues to publish studies on educational, immigration, economic, and other issues important to Hispanic Americans.

At the University of Texas at San Antonio, a tutoring center is named in his honor. At Texas State University-San Marcos Student Center Drive was renamed Tomas Rivera Drive in his honor.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Tomás Rivera Policy Institute at the University of Southern California
• reference regarding UCR dates
• The Tomás Rivera Center for Student Success at the University of Texas at San Antonio

Preceded by Ivan Hinderaker

Chancellor of UCR 1979–1984

Succeeded by Daniel G. Aldrich