CUNY DIGITAL HISTORY ARCHIVE

A participatory project to collect and preserve the histories of the City University of New York

Oral History Interview with Anselma Rodriguez

In this oral history, Anselma Rodriguez discusses her experiences as a student at Brooklyn College from 1969-1973. She was a founding a member of Movimiento Estudiantil Dominicanos and active in Brooklyn College's Puerto Rican Studies Department. Rodriguez also discusses her experiences as an immigrant in New York, the Trujillo regime in the Dominican Republic, Open Admissions and her role in the Financial Aid office at Brooklyn college.

Although Rodriguez claims to have only been peripherally involved, she draws connections between the Open Admissions movement, the Civil Rights Movement, the Anti-Vietnam war movement, the Black Panthers and the Young Lords. She stressed intersectionality, insisting that equity in education is connected to housing rights, health care and employment opportunities. Furthermore, Rodriguez also seeks to make a distinction between race and economics, claiming that the faculty and staff who were against Open Admissions but for the imposition of tuition were discriminating against poor people regardless of race.

Rodriguez’s shares insights given her later role as a Financial Aid Counselor and the real life problems encountered by first and second-generation students.



Source | Medina, Douglas
Creator | Medina, Douglas
Date Created | May 6, 2014
Interviewer | Medina, Douglas
Interviewee | Rodriguez, Anselma
Rights | Obtain From Medina, Douglas
Item Type | Oral History (Digital)
Cite This document | Medina, Douglas, “Oral History Interview with Anselma Rodriguez,” CUNY Digital History Archive, accessed March 19, 2024, https://cdha.cuny.edu/items/show/6832.

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