Raquel Z. Rivera is a Researcher at the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. She has a Ph.D. in Sociology from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and an M.A. in Puerto Rican Studies from the Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico.

She is co-editor of Reggaeton with Wayne Marshall and Deborah Pacini Hernandez, published by Duke University Press in March 2009. She is also conducting research and writing about the redefinition of traditional Caribbean music by young people, particularly in the case of Puerto Rican bomba and Dominican palos and salves.

Her book New York Ricans from the Hip Hop Zone was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2003 and is already in its sixth printing.

Her articles on popular culture have been published in books and journals such as Journal of the Society for American Music (August, 2008), Latino Studies (August, 2008), NACLA Report on the Americas (Nov/Dec, 2007), A Companion to Latina/o Studies (Blackwell Publishers, 2007), None of the Above: Puerto Ricans in the Global Era (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), Resonancias (Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, 2005), Boletin Musica (Casa de las Americas, 2004), Centro Journal (Hunter College, 2004), Latina/Latino Popular Culture (New York University Press, 2002), Mambo Montage: The Latinization of New York (Columbia University Press, 2001), Revista de Ciencias Sociales (University of Puerto Rico, 1998), Puerto Rican Jam: Rethinking Colonialism and Nationalism (Minnesota University Press, 1997) and Globalization and Survival in the Black Diaspora (State University of New York Press, 1997).

A sought-after lecturer and panelist, she has done numerous presentations at colleges, conferences, schools and community-based organizations throughout the United States, Cuba and Puerto Rico.

A freelance journalist and creative writer, her articles, essays, poetry and short stories have been published in numerous magazines, newspapers, journals and literary websites, among these: El Diario/La Prensa, El Nuevo Dia, Claridad, The San Juan Star, Dialogo, Hostos Review/Revista Hostosiana, El Femur de Tu Padre, The Latino Artists Roundtable webpage, Vibe, One World, and Urban Latino Magazine.

A singer-songwriter, she is a founding and former member of Boricua roots music group Yerbabuena and also of Yaya, an all-women’s musical collective dedicated to Dominican salves and Puerto Rican bomba. She currently works with bomba group Alma Moyo.

She is a board member of Los Pleneros de la 21, The AfroLatin@ Forum and the Latino Studies journal. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, she has lived in New York City since 1994 and is a resident of El Barrio (East Harlem).

Raquel Z. Rivera
Hunter College
695 Park Avenue, E1405
New York, NY 10021
(212) 772-5692
raquelzrivera@aol.com