Scope and arrangement
The Miriam Jiménez Román Papers, dating from 1974 to 2016, comprise personal and professional correspondence, contracts, research files and personal writings that helped to create and define a space for the cultural appreciation of the Afro-Latin@ community. This collection reflects Jiménez Román's process creating the Afro-Latin Reader, a book she co-edited with her husband Juan Flores and published in 2010 by Duke University Press. Her papers also show the numerous conferences and speaking engagements she participated in during her career. Consultancies files show many of her collaborations throughout her career with artists, historians and organizations whose work was rooted in preserving and promoting Black and Latino history.
The Miriam Jiménez Román papers are arranged in five series:
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1981-2021
The Personal series is organized chronologically, documenting Miriam Jiménez Román's life and work. This series encompasses a diverse range of materials, including personal notes featuring biographical statements, resumes, and diary-like entries, alongside poems by Melvin Lewis. It also contains printed articles, such as biographies and obituaries, related to Jiménez Román. Notable items include two certificates: one from the 1988 Cross-Cultural Black Women's Studies Summer Institute and another from 1992 recognizing her support for the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine during Hispanic Heritage Month. Additionally, the series holds a folder of collected recipe clippings and a notebook with entries on her life in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico specifically relating to property she and Flores purchased there as well as notes on her reading and writing ideas.
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1969-1999
The Education Series is arranged chronologically into three subseries: High School of Art and Design, SUNY Binghamton, and the Eleventh Course of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF). The High School of Art and Design (1969)subseries documents Jiménez Román's time there, including her high school diploma and yearbook. The SUNY Binghamton(1982-1999)subseries is extensive and includes course syllabi, handwritten and printed notes, Jiménez Román's dissertation drafts and comments by professor and researcher Kelvin Santiago. Also included is the PhD draft dissertation of Juan Giusti, a Puerto Rican historian and professor at the University of Rios Piedra. This draft dissertations contains Jiménez Román's annotations. Giusti obtained his doctoral degree in Sociology from Binghamton University. Lastly, the Eleventh Course of the Women's International Democratic Federation (WIDF) subseries covers Jiménez Román's educational trip to Cuba in 1983, where she attended the Federación Democrática Internacional de Mujeres (FDIM), or the Eleventh Course of the Women's International Democratic Federation. This feminist and global organization advocates for women's rights. The files include handwritten loose notes, undated personal statements, and course notebooks written in both English and Spanish. Additionally, the subseries contains printed matter from the Encuentro Internacional de Mujeres held in Cuba, such as the conference's internal procedures, program itinerary, and a plenary speech draft in Spanish.
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1982-2016
The Correspondence series is arranged chronologically and is divided into two subseries: Personal and Professional. The Personal Correspondence subseries includes handwritten letters and postcards from colleagues and friends. A notable item is a postcard from Nuyorican poet Pedro Pietri. Additionally, the Personal Correspondence subseries contains correspondence and notes from Jualynne Dodson and Howard Dodson, and a notebook from Jiménez Román's notes from their trip to Cuba. The Professional Correspondence subseries contains written correspondence from professional engagements, such as an invitation by Anna Yeatman, a Visiting Research Fellow who invited Jiménez Román to be a guest speaker at the Australian Museum.
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1974-2016
The Professional series is arranged chronologically. It contains materials from her professional work at the Schomburg Center (1987-1997), CENTRO Journal (1997-2001), Columbia University (1990-1998) and Brown University (2001-2003). This series includes correspondence about the Schomburg Center exhibitions and programs, exhibition research materials, CENTRO Journal meeting minutes, correspondence and Jiménez Román's and exit evaluation from her departure from CENTRO Journal as their Managing Editor. Course syllabi are also included in this series. These syllabi are from Jiménez Román's Latin American studies courses at various universities and from colleagues at other academic institutions. Also, this series includes correspondence, research materials, essay drafts, and meeting minutes related to Jiménez Román's consultancies on projects such as Africa's Legacy in Mexico: Photographs by Tony Gleaton (1992-1995), the Smithsonian Institution's Latino Initiative Advisory Group (1994-1996), and the Young Lords' Party HBO Film Project (1998). The Professional files notably include correspondence from Audre Lorde regarding her participation in the Black Women in the Americas exhibition (1987-1988). This series also includes Jiménez Román's Afro-Latin@ Reader, which is arranged in four subcategories: (1) Afro-Latin Forum, (2) Afro-Latin@ Reader, (3) Afro-Latin@ Project, (4) Afro-Latino Research and Resource Project. The Afro-Latin Reader: History and Culture in the United States was co-edited by Jiménez Román along with her husband, Juan Flores and published in 2010 by Duke University Press. This book contains a collection of essays exploring the history of Afro-Latinidad through the lens of race, ethnicity, and gender. The publication of this book was significant to Jiménez Román and Flores. Their goal was to deepen understanding of the broader Latino community in the United States and, specifically, to increase awareness of Afro-Latino communities within the country. Another noteworthy file is from Jiménez Roman's time at the Schomburg Center Scholars-in- Residence Program, where she conducted research and collected Census data, newsclippings and other research materials for her project "Shifting Affinities: Afro-Latin@s in New York City, 1900-1945".In this project, Jiménez Román investigates how the complex dynamics of race, ethnicity, and socio-economic factors influence the relationships between Black Latinos and African Americans living in New York City. Jiménez Roman's Writing files (1974-2010) are also included in this series and are arranged in chronological order. Some of Jiménez Roman's writings include: "It's Not About Nature: "Race and Identity in the Americas" (1992), "Looking at the Middle Ground: Racial Mixing as Panacea?" (2004-2005), "Black Press on Puerto Ricans used for "Mixed Race" Paper (2004-2005), and "Triple Consciousness: Approaches to Afro-Latino Culture in the United States" (2009).
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1834-2016 [bulk 1968-2014]
The Research Files series is arranged alphabetically into eight categories, which reflect Jiménez Román's original titles: Arturo Schomburg, Jose C. Barbosa, Juano Hernandez, Latin@s,"Mestisaje" (Mixed Race), The Americas and Race, Race in the USA, and Women. This series comprises chapters, papers, and articles from books, newspapers, and magazines that Jiménez Román collected over the years and utilized for her teachings and writings. The Arturo Schomburg research files include copies of primary source materials of written correspondence by Arturo Schomburg as well as chapters written by or about him. Jiménez Román used these for her research on Schomburg. Other notable materials in this series are the files of Jorge Celso Barbosa and Juano Hernandez. Jorge Celso Barbosa was an Afro-Puerto Rican physician and political figure, recognized as the father of the statehood movement in Puerto Rico. This subseries includes chapters from his book, La Obra de José Celso Barbosa which was edited by his daughter Pilar Barbosa de Rosario de Roasario. Jiménez Román also published an article on Barbosa titled, "Un hombre (negro) del pueblo: José Celso Barbosa and the Puerto Rican 'Race' Toward Whiteness." This article was published in 1996 in Centro:Journal for Puerto Rican Studies. Research materials and notes related to Juano Hernandez, an Afro-Puerto Rican stage and movie actor who was prominent during the 1920s and 1930s are also included in this subseries. Additionally, this series incorporates Jiménez Román's extensive research on race, ethnicity, and gender in the United States, Latin American and Caribbean countries.