Verónica A. Gutiérrez, MFA, Ph.D, joined the department in the Fall of 2012. An assistant professor of Latin American History, her areas of expertise include Colonial Mexico, Mesoamerican Cultures, Medieval Castile, Franciscan Spirituality, and the Early Modern Catholic World. Her book manuscript, _Converting a Sacred City: Franciscan Re-Imagining of Sixteenth-Century San Pedro Cholula_, examines the spiritual and political impact of Franciscan presence in a pre-hispanic holy site in central Mexico. She spent a year living and conducting research in Cholula, Puebla, Mexico as a Fulbright Scholar, and two months at the Archive of the Indies in Sevilla on a grant from Spain’s Ministry of Culture. She has also received research support from the Ford Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Academy of American Franciscan History, and the Latin American Institute at UCLA.
Dr. Gutiérrez has several publications, including “Quetzalcoatl’s Enlightened City: A Close Reading of Bernard Picart’s Engraving of Cholollan/Cholula,” for which she received the Hubert Herring Award from the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies. Also in print is “A Satellite Community in a Spanish City: The Barrio of Santiago Cholultecapan in Colonial Puebla de los Ángeles” and a co-authored work, “Mesoamerican Religions: Colonial Cultures,” in the Encyclopedia of Religion. She has presented her research at various national and international conferences and has lectured at the San Gabriel Mission, the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, Our Neighborhood Homework House in Azusa, and for the Juan Bruce-Novoa Series on the Chicano/Latino Experience at APU.
In addition to her training as a historian, Dr. Gutiérrez has extensive experience teaching creative writing and enjoys blending her specialties in her courses, especially as she develops a diverse set of Latin American course offerings at APU. Both she and her husband are avid CrossFitters and enjoy an active life near the beach.
Education
Ph.D. – Colonial Mexican History, University of California, Los Angeles, 2012
C.Phil. – Colonial Latin American History, University of California, Los Angeles, 2007
M.A. – Latin American History, University of California, Los Angeles, 2006
MFA – Creative Nonfiction, Pennsylvania State University, 2004
B.A. – Creative Writing, University of San Francisco, 2000
Department
- College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
- History and Political Science
Expertise
- Early Modern Catholicism
The Mendicant Church and the Origins of Mexican Catholicism
- Latin American History
Franciscan Evangelization of Native Peoples in 16th-Century Mexico
- Mesoamerican Cultures
Native Peoples in Colonial Mexico
Courses Taught
HIST 120 – World Civilizations to 1648
HIST 484 – Historical Themes
POLI 300 – Research and Writing
Office Hours
Dr. Gutiérrez is currently on maternity leave.
Office Location
Ronald Building, (Azusa East Campus) Room 136C, East Campus
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