A Conversation with Aleida Rodríguez
Listen in to an oral history conversation with award-winning poet Aleida Rodríguez, interviewed by Karla Yaritza Maravilla Zaragoza, English Ph.D. student and a Joseph Gaia Distinguished Fellow in Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Aleida discusses how a fortuitous 1973 call from a pay phone in a Chinese restaurant marked the beginning of her career as a published writer, and how ‘rare bird,’ the term of endearment she shared with her childhood best friend, became the inspiration for her to found rara avis literary magazine and Books of a Feather press, both the first to be founded by a woman, Latina, and lesbian in Los Angeles history.
Experience the Episode
Presented by Institute for Latino Studies
Wednesday, May 14, 2025 12:00 pm
Listen in to an oral history conversation with award-winning poet Aleida Rodríguez, interviewed by Karla Yaritza Maravilla Zaragoza, English Ph.D. student and a Joseph Gaia Distinguished Fellow in Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Aleida discusses how a fortuitous 1973 call from a pay phone in a Chinese restaurant marked the beginning of her career as a published writer, and how ‘rare bird,’ the term of endearment she shared with her childhood best friend, became the inspiration for her to found rara avis literary magazine and Books of a Feather press, both the first to be founded by a woman, Latina, and lesbian in Los Angeles history.
For more information on Letras Latinas at the Institute for Latino Studies, please visit the Letras Latinas website.
Meet the Poet: Aleida Rodríguez
Aleida Rodríguez was born in Cuba. In 1962 was airlifted parentless to the U.S. via Operation Pedro Pan. In 1967 she arrived in Los Angeles, where she became the first woman/Latina/lesbian to establish a literary magazine and press (rara avis, Books of a Feather 1977–84) in city history. Her poetry and prose have appeared nationwide in literary magazines, textbooks, and anthologies since 1974, as well as in England, Wales, and The Netherlands. Her first poetry collection, Garden of Exile, won both the Morton Poetry Prize from Sarabande Books and the PEN Literary Award, before being selected Best Book by San Francisco Chronicle.
Meet the Moderator: Karla Yaritza Maravilla Zaragoza
Karla Yaritza Maravilla Zaragoza (she/her/ella) just completed her second year as a Ph.D. student in English and is a Joseph Gaia Distinguished Fellow in Latino Studies at the University of Notre Dame. As a scholar, her passion lies in advocating for greater representation of Chican@/Latinx experiences in literature and education. As such, she is interested in conducting research through Chicana Third Space and Postcolonial critical theories to explore storytelling as a cultural resource against trauma and discrimination, assess the role of spirituality within Chican@/Latinx culture, and implement a multidirectional feminist praxis within a broad analysis of 20th/21st-century literature. Her ultimate goal is to advocate for using Curanderismo (traditional Latinx folk healing) in the U.S. public health care system to increase accessibility for lower-income families.
In addition to conducting research and writing essays, she is a Washington-based poet whose work explores illness, myth, and sacrifice detailing the experiences of migrant farmworkers in the Yakima Valley, the borderlands, and across the United States. She was the first poet featured in Poetry Northwest’s “Presenting” series for up-and-coming poets, praised for her language and aesthetic, described as “an agricultural beat, a field worker’s beat, a hot beat—[that] becomes prayer.” Her manuscript “La Casa Negra” was a 2022 semifinalist for the Andrés Montoya Poetry Prize through Letras Latinas at Notre Dame. Her favorite poets are Natalie Diaz, Xavier Cavazos, and Natalie Scenters Zapico.