me:.
Six
years, nine month, and three days after the beginning of the decade of
1960, in a hospital in northern California that has since closed down,
Santiago Vaquera was born. A few days late for his desperate mother, but
in time to watch Saturday morning cartoons. Santiago spent his childhood
moving between the town of Orland, California where he was raised, and
the Mexican border city of Mexicali, where many of his family live and
where he spent his summers. With a childhood spent in movement, he grew
up traveling in many directions at once.
He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish, and Portuguese at the University of Iowa. His doctoral degree was completed at the University of California, Santa Barbara with a dissertation on the representation of place in northern Mexican short stories. He has also taught at Penn State, Texas A & M University, and has been a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College.
His undergraduate degree is from the California State University, Chico where he completed a double major in Art and Spanish. He chose to continue advanced work in Latin American literature and to develop his artistic skills on his own. His academic work on US Latino and Latin American literature and culture has been published in journals and anthologies in Mexico and the United States. He has also presented this work at various international conferences.
He has had gallery exhibitions in Chico and in Santa Barbara, California. During his graduate career, he was represented by the Santa Barbara Art Company. Paintings of his are currently in private holdings in Germany, New York, Texas, and California.
Aside from his academic and artistic endeavors, he has been a disc jockey and is also a creative writer. As an undergraduate he worked at two radio stations playing a diversity of musical styles. At one he played alternative college radio music; at the other he played traditional Mexican music as well as organizing a program of Rock en Español. His short stories have been published in various international literary journals as well as in major anthologies on contemporary literature in the Americas. He has recently completed his first novel and is currently outlining a second one.
He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish, and Portuguese at the University of Iowa. His doctoral degree was completed at the University of California, Santa Barbara with a dissertation on the representation of place in northern Mexican short stories. He has also taught at Penn State, Texas A & M University, and has been a visiting scholar at Dartmouth College.
His undergraduate degree is from the California State University, Chico where he completed a double major in Art and Spanish. He chose to continue advanced work in Latin American literature and to develop his artistic skills on his own. His academic work on US Latino and Latin American literature and culture has been published in journals and anthologies in Mexico and the United States. He has also presented this work at various international conferences.
He has had gallery exhibitions in Chico and in Santa Barbara, California. During his graduate career, he was represented by the Santa Barbara Art Company. Paintings of his are currently in private holdings in Germany, New York, Texas, and California.
Aside from his academic and artistic endeavors, he has been a disc jockey and is also a creative writer. As an undergraduate he worked at two radio stations playing a diversity of musical styles. At one he played alternative college radio music; at the other he played traditional Mexican music as well as organizing a program of Rock en Español. His short stories have been published in various international literary journals as well as in major anthologies on contemporary literature in the Americas. He has recently completed his first novel and is currently outlining a second one.