With Nicolás Kanellos’ White House recognition, U.S. honors contributions of Hispanic literature
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(photos Courtesy of Arte Público Press)
It’s been 45 years since Arte Público Press began operating out of a single room at the University of Houston. Earlier this fall, its founder Nicolás Kanellos found himself in a very different room: the Oval Office at the White House, where he received a National Humanities Medal directly from President Biden.
“I was elated. But the medal was more than just a personal honor,” says Kanellos. “It was a major recognition of all the work over four decades that our teams had put into recovering and publishing Latin[e] literature, history and culture. It honored the hundreds of scholars and students who have devoted so much time and energy to this project.”
This wasn’t Dr. Kanellos’ first trip to the White House. The influential writer, editor, translator and university professor has been recognized for his many achievements in the past, some of which have brought him to the White House. This time he was one of ten medal recipients, including Rosital Worl (anthropologist and Alaska Native cultural, business and political leader) and Darren Walker (10th president of the Ford Foundation). Each received a 2023 National Humanities Medal for working to “deepen the nation’s understanding of the humanities and broaden our citizens’ engagement.”
Today, Arte Público Press is the most prominent Spanish-English and bilingual publisher of U.S. Hispanic literature, with works by both contemporary and historic authors dating back to colonial times. From inauspicious beginnings, the publisher now operates out of its own building on the Texas university’s campus, with a full staff overseeing publication of dozens of books in English and Spanish each year.
Kanellos’ wife, Cristelia Pérez, notes that this is just the latest and greatest in a career filled with awards and firsts. She adds with a smile that while she’d be happy if she never has to wear another fancy dress for a gala awards ceremony, the Oct. 21 visit to Washington, D.C. “was quite exciting. We’ve never gone into the Oval Office before.”
She regarded the moment as a “big exclamation mark” after a lifetime of achievements.
“When he received the award, it [felt like] a great ending to his career,” says Pérez.
Kanellos was involved in Latine activism and the art world in the late 1960s and 1970s. It was apparent, he says, that Hispanic writers needed a publication outlet, and he wanted Arte Público Press to be that publisher for all Latines.
In fact, in 1979 when Arte Público first opened, they invited Latines from all backgrounds to publish with them, whether it was in English, Spanish or bilingually.
Inclusion and representation became central to Kanellos’ vision for Arte Público Press. He had also noticed the absence of Latin American voices in academic institutions and mainstream media. This was intentional censorship, says Kanellos, of what was commonly accepted at the time as American Literature, which did not include Hispanic American writers.
That censorship reinforced the assumption that Latines were uneducated, he says, and that there was no intellectual thought happening in U.S. Hispanic communities prior to 1960.
U.S. Hispanic literature that was published at the time was limited to American dream stories — immigrant stories of the journey, struggle and assimilation into American society. But that narrative failed to encompass everything U.S. Hispanic authors produce or how this work has supported self-realization for Hispanic Americans.
“We have always been philosophers. We have always been writers. We have always thought politically,” says Kanellos, explaining the importance of rewriting the American narrative of Latine representation.
“Through individual expression, we become more universal as we go deeper into our own selves and culture, rather than the other way around. Then you end up saying nothing because it becomes all watered down.”
The Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Heritage program he started is also a part of Arte Público Press’ mission to document Hispanic written legacy, intellectual and artistic thought and contributions to U.S. society from the colonial period to the 1980s. The program encompasses a vast collection of books, literary notices, essays, editorials, poetry, etc.
“Being able to put together the first comprehensive anthology of Latin[e] literature in Spanish and go through that whole discovery process of finding Hispanic voices — in particular the voices of women expressing their role in the world as Latinas in the 19th century — has been really fulfilling.”
“It’s not just my research. It’s our research,” says Kanellos. “I’ve always worked with lots of people — teams of scholars from throughout the United States, Mexico, the Caribbean, Spain and other parts of Europe. We have a list of 40 or 50 people that contribute to putting a single book together. So it’s been a team effort right from the beginning.”
Arte Público Press also pioneered bilingual children’s books, launching its imprint, Piñata Books, in 1994. Piñata spurred a new segment of the publishing industry that has gained popularity ever since, not only at home but also in schools, where the books for children and young adults help students develop language skills and provide Latine youth with reading material “in the authentic language of Latines, based on actual issues that Hispanic children face in their lives,” says Kanellos.
