Bio

I am a blogger. I developed my writing skills in college, writing  for literary publications, winning a national college student poetry award for the poem “Poder,” continuing to  write throughout my undergraduate and graduate education, defending a doctoral thesis on Arturo A. Schomburg (1874-1938), while developing my understanding about the growth and development of the Puerto Rican community in New York City, as well as, African-American intellectual history.

I started writing for the Buffalo Puerto Rican Press back in 1978 as a columnist for  the Latin Journal (1973-1979).  Alberto O. Cappas published it from a storefront apartment in the Puerto Rican barrio on the lower West Side of town. I  have written for many alternative newspapers–the Latin Journal, the Hispano News, the Challenger, and submitted articles to the Buffalo News.  I was married to  Carl R. Allen (1955-1999) an award-winning  journalist from the Buffalo News when I worked at the newspaper in the early 1980s.

Today, the Carl R. Allen Memorial Scholarship has been established in his name through the auspices  of  the Buffalo Association of Black Journalist and the Buffalo News for an aspiring minority college student,  majoring in journalism.

I studied abroad at  El Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe en el Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña in San Juan, Puerto Rico under the tutelage of the imminent anthropologist, Dr. Ricardo Alegría.  I researched the Bomba dances of Puerto Rico, as well as, studied under the most distinguished scholars, poets and musicians (Francisco Matos Paoli, Clemente Soto Vélez, Isabelo Zenón Cruz, Paquito López Cruz, Maldonado Denis, etc. ).

As a young scholar,  it was mesmerizing to stand  inside the building that housed “El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña” in Old San Juan because it was older than Harvard University almost a century before as a symbol of how centers of learning  emerged on the island  of Puerto Rico during this early period.

I am available to  lecture  about Puerto Ricans ( Arthur A. Schomburg). I have exhibited  and lectured in the WNY Region, including Syracuse, and Rochester, Niagara Falls, N.Y about  Arthur A. Schomburg. I developed and created a travelling exhibit about his life in the Puerto Rican community in New York City during the early years when it formed, showing Schomburg as an important person in the growth and development of the “colonia.”

Also, I’m  a certified public school administrator  and education blogger concerned about the state of public education today and  available to lecture on this topic as well.

Please sign the petition http://www.PetitionOnline.com/2010abcd/petition.html.

Currently, I  a contributing writer for a national newspaper on line called :

http://examiner.com , and for

hub pages, as welll as,  I created five blogs:

thelatinjournalblogfromthebarrio.com/,

theinsurgentteacher.blogspot.com/;

especiallyforwomeninbuffalonewyork.wordpress.com/;

emmettillsocialjustice.blogspot.com/and  one website. I particiapte in

https://twitter.com/Aguebana,

http://activities.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=stream&f=0&s=0,

http://digg.com/users/maria1,

LinkedIn,

http://www.stumbleupon.com/favorites/

YouTube

and other social media.

Maria Rosa, SDA