“Throughout the African Diaspora in the Caribbean, South, North, and Central America, African traditions continue to flourish and are an integral part of the formation of New World cultural traditions. We share a common heritage and have successfully infused our philosophy, aesthetic and sacred vision wherever we were forcibly taken. To understand our diversity is to understand our historical journey from Africa to the Americas, our present condition and our future potential as a united global family and community.”
-Marta Moreno Vega, Ph.D

About the Author
Marta Moreno Vega was born in El Barrio “Spanish Harlem” of Puerto Rican parents born in Puerto Rico. Dr. Vega, an Afro Puerto Rican, has dedicated her professional life to developing culturally grounded institutions placing the history and culture of African descendants in the Diaspora in the time clock of world history. She is founder and president of the Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute, an international not for profit organization located in New York City which she created in 1976. She was executive director from 1976 to 1995.

Dr. Vega founded the Amigos del Museo del Barrio, Inc., and she is one of the founding members, and the first director, of the Association of Hispanic Arts, The Network of Centers of People of Color and the Roundtable of People of Color.

Dr. Vega is co-editor of Voices From the Battlefront: Achieving Cultural Equity. She is presently working on a book focused on her life and research on Santerķa, one of the Yoruba-based, New World African religions developed by enslaved Africans in the Americas. Her new book, The Altar of My Soul: The Living Traditions of Santerķa will be published in September 2000 by One World, Ballantine Publishing Group.

Dr. Vega was the organizer of the conference, Race and the Construction of the Puerto Rican Identity, held at Baruch College in 1998. Presently, she is organizing a follow-up conference for February 2000, Black Women in the Caribbean and Latin America 1800 - 2000.

Dr. Vega is regularly invited to speak in diverse educational and cultural forums including Harvard University, Yale University, Howard University, Wesleyan University, Rutgers University, NASA, the British Arts Council, Toronto Arts Council, The Harlem Foundation for the Arts, Schomburg Library for Research in Black Culture, National Association of Latino Arts Organizations Inc., among others.

She is recipient of various awards including the Distinguished Visiting Gildersleeve Professor from Barnard College, Crystal Stairs Award from the Association of American Cultures, the Mosaic Award from the Multicultural Council of New York City among others. Dr. Vega ha been featured in Latina Magazine, Essence Magazine, Visiones - Channel 4, CNN, Good Day New York - Channel 5, New York Times, Channel 11 and El Diario La Prensa.

Marta Moreno Vega received her undergraduate and graduate degrees at New York University and her Ph.D. at Temple University.

She has two sons, Sergio Vega, a musician and Omar Vega, a graphic artist.

E-mail: Marta_Vega@baruch.cuny.edu

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