#  Ruben Reyes 

Class of 2019, Ethnic Studies

MFA candidate, Iowa Writers' Workshop

 

 

 



   ![Ruben Reyes](/sites/g/files/omnuum4926/files/styles/hwp_4_5__480x600/public/histlit/files/screen_shot_2020-01-22_at_8.57.42_am.png?itok=EK93vaBN) 

 



 





 

**Thesis Title:** "please / no american mierdas:" Shattering Silences, Salvadoran (In)visibilities, and Imagined Nation in Javier Zamora's *Unaccompanied*   
  
**What Now:** MFA candidate in Fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and General Education Literature Instructor

**What Next:** Hopefully more college-level teaching appointments, and a budding career as a novelist and short story writer

**Follow Me:** [@rubenwrites](https://twitter.com/rubenwrites) (Twitter)

During my first year at Harvard, I struggled to find an academic home for myself. I knew I loved the humanities, and literature in particular, but I couldn't find courses that allowed me to engage with the sorts of questions that I was interested in, namely those surrounding race and citizenship in the United States. Luckily, I found my way to Hist & Lit and built a course of study within the sparkling new Ethnic Studies field that largely consisted of 20th and 21st century literature by authors of color. The texts I discovered in Hist & Lit form the basis of the undergraduate course I teach today at the University of Iowa. Additionally, my senior thesis and archival research into the Salvadoran Civil War was also the inspiration for the novel manuscript I'm currently working on. The historical and academic skills I learned in Hist & Lit have made my fiction-writing stronger, and without the department I wouldn't be completing my MFA.

**Read more:**

- ["My Mentor Was Denied Tenure. Why Should I Stay in Academia?"](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.bostonglobe.com_2019_12_13_opinion_my-2Dmentor-2Dwas-2Ddenied-2Dtenure-2Dwhy-2Dshould-2Di-2Dstay-2Dacademia_&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=JVn1Vz6qni5dqoP9wb8HHABLpDDKd1F3u8_MxbW3jQ8&m=ZyY8E_3vBV-1IqD9lkFAEnPIeqA5uMkpAvLpc7KADvc&s=CRQKr0usnAQwbWZaBiMMzjpNzv7ocFSqLE254YCPhLw&e=) in *The* *Boston Globe*
- ["The One Where Henry Tries to Make Money"](https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.acentosreview.com_February2019_ruben-2Dreyes-2Djr.html-3Ffbclid-3DIwAR2ftwxd2AkyxqJcrHTj9134-5FZ25dN2-5FibfpjRORCLYFgO14W2-5F60NmiK6A&d=DwMFaQ&c=WO-RGvefibhHBZq3fL85hQ&r=JVn1Vz6qni5dqoP9wb8HHABLpDDKd1F3u8_MxbW3jQ8&m=ZyY8E_3vBV-1IqD9lkFAEnPIeqA5uMkpAvLpc7KADvc&s=FSS40o2HA7TFX0XtB5xXA7vpWnCVfsyzbXU7UXmorBs&e=) in *The Acentos Review*
- ["My Abuela, The Puppet"](https://floridareview.cah.ucf.edu/article/my-abuela-the-puppet/) in *The Florida Review Online*



 

 

 





 

 

- ## Career Paths
    
     [Arts and Entertainment](/alumni/arts-and-entertainment)