Gabriela Baeza Ventura has worked alongside Kanellos for the past 27 years. She first arrived at Arte Público Press as a research fellow in the Recovery program while pursuing a PhD at the university. Now she’s deputy director, poised to take over the director position after Kanellos retires in about a year, and she recalls how much of an impact he made on her when they were first introduced.
“[Kanellos is] a short guy, but he exudes a lot of power and a lot of knowledge,” says Baeza Ventura. “He’s such a passionate person about the work he does and the way he talks about it. He’s like a walking encyclopedia. Just being in his presence when I first started working at Arte Público Press felt really powerful.”
One way to measure how the world has changed since the early years of Arte Público Press is the fact no PhD program for Hispanic and Chicano studies existed when it opened. It wasn’t until 1994, 15 years after the publishing house opened, that University of California, Los Angeles, established such a program. Now more than a dozen universities in the U.S. offer PhD programs or concentrations in Hispanic/Chicano studies or related fields, including PhDs in Spanish with a concentration in U.S. Latino literature, language and culture at the University of Houston.
The rise of Hispanic literature in recent decades also points to how U.S. literature and the publishing industry have changed. Baeza Ventura, who was born in Mexico and grew up in El Paso, Texas, mentions she was never really exposed to U.S. Latine literature before attending the University of Houston.
“I was almost 25 years old when I read my first Chicano book,” recalls Baeza Ventura. “I wasn’t even aware of how significant that was until I came to Arte Público Press, where I got to see bookshelves filled with all of these Hispanic American writers. Then it dawned on me that if it [had] not been for this publishing house, because of all of the obstacles that exist, these books would have never been made available.”
She also praised how Kanellos has built “a path” for intergenerational knowledge, bringing respected scholars together and creating a safe space for graduate students and faculty at starting points in their careers.
“Arte Público continues to do that,” says Baeza Ventura. “It’s like a heart that keeps pumping the blood of Latin writers into the literary world.”
Despite these strides in overcoming repression and censorship, progress has not been consistent or easy. Kanellos remembers challenging times during the George W. Bush administration in the early aughts. Considering the recent presidential election, he says artists and writers may face higher levels of marginalization and other barriers over the next four years.
“I think that the Trump administration is going to clamp down on all the cultural institutions of the government, including a lot of Latin[e] cultural institutions, museums, theaters, publishing houses, individual artists and writers,” says Kanellos. “They will not get funded, and their works will not be made available or accessible because of the lack of support from the government.”
However, Latine writers, being accustomed to challenges, have always found ways of creating alternative forms of distribution, he says.
“Well, we just have to keep producing,” adds Kanellos. “We have to keep writing. We have to keep painting. We have to keep doing our work no matter what because ultimately our work will make progress in the United States.”
Dating back to the Colonial period, this literature appeared in local newspapers among Latine communities that the mainstream was barely aware of. Today U.S. Latines are growing in population, making their voices heard from a variety of backgrounds and generating influence despite barriers in American literature that tend to leave out diverse voices.
“We have to protest anything that’s unjust. We really have to make our voices heard on any injustice and racist policies that develop,” says Kanellos, “and not to mention buy books.”
“People have to support the efforts of the writers, artists and publishers. If not, we will be lost. We will be gone. They have to look for and support our Latin[e] community, expression, art and theater,” continues Kanellos.
Kanellos’ career has become a tribute to Hispanic American literature. Recognition in the form of a National Humanities Medal is only a part of the lasting impact Kanellos will continue to make at Arte Público Press, says Baeza Ventura, who is excited and honored to step into Kanellos’ job when he retires. She looks forward to continuing his legacy of safeguarding and sharing “literary and cultural works [made] by Latines and producing works that reflect and honor the complexity of U.S. Latines.”
“The future of Latin[e] literature in the U.S. looks very positive,” says Baeza Ventura. “We’ve come a long way, with more Latin[e] writers published by Arte Público Press and larger mainstream publishing houses. Hispanic writers now demand to have a seat at the table.”
– Story by Olivia Olson
– Copy edited by Michelle Benitez
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