Award recognizes his work in research, service and teaching
The American Folklore Society recently presented Enrique Lamadrid, University of New Mexico professor of Spanish and director of Chicano / Hispano / Mexicano Studies, with the Américo Paredes Prize, a national award given in recognition of his work as a cultural activist in research, community service and teaching.
Photo: Enrique Lamadrid
Lamadrid is known for organizing expeditions and engaging students in his field work projects, in the Sierra Tarahumara of Chihuahua, the pilgrims’ roads of Spain, and in the ports of the Caribbean, “wherever Nuevo Mexicanos and Latinos have their roots,” he said.
Over the years he has led several student expeditions south to Zacatecas, Durango and Chihuahua to research the cultural roots and routes of New Mexico. Grads and undergrads were involved in developing and testing the exhibit scripts, and a student photography in the Camino Real International Heritage Center permanent exhibit, slated for its grand opening in November, is also included.
Lamadrid’s community-based research on hybrid culture, festivals and traditional narrative poetry has attracted international recognition. Two of his books have won the Southwest Book Award from the Border Librarians Association and in 2004 his long-term project “Hermanitos Comanchitos: Indo-Hispano Rituals of Captivity and Redemption” won the University of Chicago Folklore Prize for ethnographic writing.
The American Folklore Society also commended him for a body of popular writing done for the general public, in museum and festival guides, newspapers and websites. Lamadrid’s nomination letter states, “few academics take the time to make their work so accessible to everyday people.”
Curatorial work has been another priority, since the museum is “a kind of enriched and super-charged classroom space, Lamadrid said, “Where learning continues even when the teacher is no longer present.” He is a guest curator for the Camino Real exhibit, and has been a curatorial consultant for national and international exhibitions including two with Smithsonian Institution, Corridos sin Fronteras, on the narrative ballad traditions of greater Mexico, and El Río, on traditional culture, environment and sustainability in the Río Grande watershed.
El Río is slated to come to UNM’s Maxwell Museum in 2007. In addition, Chicano / Hispano / Mexicano Studies is a partner with the Northern New Mexico Historical Society and their new community museum in Questa. The Professor, known as “el profe” by his students, typically builds courses around exhibits. The El Río course will include trips to Colorado and South Texas plus an expedition down Santa Elena canyon in Big Bend.
The Américo Paredes Prize is named for pioneer Tejano folklorist whose revisionist scholarship and mentorship are legendary. In the 1950s he challenged the Texas academic establishment and their heroic portrayal of the Texas Rangers by demonstrating that the true heroes were the Texas Mexicans who stood up for their rights against all odds. It was also Paredes, who in 1981 broadened the scope of Chicano Studies in a critical time at the University of Texas at Austin by re-christening it Mexican-American Studies.
“It is a particular honor for me to receive the Paredes Prize,” Lamadrid said. “Don Américo is one of my most important mentors. He had the courage and vision to do the right thing, in both his research and his leadership.”
Contact: Carolyn Gonzales, (505) 277-5920