UTEP Professor to Use Grant to Promote Cultural Readings, Activities

Last Updated on June 25, 2018 at 12:00 AM

Originally published June 25, 2018

By UC Staff

UTEP Communications

The National Endowment for the Arts recently awarded a grant to The University of Texas at El Paso’s Rebecca Rivas to promote the NEA’s Big Read initiative with activities tied to the popular 1972 novel “Bless Me, Ultima.” Readings, discussions and performances will take place around El Paso throughout October 2018.

Rebecca Rivas, UTEP assistant professor of theatre arts, was awarded a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to promote the NEA’s Big Read initiative with activities tied to the popular 1972 novel “Bless Me, Ultima.”

Rivas, assistant professor of theatre arts, said the project’s purpose is to provide border regions with access to culturally relevant literature by Latino/a writers that focus on Latino/a characters. “Bless Me, Ultima” is a coming-of-age novel written by Rudolfo Anaya, considered one of the fathers of Chicano literature.

“We thought this piece would resonate with the community,” said Rivas, an El Paso native who spent the early part of the summer as an actress at the Arkansas New Play Festival.

Rivas, who earned her bachelor’s degree in theatre arts from UTEP in 2004, is the grant’s principal investigator. Her co-PIs are Adriana Dominguez, Ph.D., clinical professor of theatre arts; and Jay Stratton, assistant professor of performance.