Memorialization along the Camino Real Focus of Grad Student Presentation

Tessa Cor­dova, a doc­toral can­di­date in Amer­i­can Stud­ies, presents, “Recor­dando Nues­tra Gente: Rit­ual Memo­ri­al­iza­tion Along the Camino Real de Tierra Aden­tro,” on Tues­day, Feb. 21 from 12:30 – 1:30 p.m. at El Cen­tro de la Raza.

Cordova’s dis­ser­ta­tion pro­vides a con­tem­po­rary study of the memo­ri­al­iza­tion and rit­ual prac­tices that serve as his­tor­i­cal mark­ers of com­mu­nity cul­tural map­ping along the region of the Camino Real de Tierra Aden­tro. The dis­ser­ta­tion fea­tures two explicit case stud­ies involv­ing sep­a­rate tragic sto­ries of death of two women prior to con­sum­mat­ing their mar­riage and the memo­ri­al­iza­tion that inter­sects their cul­tural iden­ti­ties from dis­tinct com­mu­ni­ties — one from the state of Chi­huahua, Méx­ico, who died in 1930; and the other from El Rito, New Mex­ico, who died in 1997.

By jux­ta­pos­ing their sto­ries she sought to inter­con­nect the lives and expe­ri­ences of Chicana/o, Hispana/o, and Mexicana/o peo­ple using the Camino Real to sit­u­ate rit­ual and tra­di­tional prac­tices as evi­dent of an ongo­ing rela­tion­ship with a his­tor­i­cal con­nec­tion of the peo­ples in Méx­ico and New Mexico.

The Raza Grad­u­ate Stu­dent Asso­ci­a­tion Research Show­case high­lights research from Latina/o grad­u­ate and pro­fes­sional stu­dents and encour­ages Latina/o under­grad­u­ate stu­dents to con­sider options of grad­u­ate and pro­fes­sional edu­ca­tion. RGSA appre­ci­ates the sup­port of El Cen­tro de la Raza and the Grad­u­ate Resource Cen­ter to help spon­sor the RGSA Research Showcases.

Con­tact RGSA for more information.