Brenda Romero, Associate Professor
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Contact Information
Brenda Romero, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Spanish
Bio Sketch
Dr. Brenda Romero is an Associate Professor of Spanish in the Department of World Languages and Literatures at Sacramento State University. She also serves as the Graduate Coordinator for the Spanish M.A. Program and is a faculty associate at the Center on Race, Immigration, and Social Justice. Dr. Romero is also a board member of the Chicanx/Latinx Faculty and Staff Association, where she contributes to initiatives supporting community building on campus.
Dr. Romero earned her M.A. in Spanish and her Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from the University of Utah. Her scholarly expertise lies in Mexican Studies and the Colonial Period, with a particular focus on amplifying historically marginalized voices. Her research has been presented at numerous academic conferences both in the United States and internationally, and her work has been featured in a variety of scholarly publications.
In addition to her academic contributions, Dr. Romero is the founder and director of Voces de Sacramento, Sacramento State’s annual Spanish-language writing contest. She has organized campus visits by renowned authors Ana Castillo and Reyna Grande, contributing to a vibrant literary and cultural dialogue within the university community. One of her current projects is the English translation of Sólo por ser mujer, a novel by Yucatec Maya author Sol Ceh Moo.
Courses That I Teach
UNDERGRADUATE
- SPAN 1A: Elementary Spanish I
- SPAN 1B: Elementary Spanish II
- SPAN 100: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Literature
- SPAN 106: Advanced Spanish Composition
- SPAN 113: Latin American Literature, Beginnings to Modernism
- SPAN 130: Contemporary Mexican Literature
- SPAN 131: Special Topics in Latin American Literature
- SPAN 153: Civilization and Culture of Mexico
- SPAN 224A: Spanish-American Literature to 1825
- SPAN 224C: Spanish-American Literature,1880 to 1945
- SPAN 224D: Spanish-American Literature, 1945 to Present
- SPAN 250D: Civilization and Culture of Mexico
Publications and Presentations
Dr. Romero specializes in Mexican Studies and the Colonial Period, with a strong emphasis on recovering and elevating the voices of historically marginalized communities, including Indigenous, female, and AfroLatinx populations. Her scholarship has been shared widely at academic conferences across the United States and abroad, as well as through community-based presentations. Her work appears in a range of academic outlets, including peer-reviewed journals, edited volumes, and literary anthologies.- Romero, Brenda. Review of Eréndira. By Rose Borunda, Conocimientos Press, 2025, back cover.
- Romero, Brenda, Editor. Voces de Sacramento 2024 E-book, Sacramento State, 2024.
- Romero, Brenda, Translator. “La amazonía se está quemando.” By Ana Castillo. Irradiación: Revista de Literatura y Cultura, vol. 2, no. 11, October 2023.
- Romero, Brenda. "Afro-Mexican Women in the Northern Frontier: Subalternity, Agency, and Power Dynamics in the 17th Century" in AfroLatinas/LatiNegras: Culture, Identity, and Struggle from an Intersectional Perspective. Eds. Concetta Bondi and Rosita Scerbo, Lexington Books, 2022, pp. 207-224.
- Romero, Brenda. “Mexico City’s Black Conspiracy in 1612: Slavery and Racial Politics in New Spain.” Black Freedom Struggles: Africana Reader. Edited by Latif Tarik, Kendal Hunt Publishing Company, 2021, pp. 11-23.
- Romero, Brenda. “Historical Invisibility: Black Migrants and Mexico’s Colonial Past.” Irìnkèrindò: A Journal of African Migration, vol. 11, no.1, 2021, no pag.
- Romero, Brenda. “Beyond Face Value.” Reflection for Un/Equal Freedoms: Expressions for Social Justice, Center for Race, Immigration, and Social Justice, Sacramento State, 2021.
- Romero, Brenda. “Guadalupe Dueñas.” Antología: Escritoras mexicanas del siglo XX. Edited by Adrián González Arriaga, Encuentros: Espacio de conocimiento social, 2020, pp. 31-35.
- “La concentración de japoneses en México: exploración de un pasado silenciado a través de la literatura," International Congress of Mexican Literature, UNAM, Mexico, October 2023.
- “Antichinismo y revolución: Injusticia epistémica y silencio social en La casa del dolor ajeno," XLIV Congress of Ibero American Literature, National University of Athens, Greece, July 2023.
- Roundtable and book presentation of AfroLatinas/LatiNegras: Culture, Identity, and Struggle from an Intersectional Perspective, NEMLA Conference, Niagara Falls, NY, March 2023.
- “Inquisición, voz y agencia: mujeres afrodescendientes en el norte novohispano,” Congreso XV Jalla Jornadas Andinas de Literatura Latinoamericana 2022 / Universidad Rafael Landívar Sede Guatemala, July 2022.
- “Voces afromexicanas en el archivo: confesiones y acusaciones de la periferia novohispana.” 10th Annual Conference of the Hispanic Association for the Humanities, University of Málaga, Spain, June 2022.
- “Presencia de “la China” en la sociedad novohispana: mimetismo y autoridad en el Diario de Domingo Chimalpahin.” Latin American Studies Association Annual Conference, May 2022.
- “Pictorial Representation of the Aztec Defeat in the Nahua Codices (keynote speaker).” 500 Years of Indigenous Resistance, Consulate of Mexico in Sacramento, August 2021.
- “Mesoamerican Perspectives on Women and Fertility” Mexican Arts and History Lessons, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, August 2021.
- “Contactos transpacíficos novohispanos en el Diario de Domingo Chimalpahin.” XV Coloquio Internacional Multidisciplinario, Universidad de Michoacán, México, November 2020.