Margarite Fernandez Olmos

Background

Margarite was born on February 24, 1949, in New York, United States to Peter Fernandez and Virginia Ortiz.

Education

Fernandez Olmos attended Catholic schools as a child and then studied at Montclair State College (now known as Montclair State University). Although she wanted to study fashion design, the college 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 in the form of several female Hispanic professors. During her junior year, she attended the University of Madrid. Fernandez Olmos later attained a master’s degree from New York University’s school in Spain and a doctorate from New York University.

Career

While pursuing her master’s degree, Fernandez met her future husband, Enrique Olmos. The two married in 1973; the following year the couple took a car trip to Mexico and later traveled through Latin America. These experiences convinced Fernandez that she should study the literature and cultures of Latin America. Later, with fellow Brooklyn College professor Doris Meyer, Fernandez edited Contemporary Women Authors of Latin America: Introductory Essays and New Translations (1983).

Fernandez Olmos also teaches and writes about Caribbean literature and culture. Her book La cuentistica de Juan Bosch: un análisis estetico-cultural discusses the literature of Juan Bosch, the former president of the Dominican Republic. Sobre la literatura puertorriqueña de aquí y de alia: aproximaciones feministas is a 1989 collection of Fernandez Olmos’s essays.

With Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert, Fernandez Olmos edited Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santería and Obeah, and the Caribbean, another work examining Caribbean culture.

Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert joined Fernandez Olmos in other projects. They edited a book about sexual expression, El placer de la palabra: literatura erotica femenina de America Latina: antologia critica, a work translated as Pleasure in the Word: Erotic Writing by Latin American Women. They also edited Remaking a Lost Harmony: Short Stories from the Hispanic Caribbean, a book of short stories by Spanish-speaking Caribbean writers.

Achievements

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

Works

More photos

• book

  • Rudolfo A. Anaya: A Critical Companion
  • Creole Religions of the Caribbean: An Introduction from Vodou and Santeria to Obeah and Espiritismo
  • U.S. Latino Literature: A Critical Guide for Students and Teachers by Margarite Fernandez Olmos
  • The Latino Reader: An American Literary Tradition from 1542 to the Present
  • Sacred Possessions: Vodou, Santerfa, Obeah, and the Caribbean
  • Pleasure In The Word: Erotic Writing by Latin American Women

Views

Quotations: “Perhaps the best way to describe my research interests over the past twenty years would be to consider my work as a type of bridgebuilding 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.”

Membership

• PEN

• Modern Language Association

• American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese

Connections

Margarite married Enrique R. Olmos, on March 23, 1973. They have a daughter, Gabriela Olmos.

Father:

Peter Fernandez

Mother:

Virginia Ortiz

husband:

Enrique R. Olmos

Daughter:

Gabriela Olmos