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Spotlight
Assistant professor of history Dulcinea Lara lived in two worlds growing up in southern New Mexico - the tiny community of Berino, N.M., an impoverished colonia, and in a home with successful and well-educated parents that helped develop her character and passion for border history.
"I was living in Berino, and my father was a Ph.D, probably the only Ph.D. in Berino," Dulcinea says. Antonio Lara is Dulcinea's dad, an assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at New Mexico State University. Roseanne Baca is Dulcinea's mother, an English teacher with a master's degree. Both Dulcinea's parents are NMSU alumni.
It is this dual status at the Lara home that helped Dulcinea respect others, no matter what goal in life they follow, which also helped her give her students a richer understanding of Mexican-American history. Living in Berino also taught Dulcinea about poverty and having respect for hard work as she and her siblings Leonor and Al Na'ir helped at the farm, watching their doctorate father work with his hands and loving the land he tilled and the animals he raised.
"My father downplayed his profession," Dulcinea recalls. Antonio would tell his neighbors he was just a teacher, as his neighbors would sometimes gather for a "matanza" and would ask "el profe" how things were going, Dulcinea says.
Dulcinea is a tenure-track assistant professor working now for two and half years at NMSU. Her enthusiasm and passion for the Hispanic culture and history is projected in her classes, and just recently has led a group of faculty, staff and students to explore, at a symposium March 17, the definition and possibilities of what it means for NMSU to be a Hispanic Serving Institution.
She graduated from the Gadsden school district and received a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State, and a master's and a doctorate degree in ethnic studies from University of California, Berkeley.
Written by Mario Montes.