KNOW YOUR AFRICAN HEROES
DR.
MARTA MORENO VEGA is the founder and president of the
Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI). She established
the center in 1976, inspired by a vision to create an international
organization to promote and link communities of African descendants wherever
they are present. Most recently, she has guided the completion of a capital
campaign for the renovation of the landmark firehouse at 120 East 125th Street
that will be the Center’s new home. Dr. Vega has been a staunch advocate of
cultural education and integration for years, as former director of El Museo
del Barrio, and among the founders of the Association of
Hispanic Arts and the Network of Centers of Color and the Roundtable of
Institutions of Colors.
She has conducted
extensive research in Yoruba belief systems in the African Diaspora and has
organized numerous international conferences uniting scholars and leading
experts on African Diaspora religions. She is also co-founder of the Global
Afro Latino and Caribbean Initiative (GALCI), a program of Hunter College/Latin
American and Caribbean Studies Program. She is chief editor of Women Warriors
of the Afro-Latina Diaspora (Arte Publico Press) and author of The Altar of My
Soul (One World/Ballantine, 2001). She is director and co-producer of the
documentary When the Spirits Dance Mambo: Growing Up Nuyorican in El Barrio and
has written a personal memoir by the same name (Three Rivers Press, 2002). Dr.
Moreno Vega also co-edited Actualidad de las Tradiciones Espirituales y
Culturales Africanas en el Caribe y Latinoamerica with Maria Elba Torres Munoz
and A SNAP SHOT: Landmarking Community Cultural Arts Organizations Nationally
with Dr. Sonia Bassheva Manjon.
Dr. Vega is currently
working a documentary focused on African based spirituality in Puerto Rico -
When the Spirits Call - working title. She is also working on a children's book
- Dos Islas a young Puerto Ricans view of Puerto Rico and Manhattan Island. Dr.
Vega is a professor at El Centro de Estudios Avanzados Puertorriquenos de
Puerto Rico y El Caribe in San Juan, Puerto Rico and an adjunct professor at
New York University’s Department of Arts and Public Policy. Previously, she was
an adjunct professor of Afro-Caribbean Religions and Afro Latinos in New York
City at Hunter College, City University of New York where she was acting
director of the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program. Dr. Moreno Vega
was and as a Latino Pioneer and Visionary in the Best Buy honoring for Latino
month 2012 and was featured in the 2011 HBO documentary “The Latino List.” A
native of Spanish Harlem (El Barrio and the Bronx), Dr. Vega began her career
as a New York City public school teacher.
She is a graduate of
New York University and received her Doctorate from Temple University in 1995.
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