Miriam Jiménez Román (June 11, 1951 – August 6, 2020) was a Puerto Rican scholar, activist, and author on

Afro-Latino Black Hispanic and Latino Americans, also called Afro-Hispanics ( es, Afrohispano, links=no), Afro-Latinos or Black Hispanics, or Black Latinos are classified by the United States Census Bureau, Office of Management and Budget, and other U.S. ...

culture, whose work is described as "without a doubt ... akingan enormous contribution to the theoretical discussion surrounding Latinidad in the United States." Her work on Afro-Latinidad was foundational to the field of cultural studies in that she developed programming, research, and spaces for the various Afro-Latino communities in the United States.

Biography

Jiménez Román was born on June 11, 1951 in

Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Aguadilla (, ), founded in 1775 by Luis de Córdova, is a city and municipality located in the northwestern tip of Puerto Rico, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, north of Aguada, and Moca and west of Isabela. Aguadilla is s ...

. Miriam graduated from Manhattan’s

High School of Art and Design The High School of Art and Design is a career and technical education high school in Manhattan, New York City, New York State, United States. Founded in 1936 as the School of Industrial Art, the school moved to 1075 Second Avenue in 1960 and mor ...

in 1969, She was a

visiting scholar In academia, a visiting scholar, visiting researcher, visiting fellow, visiting lecturer, or visiting professor is a scholar from an institution who visits a host university to teach, lecture, or perform research on a topic for which the visitor ...

in Africana Studies at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. Along with her husband, Juan Flores, she was co-editor of the ''Afro-Latin@ Studies Reader: History and Culture in the United States'', a collection of essays, short stories, poetry, memoirs, interviews and writing on the Afro-Latino experience. The work was described as "a corrective text that helps fill in crucial scholarly gaps" in a field, Afro-Latina/o studies, in which there is very little scholarship. It "makes accessible ... a virtually ignored set of important contributions ... to the study of Afro-Latina/os", and, "makes a critical intervention in scholarship and public discourse about racial identities and the history and culture of U.S. Afro-Latina/o communities." Jiménez Román and Flores received an

American Book Award The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

for The Afro-Latin@Reader in 2011. Her other publications included “Un hombre (negro) del pueblo: José Celso Barbosa and the Puerto Rican Race Towards Whiteness”, "Looking at that Middle Ground: Racial Mixing as Panacea?", and “Triple-Consciousness? Approaches to Afro-Latino Culture in the United States." She was Executive Director of the Afrolatin@ forum from 2011 to 2020. She was also a member of the Black Latinas Know Collective and a member of the advisory board for the ''

Encyclopedia Africana ''Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African-American Experience'' edited by Henry Louis Gates and Anthony Appiah (Basic Civitas Books 1999, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2005, ) is a compendium of Africana studies including Afr ...

.'' She was profiled on

Remezcla Remezcla is an American media company focusing on the Latin American cultural sphere. It serves the millennial market. History The brand was founded by Claire Frisbie, Andrew Herrera and Nuria Net in 2006, had no outside funding; it first recei ...

as the first of "8 Afro Latinos Who Made Important Contributions to US History", by Mitú as an "Afro-Latino Figure Who Changed The World For The Good", and by

Latina Latina or Latinas most often refers to: * Latinas, a demographic group in the United States * Latino (demonym), a term used in the United States for people with cultural ties to Latin America. *Latin Americans Latina and Latinas may also refer ...

as one of "6 Afro-Latinas Who Are Changing the World!". Miriam Jiménez Román died of cancer at age 69 on August 6, 2020, in

Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico Cabo Rojo (, ) is a Cabo Rojo barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality situated on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico and forms part of the San Germán – Cabo Rojo metropolitan area, San Germán–Cabo Rojo metropoli ...

References

External links

10 Years After Its Original Release, ‘The Afro-Latin@ Reader’ Still Resonates
- review by Janel Martinez, Remezcla, 2019
Miriam Jiménez Román
- A Tribute at Latino Rebels {{DEFAULTSORT:Jiménez Román, Miriam 1951 births 2020 deaths People from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican people of African descent Puerto Rican academics Puerto Rican activists African-American women academics American women academics African-American academics High School of Art and Design alumni African-American activists 21st-century Puerto Rican women writers American Book Award winners 21st-century American women 21st-century African-American women 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women African-American women writers