Lydia Otero
{{short description|Chicanx historian}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = Lydia Otero
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| alma_mater = University of Arizona
| thesis_title = Conflicting visions: Urban renewal, historical preservation and the politics of saving a Mexican past
| thesis_url = https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/{{{1118675292}}}
| thesis_year = 2003
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Lydia R. Otero is a Chicanx/Latinx historian and author. They are known for their work on marginalized communities in Arizona.
Education and career
Otero descends from the first family to have a land grant in Arizona.{{Cite news |last=Portillo, Jr. |first=Ernesto |date=2016-01-09 |title=Pioneering Otero family will hold reunion this weekend |pages=A006 |work=Arizona Daily Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97464357/pioneering-otero-family-will-hold/ |access-date=2022-03-12}} Otero was born in Tucson in 1955 and lived there until graduating from high school in 1973.{{Cite news |date=2021-02-28 |title=Child of Tucson barrio hits on class, gender, race themes |pages=E1 |work=Arizona Daily Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97463044/child-of-tucson-barrio-hits-on-class/ |access-date=2022-03-12}}{{Cite news |date=2021-02-28 |title=Otero, continued |pages=E4 |work=Arizona Daily Star |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97463157/otero-continued/ |access-date=2022-03-12}} Otero received a bachelor's degree in 1992 and a master's degree in 1995 from California State University, Los Angeles (CSULA).{{Cite web|title=Lydia R Otero {{!}} UA Profiles|url=https://profiles.arizona.edu/person/lotero|access-date=2021-02-21|website=University of Arizona}} In 2003 they earned a Ph.D. from the University of Arizona.{{Cite book |last=Otero |first=Lydia R. |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280374 |title=Conflicting visions: Urban renewal, historical preservation and the politics of saving a Mexican past |date=2003 |publisher=The University of Arizona. |hdl=10150/280374 |language= |oclc=1118675292}} Otero was a tenured professor in the Department of Mexican American Studies Department at the University of Arizona (2003-2020).
Academic work
Otero is known for their work on ethnic studies, latinx urbanization and placemaking in latinx communities. In the 1980s Otero was president of Gay and Lesbian Latinos Unidos and Lesbianas Unidas, politically active groups in California.{{Cite book |last1=Faderman |first1=Lillian |url=http://archive.org/details/gaylahistoryofse00lill |title=Gay L.A. : a history of sexual outlaws, power politics, and lipstick lesbians |last2=Timmons |first2=Stuart |date=2006 |location=New York |publisher= Basic Books |isbn=978-0-465-02288-5}}{{Cite book |url=http://archive.org/details/oxfordencycloped0002unse |title=The Oxford encyclopedia of Latinos and Latinas in the United States |date=2005 |location=New York |publisher= Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-515600-3}}{{Cite web |last=Podolisky |first=Robin |date=29 December 1988 |title=Linkage |url=http://www.newspapers.com/image/578638101/?terms=%22lydia%20otero%22&match=1 |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=LA Weekly |language=en}} Otero has participated in local activism to remind people about Tucson's past and connection to Mexico,{{Cite web |title=Tucson won't remove Pancho Villa statue, despite conservative group's request |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/tucson-won-t-remove-pancho-villa-statue-despite-conservative-group-n949101 |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=NBC News |date=17 December 2018 |language=en}} and examined the impact on people living in neighborhoods targeted for urban renewal.{{Cite web |last=Bregel |first=Emily |date=May 1, 2018 |title=Diane Keaton buys adobe in Tucson's Barrio Viejo for $1.5 million |url=https://tucson.com/news/local/diane-keaton-buys-adobe-in-tucsons-barrio-viejo-for-1-5-million/article_6e2a3a7b-af22-55ee-b579-8b9cccfcf827.html |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=Arizona Daily Star |language=en}} In 2010, their book La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwestern City focused on an urban renewal project in Tucson, Arizona which targeted the most densely populated eighty acres in the state and the changes that occurred during the project.{{Cite web |last=Rosenblum |first=Mort |date=2012-02-20 |title=An American City Disappearing Before My Eyes |url=https://rendezvous.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/an-american-city-disappearing-before-my-eyes/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=The New York Times |language=en-US}} The book received a 2011 Southwest Book Award from the Border Regional Library Association,{{cite web |date=2011 |title=BRLA 2011 Southwest Book Awards |url=http://brla.info/swba11.shtml |access-date=20 February 2021 |website=BRLA 2011 Southwest Book Awards}} and was reviewed by multiple scholarly publications.