It is with deep sadness that the Department of Film and Media Studies share the news of the recent death of Blanca Vázquez, a longtime adjunct professor who leaves a lasting impact in our department and throughout Hunter. She will be profoundly missed as a brilliant educator and an unrelenting fighter for economic and racial justice.
Blanca Vázquez spent her entire life in analysis and action around the cause she was unwaveringly committed to: liberation from oppression. She is celebrated as the founder and editor of the Puerto Rican academic journal CENTRO, Co-Director of the Aronson Awards for Social Journalism, and devoted PSC CUNY organizer for the rights of part-time CUNY faculty.
Blanca came alive in the classroom and with great enthusiasm shared her years of study with her students. Blanca’s ability to understand her student’s realities came from her working-class experience. She grew up in Brooklyn with her mother and three sisters and lived through difficult Puerto Rican migration experience of the 1950s. Her father drove a cab, and her mother worked in a factory. Blanca came of age in a New York City that was often hostile to Puerto Ricans.
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