Resisting the Darkness of Boxes: A Conversation with María Teresa Márquez Melina Vizcaíno-Alemán
Introduction: On March 27, 2021, I had the honor of interviewing Associate Professor Emerita María Teresa Márquez (MTM) in her Albuquerque home. The purpose of the interview was to find out more about her friendship and work with Mr. Rudolfo Anaya. They met in 1974 at UNM when she was a librarian in Zimmerman Library and he was a faculty member in the English Department (1974-1993). Mr. Anaya established the annual Rudolfo and Patricia Anaya Lecture on the Literature of the Southwest in 2010, and I began working with him to select speakers and organize the series in 2015. The purpose of my interview was to document the Anaya Lecture’s “pre-history,” so to speak, and to acknowledge MTM’s ground-breaking labor in the library. I also thought it was important to hear her story, from one Chicana scholar to another. The original recording and transcript are being processed as part of the Rudolfo A. Anaya Papers at the Center for Southwest Research and Special Collections in Zimmerman Library and will be placed alongside documents related to Blue Mesa Review (MSS 321, box 22, folders 7-15). I have edited the interview for length and style and in consultation with MTM. MVA: Tell me about the speaker’s series you and Rudy organized together. MTM: When I was at the Center for Southwest Research (CSWR) in Zimmerman Library, I decided that I would establish a speaker’s series and I called it CHIPOTLE. I made a list of people that I would like to invite to come to the library. One of the goals was to increase the number of people coming into the library, not only the students but people from the community. So, I developed the speaker’s series, reaching out to the larger community—because the community was ignored by the library—and then also to the students who really didn’t feel very welcome in the CSWR. I had a dual purpose for CHIPOTLE. Under CHIPOTLE, I invited speakers such as John Nichols and faculty members from UNM, and then I publicized the speakers. I invited students from the English Department classes and students from Chicana/o classes in the Spanish Department. I went out and asked for funds to buy pizzas and cokes. Then I would also buy copies of the books by the speakers I had invited. I would ask the speakers to speak twice, once at noon for the students, and then in the evening for the general public. MVA: In 1993, presumably after CHIPOTLE, you and Rudy established the Premio Aztlán? MTM: Right, I don’t remember if he approached me, or I approached him. We talked about establishing Premio Aztlán and Crítica Nueva, and I said that I would organize, and so I did. MVA: What was Premio Aztlán and what was Crítica Nueva? MTM: Premio Aztlán was the award for best book published in the current year. I would go on 10 | Issue 43
