Rate My Professor Enrique Lamadrid

Enrique Lamadrid is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Spanish in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of New Mexico, where his work in Arts and Culture centers on Southwest Hispanic and Latin American folklore, folk music, Chicano literature, and literary recovery projects. He earned his Ph.D. and M.A. in Spanish from the University of Southern California between 1976 and 1978, and a B.A. in English from the University of New Mexico in 1970. Lamadrid joined the UNM faculty as Professor of Spanish in 1985, was named Distinguished Professor in 2011, served as Chair of the Department from 2009, and directed Chicano Hispano Mexicano Studies from 2004 to 2009. He co-founded and directs UNM's CONEXIONES international education program and has conducted fieldwork with students across New Mexico, Mexico, Spain, Colombia, and Ecuador. His contributions extend to cultural institutions, including fieldwork and presentations for the Smithsonian Institution's Festivals of American Folklife, extensive work for the Museum of New Mexico and National Hispanic Cultural Center, and curating exhibits with students, such as leading the design team for the Camino Real International Heritage Center.

Lamadrid's scholarship has produced numerous influential publications, including Hermanitos Comanchitos: Rituals of Captivity, Redemption and Transculturation in the Indo-Hispano Folklore of New Mexico (University of New Mexico Press, 2003), which received the Chicago Folklore Prize in 2004 and the Southwest Book Award in 2005; Nuevo México Profundo: Rituals of an Indo-Hispano Homeland (Museum of New Mexico Press, 2000), honored with the Southwest Book Award in 2001; La Música de los Viejitos: Hispano Folk Music of the Río Grande del Norte (UNM Press, 1999 and 2007); Juan the Bear and the Water of Life: La Acequia de Juan del Oso (UNM Press, 2008); and Tesoros del Espíritu: A Portrait in Sound of Hispanic New Mexico (1994). More recently, he co-authored Water for the People: The Acequia Heritage of New Mexico in a Global Context (UNM Press, 2023) with José Rivera. Among his honors are the 2019 North American Academy of the Spanish Language “Enrique Anderson Imbert” prize for contributions to the Spanish language, Hispanic culture, and literature; the Américo Paredes Prize from the American Folklore Society in 2005; and the Gilberto Espinosa Prize in 2009.