{{Cite journal |last=Goodman |first=Adam |title=The Promise of New Approaches and Persistence of Old Paradigms in Mexican American History |date=2013 |editor-last=Otero |editor-first=Lydia R. |editor2-last=Perales |editor2-first=Monica |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/jamerethnhist.32.3.0083 |journal=Journal of American Ethnic History |volume=32 |issue=3 |pages=83–89 |doi=10.5406/jamerethnhist.32.3.0083 |jstor=10.5406/jamerethnhist.32.3.0083 |issn=0278-5927|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=González |first=Jerry |date=2012 |title=Review of LA CALLE: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/scq.2012.94.3.389 |journal=Southern California Quarterly |volume=94 |issue=3 |pages=389–392 |doi=10.1525/scq.2012.94.3.389 |jstor=10.1525/scq.2012.94.3.389 |issn=0038-3929|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Sandul |first=Paul J. P. |date=2012 |title=Review of La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1525/tph.2012.34.1.134 |journal=The Public Historian |volume=34 |issue=1 |pages=134–136 |doi=10.1525/tph.2012.34.1.134 |jstor=10.1525/tph.2012.34.1.134 |issn=0272-3433|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last=Joyce |first=Barry |date=2012-12-01 |title=Lydia R. Otero, La Calle: Spatial Conflicts and Urban Renewal in a Southwest City. |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/669749 |journal=Winterthur Portfolio |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=308–309 |doi=10.1086/669749 |issn=0084-0416|url-access=subscription }} In 2019 their book, In the Shadows of The Freeway: Growing Up Brown & Queer, combined personal memoir and family history with historical archives. In 2021, the Pima County Library selected the book as one of their annual 44th "Southwest Books of the Year",{{cite web |date=February 1, 2021 |title=A new year, a new Southwest Books of the Year! |url=https://www.library.pima.gov/news/a-new-year-a-new-southwest-books-of-the-year/ |website=Pima County Library}} and the book was reviewed by the Los Angeles Review of Books{{Cite web |last=Yacono |first=Candice |date=2020-04-13 |title=Freeway Dreams |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/freeway-dreams/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=Los Angeles Review of Books |language=en}} and the Journal of Arizona History.{{Cite journal |last=Burns |first=W. James |date=2020 |title=In the Shadows of the Freeway: Growing Up Brown and Queer by Lydia R. Otero (review) |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/775456 |journal=Journal of Arizona History |volume=61 |issue=3 |pages=726–729 |issn=2689-3908}}
Selected publications
- {{Cite book |last=Otero |first=Lydia R. |title=La calle : spatial conflicts and urban renewal in a southwest city |date=2010 |publisher=University of Arizona Press |isbn=978-0-8165-2888-2 |location=Tucson |oclc=617461667}}
- {{cite book |last1=Otero |first1=Lydia R. |title=In the shadows of the freeway : growing up brown & queer |date=2019 |location=Tucson, Arizona |isbn=978-1734118001 |edition=First}}
- {{Cite journal |last1=Otero |first1=Lydia R. |last2=Cammarota |first2=Julio |date=2011-10-01 |title=Notes from the Ethnic Studies home front: student protests, texting, and subtexts of oppression |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2011.600267 |journal=International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education |volume=24 |issue=5 |pages=639–648 |doi=10.1080/09518398.2011.600267 |s2cid=143564585 |issn=0951-8398|url-access=subscription }}
Awards and honors
In 2019, Arizona’s César E. Chávez Holiday Coalition awarded Otero the "'Sí se puede' Legacy Award" for their activism and scholarship focusing on bringing awareness to the history of Arizona and Mexican Americans.{{cite news |last=HERNANDEZ |first=LIANE |date=March 15, 2019 |title=TUCSON WOMEN TO BE HONORED AT DOLORES HUERTA CELEBRACIÓN DE LA MUJER |newspaper=Arizona Daily Star |url=https://azednews.com/tucson-women-to-be-honored-at-dolores-huerta-celebracion-de-la-mujer/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200530140819/https://azednews.com/tucson-women-to-be-honored-at-dolores-huerta-celebracion-de-la-mujer/ |archive-date=May 30, 2020}} In 2021, Otero was named a distinguished lecturer by the Organization of American Historians.{{Cite web |last=Kelty |first=Bennito L. |date=October 11, 2021 |title=Author & historian Lydia Otero to headline Pima Library's annual LGBTQ+ talk |url=http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/arts/report//101121_pima_library_otero/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=TucsonSentinel.com}}{{Cite web |title=OAH Distinguished Lecturer Profile {{!}} OAH |url=https://www.oah.org/lectures/lecturers/view/2104/lydia-r-otero/ |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=www.oah.org}}
References
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External links
- {{google scholar id|PVy_RP8AAAAJ&hl}}
- {{Cite web |title=Lydia Otero {{!}} C-SPAN.org |url=https://www.c-span.org/person/?105704/LydiaOtero |access-date=2022-03-12 |website=www.c-span.org}}
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Category:21st-century American historians
Category:American women historians
Category:California State University, Los Angeles alumni