Irene I. Blea Papers
Scope and Contents Note
Original Collection:
The collection contains personal and biographical documents and correspondence, professional correspondence, literary productions, classroom materials, activities and organizations, collected publications, oversize materials, ephemera,and restricted materials.
Personal and Biographical: divided between her personal, and professional correspondence, which covers her teaching career at several universities. Of interest is the controversy at the University of New Mexico over the various minority studies centers, and especially over the Chicano Studies Program. There are also reports, brochures, evaluations, flyers, newsclippings and some course materials.
Literary Productions: includes manuscript drafts of her scholarly publications; and other drafts containing prose and poetry. There are also drafts for her book Suzanna, published in 2010, and an unfinished draft of Maria Josefa Jaramillo: Spanish frontier wife of Kit Carson, 1828-1868.
Activities and Organizations: A large segment is composed of materials regarding NACCS, among them the Chicana Caucus. There is some correspondence, minutes, resolutions, memoranda, by-laws, agenda, flyers, financial statements and reports, news releases, convention programs and some publications. AARP: Dr. Blea was Chair of the New Mexico chapter. Native New Mexico Club: Dr. Blea was chair during 2004-2005. There are membership forms, correspondence, agenda, minutes, by-laws, memoranda and financial reports. New Mexico Hispanic Council on Aging: Dr. Blea was president during 1999-2002. Includes correspondence, minutes, and conference program.
Classroom Materials: contains syllabus and class handouts, exams and notes for some of her courses.
Ephemera: includes her business cards and conference name tags. There are also publishers' catalogues, travel brouchures and maps.
Oversize Materials: calendars from 2008-2008, newsclippings dated 1984-2014.
Restricted: some poetry manuscripts restricted at the request of Dr. Blea; also some of her papers, several class record books and student records are separated for privacy and confidentiality.
2016 Additions:
The 2016 additions to the Irene I. Blea Papers include materials ranging from 1984 to 2014 and measures 1.25 linear feet. The addition to the collection is divided into the same series as the original collection, with five of the original series represented. The series include Personal and Biographical, Literary Productions, Activities and Organizations, Collected Publications, and Ephemera.
Personal and Biographical: consists of both personal and professional correspondence, birthday and Christmas cards, family photographs, and documents relating to Blea's property.
Literary Productions: contains several edited manuscripts of literary works written by Blea. The bulk of these manuscripts are of Daughters of the West Mesa and Suzanna. This series also includes many shorter writings and articles by Blea written primarily between 2008-2010.
Activities and Organizations: includes conference and presentation materials along with organization and research materials.
Collected Publications: includes newsletters and alumni magazines from Blea's alma maters.
Ephemera: includes a variety of bibliographies of Blea's written work and brief biographies about her life. Also included is a large number of hand-written notes, reminders, short poems, and brief writings by Blea primarily from 2004-2013.
Dates
- Creation: 1970-2014
Creator
- Blea, Irene I. (Irene Isabel) (Person)
Language of Materials
English, Spanish
Access Restrictions
Some poetry manuscripts are restricted at the request of Dr. Blea. Several class record books, student records and some of Dr. Blea's papers are separated for privacy and confidentiality.
Use Restrictions
Standard copyright restrictions apply.
Biographical Sketch
Irene Isabel Blea, sociologist, educator, Chicano Movement activist, and writer, was born in New Mexico in 1946. She attended the University of Southern Colorado where she received an A.A. in Mental Health and her B.A. in Sociology. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Dr. Blea has held several positions in academia, including Director of Chicano Studies at the Metropolitan State College in Denver, and Director of Hispanic Student Services at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque. Her most recent appointment was as Chair of the Chicano Studies Department at California State University, Los Angeles, where she retired from as full professor in 1998.
Throughout her career she has strived to be an advocate for minority rights, and has served as a consultant on education for minorities, and on issues of gender and race discrimination. Dr. Blea served as the first female Chairperson of NACCS (The National Association for Chicana and Chicano Studies) in 1979.
She has an international reputation as a scholar, the author of several works in Sociology and on Hispanic related subjects, which are used as university textbooks, and thirty academic articles. She has traveled to several countries to present her work, including the World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995. Besides her scholarly publications she is also well known as a poet with many publications and honors that include having read her poetry with the late Allen Ginsberg and Andy Clausen in 1985.
Her community involvement deals with, among other interests, services to the Hispanic elderly. She has served on the New Mexico State Legislative Committee for the AARP and lobbies the State Legislature on public policy affecting women and senior citizens.
Full Extent
9.25 linear feet
Abstract
Personal archives documenting the career of Irene I. Blea, Ph.D., sociologist, educator, and writer. The papers deal with Dr. Blea's professional struggle in the field of education of Mexican Americans. Also found in this collection are her manuscripts for her sociology books and her poetry.
Acquisition Information
Donation.
Accession numbers: 1987-04 and 2016-35.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Benson staff.
Subject
- Blea, Irene I. (Irene Isabel) (Person)
- Title
- Irene I. Blea Papers
- Status
- Edited Full Draft
- Author
- Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection
- Date
- 2010
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Finding aid written in English.
Revision Statements
- March 2016: Updated finding aid encoded by Dylan Joy.
- 2021 June: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez to fix compliance check errors to prepare for the migration to new TARO website.
- 2021 November: Edited by Devon Murphy to update control access terms and formatting based on the TARO Control Access List.
- 2025 July: Revised by Ryan Sullivant to fix validation errors prior to ingestion into ArchivesSpace.
- 2026: Edited by Carla O. Alvarez.
Repository Details
Part of the Benson Latin American Collection, The University of Texas at Austin Repository
2300 Red River Street
Austin Texas 78712 United States
(512) 495-4578
bensonspecialcollections@austin.utexas.edu