"Letras Femeninas": The First DecadeAuthor(s): Kathleen M. GlennSource: Letras Femeninas, , Número Extraordinario Conmemorativo 1974-1994 (1994), p. 10Published by: Asociacion Internacional de Literatura y Cultura Femenina HispanicaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23022469 .

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Letras Femeninas: The First Decade

Kathleen M. Glenn

Wake Forest University

Since its initial publication in the spring of 1975, Letras Femeninas has

undergone a series of changes in design, format, and editorship. The first issues, with their olive-green covers and 70 to 80 pages, offered a blend of critical

studies, review, interviews, narrative, poetry, news items, and announcements,

not unlike the contents of the most recent number. Volumes 1 and 2 were edited

by Eva M. Kahiluoto Rudat, of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Begin ning with Volume 3, the editorial offices moved to Lamar University in

Beaumont, Texas, where Victoria Urbano was long a professor. Volumes 3 and 4 were edited by Victoria and Kathleen Glenn, Volumes 5 through 7 by Victoria and Elizabeth Espadas. Victoria was sole editor of the next 3 volumes, until her death in October 1984.

Letras Femeninas was very much Victoria's "baby." She was the one who

conceived the idea of founding both the journal and the Asociacion de Literatura Femenina Hispanica. The goals of the latter, as stated in the first issue of Letras, included holding an annual meeting for the presentation of scholarly papers, publishing a journal that would be dedicated to "la literatura femenina espanola, hispanoamericana, chicana y luso-brasilena," distributing books by Hispanic women writers, publishing an anthology of short stories, and awarding two annual prizes, one in recognition of scholarly work and one in honor of creative

writing. Each and every one of those goals has not been met, but nonetheless, Victoria would surely be proud of all that has been accomplished.

During the first decade of its existence, the continuation of Letras Femeninas

was always in jeopardy. Funding was precarious, and I suspect that the journal's survival was in large part due to Victoria's financial support. Her generosity was

manifested in other ways as wel 1, such as her encouragement of young writers and

critics. Despite the difficulties she faced, including failing health, Victoria remained convinced of the need to promote the study of works by Hispanic women writers. The rather frail child to which she gave birth has now grown into a healthy, thriving, and thoroughly professional adult under the leadership of Adelaida Lopez de Martinez, who has watched over and guided Letras Femeninas

during its second decade.

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