Irene Blea

Dr. Irene Blea obtained her Ph. D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado-Boulder and taught at Metropolitan State College throughout the 1980s. The award-winning poet, scholar and author is credited with defining the curriculum in Chicano and Chicana Studies. Dr. Blea was the first female National Chairperson of the National Association of Chicano Studies. Two of her textbooks, Toward a Chicano Social Science and La Chicana and the Intersection of Race, Class and Gender, are considered Classics in the field of race and gender relations. Before her retirement as a Tenured, Full Professor and Chairperson of the first Department of Mexican American Studies at California State University-Los Angeles she published 7 textbooks, four poetry chapbooks, well over 30 popular articles, and one play. After her retirement she published a trilogy: Suzanna, Poor People's Flowers, and Beneath the Super Moon based on her family history. Her novel about an unsolved serial murder mystery titled Daughters of the West Mesa has kept murdered and missing indigenous women in the public's attention. Blea's autobiography, Erené with Wolf Medicine, is a powerful telling of defining moments in the feminist author's life that include domestic violence, betrayal, imposter syndrome while studying and teaching at major universities, colonialism and decolonization. Blea's next publication, Dragonfly, is a collection of 50 years of her poetry with focus on her history in the Chicano Movement and Chicano and Chicana literature. Her more recent publications include White Butterflies in the SomosXicanas anthology and Pensando en Brujas: Will Raza Continue to Believe in Witchcraft? in the Chicanofuturism anthology both published by Somos en Escrito. Recently published poems include, Burning, in the Albuquerque Anthology and Men Who Sing in the New Mexico Anthology. Her works in progress includes a science fiction novel and her conversations with Rudolfo Anaya. The author maintains a strong online presence via Facebook where she hosts a page titled Chicana! and speaks regularly at state conferences, college campuses, and other venues.