Introduction

Curating this exhibition of the Caribbean and Latin American women writers was challenging. Selecting which authors and their complex works to include required careful consideration, and I consulted numerous academic sources to ensure a representative selection of these works and the historical contexts in which they were created. I acknowledge the inherent limitations of my choices, particularly the requirement that all featured works be held in the UC Berkeley Libraries collections. The primary goal of this virtual exhibition is to introduce students to the rich narratives and remarkable creative journeys of these Latin American women writers through the library's print collections. While the project initially focused on one hundred female writers, due to the intrinsic limitations of the Spotlight platform, the curator decided to focus only on select writers and their selected works.

As the librarian for Caribbean and Latin American Studies with an Indian-American background, I am deeply grateful to the many individuals who supported my intellectual growth and contributed to this exhibition. I thank Professors Francine Masiello, Daylet Dominguez, Thomas McEnaney, Estelle Tarica, and Senior Associate University Librarian Elizabeth Dupuis. My library colleagues, Claude Potts, José Adrián Barragán-Álvarez, Corliss Lee, and Sine Hwang Jensen, were invaluable, as were numerous others. I also extend special thanks to the staff at the NRLF and the library's cataloging, metadata, and order divisions for their tireless efforts in bringing this exhibition to fruition.

Curator: Liladhar R. Pendse, Librarian for Latin American Studies, University of California-Berkeley Library