Background

Sonia Rivera-Valdés was born on August 8, 1937 in Havana, Cuba, to Enrique Rivera Fernandez and Angela Valdés. In 1966, she arrived in the United States.

Education

In 1989, Sonia received a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Spanish from the City University of New York.

Career

Sonia has worked to promote Cuban and Latin American Culture in the United States, as well as establishing cultural links between Latin America and the United States. At present, she is the president of Latino Artists Round Table (LART), collaborates with the Tertulia de Escritoras Dominicanas in New York and also is a professor of Latin American Literature at York College.

Sonia is also an author. Her stories and articles have been published in literary collections in the United States, Europe, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Her works include Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda (1998); Historias de mujeres grandes y chiquitas; Cuéntame una historia: seis que pueden ser novela; Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda (2003); The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda (2000); Rosas de Abolengo (2011); Historias de Mujeres Grandes y Chiquitas (2003).

Achievements

• Considered one of the most important Cuban writers alive, Sonia Rivera-Valdés has had stories appear in many anthologies in the United States, Europe and Latin America, including Cubana and Dream with No Name. Rivera-Valdés is president of Latino Artists Round Table (LART), a cultural organization dedicated to fostering communication between Latino/a artists in the United States, Latin America and Spain. She has written extensively on Latin American and Hispanic literature.
  
  In January of 1997, Sonia won the Casa de Las Américas literary prize, one of the most prestigious awards in Latin American, with Las historias prohibidas de Marta Veneranda, a short story book about the intimate lives of Latino immigrants in New York. She also was a recipient of the Presidential Outstanding Scholarship that was announced and presented by the President during Fall 2009 Convocation.

Works

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• book

  • Stories of Little Women and Grown-Up Girls

    (Stories of Little Women and Grown-up Girls is a wise book...)

    2003
  • The Forbidden Stories of Marta Veneranda

    (Marta Veneranda, a Latina neoyorkina, finds that she insp...)

    1997
  • Historias de Mujeres Grandes y Chiquitas 2003
  • Documents of Dissidence: Selected Writings of Dominican Women 2000

Membership

Sonia is a member of the Board of Directors of the Dominican Studies Association.

Connections

Sonia was married to Mario Picayo but they divorced. Sonia has three children: Mario Picayo, Jesús Picayo and José Picayo.

Father:

Enrique Rivera Fernandez

Mother:

Angela Valdés

Ex-husband:

Mario Picayo

Son:

Mario Picayo

Son:

José Picayo

Son:

Jesús Picayo

References

• Contemporary Authors New Revision Series In response to the escalating need for up-to-date information on writers, Contemporary Authors New Revision Series (Volume 198) brings researchers the most recent data on the world's most popular authors.
  2010