http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005XGSAAI/?tag=2022091-20
1979
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/8435903176/?tag=2022091-20
1983
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0943219027/?tag=2022091-20
1987
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570871175/?tag=2022091-20
1995
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CFAOG4/?tag=2022091-20
2010
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004CFAPOK/?tag=2022091-20
2010
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1257994379/?tag=2022091-20
2010
human rights advocate scholars poet
Luz Umpierre-Herrera was born on October 15, 1947 in Santurce, Puerto Rico, in the family of Eduardo Umpierre-Pulzoni and Providencia (Herrera) Umpierre. Luz grew up in a working-class neighborhood called "La veintiuna" in a household with sixteen people. Her mother was born in Puerto Rico and grew up in New York City; for this reason, Umpierre was exposed to English and Spanish as a child. Her father was a government worker.
Luz earned her Bachelor of Arts, with Honors, in Spanish and Humanities from the Universidad del Sagrado Corazón in 1970. In 1976, she received her Master of Arts in Spanish (Caribbean Literature) from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, where we also completed her Doctor of Philisophy in Spanish in 1978. She has also completed Post Doctoral Studies in the Fields of: Literary Theory at the University of Kansas in 1981-1982, University Administration as a State of New Jersey/Woodrow Wilson International Center Fellow in 1986, and Management and Policy at the New School for Social Research, Milano School-Syracuse Campus in 1995-1996.
Umpierre went on to teach at several institutions. She also created the first courses on Caribbean Literature and Culture at Rutgers University, as well as one of the first courses on Latinas in the U.S. to be taught in the country.
Luz was banned in 1989 from teaching at the university for her inclusion of Gay and Lesbian texts in her literature classes and after she spoke at the March on Washington, DC of 1987.
Immediately following her resignation from Rutgers based on their violations of the ADA before it was enacted, she worked as Head and Professor of the then Department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies and Folklore at the Western Kentucky University.
In 1992, Luz became a faculty member at the State University of New York –Brockport (SUNY) and was a Professor of Foreign Languages and Literatures.
Umpierre eventually relocated to Bates College in Lewiston, Maine, where she was an Associate Professor for Classic and Romance Languages and Literatures, along with Women Studies in 1998. She expanded the curriculum of this university as well, to include adding courses dealing with Latina Literature and Culture, Creative Writing, and Latin American Studies. She eventually left Bates College of her own choosing in 2002 to nurture her writing career and continue in promoting activist causes.
Luz is an open lesbian.
