Irene Blea Papers, 1977-

Biographical Sketch

Irene Isabel Blea, sociologist, educator, Chicano Movement activist, and writer, was born in New Mexico in 1946. She attended the University of Southern Colorado where she received an A.A. in Mental Health and her B.A. in Sociology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Blea has held several positions in academia, including Director of Chicano Studies at the Metropolitan State College in Denver, and Director of Hispanic Student Services at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Her most recent appointment was as Chair of the Chicano Studies Department at California State University, Los Angeles, where she retired from as full professor in 1998.

Throughout her career she has strived to be an advocate for minority rights, and has served as a consultant on education for minorities, and on issues of gender and race discrimination. Dr. Blea served as the first female Chairperson of NACS in 1979.

She has an international reputation as a scholar, the author of several works in Sociology and on Hispanic related subjects, which are used as university textbooks, and thirty academic articles. She has traveled to several countries to present her work, including the World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Besides her scholarly publications she is also well known as a poet with many publications and honors that include having read her poetry with the late Alex Ginsberg and Andy Clausen in 1985.

Her community involvement deals with, among other interests, services to the Hispanic elderly. She has served on the New Mexico State Legislative Committee for the AARP and lobbies the State Legislature on public policy affecting women and senior citizens.

Scope and Contents Note

Organized into three series: 1. Literary productions, 2. Literary productions by others, and 3. Personal and biographical materials.

Contains manuscripts of Blea's literary productions, literary productions by others, a small amount of correspondence and ephemera, and materials relating to a discrimination complaint against the University of Southern Colorado.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Access is restricted for some personal materials.

Use Restrictions

Standard copyright restrictions apply.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Cite as: Irene Blea Papers, Benson Latin American Collection, University of Texas Libraries, the University of Texas at Austin.

Box and Folder Inventory