Background

Ethnicity: Behar was born ito a Jewish-Cuban family of Sephardic Turkish, and Ashkenazi Polish and Russian ancestry.

Ruth Behar was born on November 12, 1956 in Havana, Ciudad de la Habana, Cuba, in the family of Alberto Behar and Rebecca (Glinsky) Behar. In 1962 she immigrated to the United States, and since 1986 she is a naturalized citizen.

Education

Behar attended local schools and studied as an undergraduate at Wesleyan University, receiving her Bachelor of Arts in 1977. She studied cultural anthropology at Princeton University, earning her doctorate in 1983.

Career

Behar is a professor at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Her literary work is featured in the Michigan State University's Michigan Writers Series. A writer of anthropology, essays, poetry and fiction, Behar focuses on issues related to women and feminism.

Achievements

• In 1988, Behar was the first Latino woman to be awarded a MacArthur fellowship.

Works

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• book

  • Lucky Broken Girl 2018
  • The Vulnerable Observer: Anthropology That Breaks Your Heart 1997
  • An Island Called Home: Returning to Jewish Cuba 2009
  • Translated Woman: Crossing the Border with Esperanza's Story 2003
  • Traveling Heavy: A Memoir in between Journeys 2014
  • Women Writing Culture 1996
  • Bridges to Cuba / Puentes a Cuba 1995
  • The Presence of the Past in a Spanish Village 1991
  • Cubana: Contemporary Fiction by Cuban Women 1998

Connections

On June 6, 1982, Ruth married David Frye, with whom she has a child Gabriel Frye-Behar.

Father:

Alberto Behar

Mother:

Rebecca (Glinsky) Behar

Spouse:

David Frye

child:

Gabriel Frye-Behar