Scholar - Women Also Know History

Participant Info

Keywords: Latina American Independence, Atlantic History, Venezuelan History, Spanish History

About Me: Olga Gonzalez-Silen (PhD Harvard) is a historian of Latin American independence, Venezuela, Spain, and the Atlantic World. Currently, she lectures on the histories of Latin America and the United States as well as the Chicana/o/x experiences at California State University San Marcos.

Her work has received important recognitions. In 2012, the Conference of Latin American History awarded the Tibesar Prize to her article, “Unexpected Opposition: Independence and the 1809 Leva de Vagos in the Province of Caracas.” In 2006, the LASA’s Venezuelan Section recognized her essay “Testing the Limits of Modernity: The Impact of Railroad Accidents on Venezuelan Society, 1883-1892” as “distinctive scholarship by a student.” This work was published in Venezuela under the title “Victimas del progreso: Los ferrocarriles, sus accidentes y la sociedad en las postremerias del siglo XIX.”

Recent Publications

“Unexpected Opposition: Independence and the 1809 Leva de Vagos in the Province of Caracas,” The Americas 68, no. 3 (January 2012): 347-375.
“Las Cortes de Cádiz y Venezuela: Una familia dividida,” El Desafío de la Historia (Caracas), November 2009, 86-90.
“Caracas y la Gazeta de Caracas (1808-1810): Contrapunteo entre la ideología revolucionaria española y una ciudad hispanoamericana,” in Memoria de la VIII Jornada de Historia y Religión (Caracas: Universidad Católica Andrés Bello / Fundación Konrad Adenauer, 2009), 63-73.
“Victimas del Progreso: Los Ferrocarriles, sus Accidentes y la Sociedad en las Postrimerías del Siglo XIX,” in Tomás Straka (editor), La Tradición de lo Moderno: Venezuela en Diez Enfoques (Caracas: Fundación para la Cultura Urbana, 2006), 169-212.