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1995 › Nicolás Kanellos
17th Farfel Recipient
Department of Modern and Classical Languages
Brown Foundation Inc., Chair in Spanish, Director of Arte Publico
Press
College of Humanities, Fine Arts, and Communication
In the 1970s, Nicolás Kanellos’s
involvement with the Latino civil rights movement exposed him to
many Hispanic artists and writers with little or no access to the
publishing world. So in 1972, Professor Kanellos, whose Ph.D. is
in Hispanic literature and theatre, founded The Americas Review
(then called Revista Chicano-Riqueño) at Indiana University
Northwest. In 1979 he launched Arte Público Press to provide
a wider forum for Hispanic literary voices. Professor Kanellos brought
his growing press to the University of Houston in 1980 to position
it at the heart of the growing US Hispanic population. Today Arte
Público showcases Hispanic literature, arts, and culture
by publishing about 35 books a year.
Professor Kanellos also manages the Recovering
the US Hispanic Literary Heritage Project. In this project UH doctoral
candidates locate and publish long ignored Hispanic historical documents
“as part of an effort to broaden what is currently considered
American heritage.” Professor Kanellos notes that the University
of Houston is now “the leading institution in preparing a place
for Hispanic culture in US cultural studies.”
President Clinton has appointed Professor
Kanellos to the National Council for the Humanities, while his work
has been recognized by the Ford Foundation, the Coordinating Council
of Literary Magazines, and the American Association of Higher Education,
among others. Professor Kanellos shares the Farfels’ vision
of promoting the ideal of the “well-rounded professor”
in the university. Receiving the award has helped him “cut
through some of the boundaries that exist between administering
and research and teaching,” while providing a passport to advance
his work within the university.
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