Releases | New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs

Author Leticia Urieta brings blend of folklore and futurism to the National Hispanic Cultural Center

August 1st, 2022

Albuquerque, NM - The National Hispanic Cultural Center (NHCC) is thrilled to welcome author Leticia Urieta on August 18 for an online book reading featuring a distinctive combination of traditional folklore and speculative fiction. 

“Leticia’s blend of traditional storytelling and supernatural elements fits perfectly within the work we’re doing at the Center to showcase the many forms that Hispanic and Latine storytelling can take,” said Dr. Margie Huerta, executive director of the NHCC. 

Urieta will read from Las Criaturas, a hybrid collection that blends poetic and speculative narrative forms to tell women’s stories that have gone untold, playing with traditional storytelling forms and tales to explore the monstrous, unruly, and vulnerable strength and beauty in the feminine and seek to reclaim people’s power in powerless situations. Urieta also plans to read from a few unpublished works, offering listeners a deeper look at her unique writing style. 

The event is the second in the NHCC’s “historia, idioma, e identidad Series,” which focuses on authors who explore the complex and multifaceted ways that Hispanic and Latine people imagine their own identities situated in historical context, with a focus on race, nationality, ethnicity, language, gender, sexuality, religion, and ability. 

Urieta’s work also dovetails with the NHCC’s Fronteras del Futuro: Art in New Mexico and Beyond exhibition, which features art from Latine and Indigenous creators that explores the intersections of art, science, ancient and modern technologies, cosmic-musings, future-oriented visions, and more. 

Urieta is a Tejana writer from Austin, Texas. She is a freelance writer, a teaching artist in the greater Austin community, and the Regional Program Manager of Austin Bat Cave, a literary community serving students in the Austin area. She also serves as the Director of Barrio Writers, a free college level youth writing workshop in Austin. Leticia is a graduate of Agnes Scott College with a BA in English/Creative Writing and holds an MFA in fiction writing from Texas State University. 

Her fiction explores the intersections of Latinx identity with the folklore, traditional stories, and the supernatural or speculative. Her work appears or is forthcoming in Cleaver, Chicon Street Poets, Lumina, The Offing, Kweli Journal, Medium, Electric Lit, and others. Her chapbook, The Monster, was published in 2018 from LibroMobile Press and Las Criaturas is out now from FlowerSong Press.  

This and other events in the “historia, idioma, e identidad Series” are generously supported by United Way. To register for the online book reading, visit https://my.nmculture.org/11498/12101. 

The National Hispanic Cultural Center is dedicated to the preservation, promotion, and advancement of Hispanic culture, arts, and humanities. The NHCC presents mission-related events throughout the year, some produced by its history, literary, performing, and visual arts programs, and others by partnering with external organizations. Events take place at its 20-plus-acre campus, which includes a plaza, an art museum, a historically designated building, a library, and a genealogy center. The NHCC is a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs and is further supported by the National Hispanic Cultural Center Foundation.  

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Leticia Urieta Headshot

A headshot of author Leticia Urieta

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