Photo of Dr. Brenda ortiz Loyola

I am from Puerto Rico, a beautiful island in the Caribbean.  I love to travel. I have visited eight countries and I have lived in four different states. I hold a B.A. in Public Communications from the University of Puerto Rico, an M.A. in Spanish from the University of Akron in Ohio, and a PhD. in Hispanic Languages and Cultures from UCLA. I have been teaching Spanish for more than 15 years, four of them at CSU Stanislaus.

My research focuses on the politics of race, the relationship between feminism and nationalism in the Hispanic Caribbean, and on cultural movements and their impact on spatial practices.

Ph.D. Hispanic Languages & Literature, 2013
University of California, Los Angeles

M.A. Spanish, 2007
The University of Akron, Ohio

Juris Doctor, May 2003
University of Puerto Rico, School of Law

B.A. Public Communications, 1999
University of Puerto Rico

California State University, Stanislaus, Lecturer

SPAN 1010: Beginning Spanish I
SPAN 1020: Beginning Spanish II
SPAN 2011: Spanish for Native Speakers I
SPAN 2015: Spanish for Native Speakers II
SPAN 3010: Advanced Spanish I
ETHS 4711: Latino Diaspora

University of Louisville, Kentucky, Assistant Professor of Spanish

Latin American Studies

  • Cuban Culture through Fiction and Film
  • Race in Latin America
  • Caribbean Narratives: Reconstructing the Archives
  • Food and Latin American Literature
  • Latin American Women Writers
  • Cultural Politics and Identity Discourses in Puerto Rico
  • Introduction to Latin American Studies
  • Introduction to US Latino Studies

Pan African Studies: Afro-Cuba: Race and Identity

Spanish

  • Advanced Basic Spanish
  • Cultural Readings and Writing in Spanish I
  • Spanish for Heritage Speakers

Graduate courses:

  • Spanish: Narratives of the Cuban Revolution
  • Latin American Studies: The Politics of Race in Latin America and the Caribbean

Forthcoming: “Writing about the Unspeakable: Gender Violence in the Nineteenth Century”. The Palgrave Handbook of Transnational Women’s Writing in the Long Nineteenth Century. Eds. Claire Martin and Clorinda Donato. Palgrave, 2022.

“Forging a National Symbol: The Representation of the Jíbaro in the Narrative of Ana Roqué.” Voces del Caribe. 11.1 (Fall 2019): 1168-1201.

Link to article "Forging a National Symbol: The Representation of the Jibaro in the Narrative of Ana Roqué"

(Co-author). “La monoestrellada and the Display of Cultural Nationalis: The Cultural Politics of Place-Making in 78 Pueblos y 1 Bandera” in Events, Places, and Societies. Eds. Nicholas Wise and John Harris. London: Routledge, 2019. 181-195.

Ortiz-Loyola, Brenda y Vanessa Fernández (2018): “Guía didáctica de Sugar (Ana Boden y Ryan Fleck, 2008, República Dominicana / EEUU, 114 min)”, CineMaestroTM, María García Puente y Erin Hogan, eds. https:/sites.google.com/site/cinemaestro/

“Straight or Curly?: Hair and Race in Carmen Montañez’s Pelo Bueno, pelo malo.” Hispania 100.3 (2017): 421-430.

“Ofelia Rodríguez Acosta and the Quest for National Solidarity in Cuba.” Hispania 98.4 (2015): 689-700.

“Mayra Santos-Febres and the Contemporary Puerto Rican Literature.” Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH) – special issue titled: "In Spite of the Double Drawbacks: African American Women in History and Culture" (2012): 89-93.

“Metatextualidad e identidad nacional en Linda Sara de Jacobo Morales” Colorado Review of Hispanic Studies 8 (2010): 81-95.

“Bodas de sangre de Federico García Lorca y Puñal de claveles de Carmen de Burgos: dos versiones de una misma historia.” Céfiro 7.1-2 (2007): 61-78.

“Colonizadores y colonizados: las relaciones de poder con respecto a la raza, el género y la clase social en Maldito amor de Rosario Ferré y su efecto en la construcción de la identidad nacional.” Utah Foreign Language Review 16 (2007): 32-44.