Interview, Elena Goldfeder

Elena Goldfeder (b. 1943) was born in Havana, Cuba, to Cuban parents. In 1946, Goldfeder and her parents moved to New York City, where she was raised in a multiethnic neighborhood that included Cubans, African Americans, Spaniards, and Germans. She later married a Jewish American man from Brooklyn and moved to Rochester with him in 1966. Goldfeder became involved with the local Latino community when she joined the Borinquen Dance Studio in 1968. She earned a Ph.D. in Hispanic Literatures from SUNY Buffalo in 1990 and became the director of Nazareth College’s Casa Hispana in 2013.

In this interview, Dr. Goldfeder examines her educational career from her days as a Catholic schoolgirl through her time as a graduate student. She describes her Catholic upbringing as well as her family’s economic status and traditions. She also discusses history and politics, touching on topics such as the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and the future of Cuba.