Rafael C. Castillo

Rafael C. Castillo was the first editor of "ViAztlan: a journal of Chicano Arts and Letters" established in San Antonio, Texas in 1979. The journal was funded through the City of San Antonio and the culture-based arts organization, Centro Cultural de Aztlan. A veteran free-lance writer, Castillo authored articles germane to the Mexican American community and established philosophy-based issues and supported international causes that promoted Mexican American arts and letters. He later served as contributing editor of "The Saguaro,"a literary journal published at the University of Arizona, Tucson. In 1985, Castillo visited Paris, France, and met briefly with David Appelfield, editor of FRANK, an international literary journal, and became its San Antonio correspondent. In 2001, Castillo was asked to serve on the editorial board of "Puentes", an international bilingual journal based at Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi.

His writings have appeared in "The Arizona Quarterly, Saguaro, Frank (Paris, France), Southwestern American Literature, English Journal, College English, South Texas Studies, English in Texas, Imagine, Puentes, ViAztlan, Caracol" and other international literary quarterlies. He is included in Don Graham's (2003) "Lone Star Literature", an anthology of prominent Texas writers whose works have been canonized within the literary pantheon of W.W. Norton. Castillo is the author of "Distant Journeys," (Bilingual Review Press/Arizona State University) which was published in 1991. The collection was nominated for the Before Columbus Award, the Texas Institute of Letters, and the Ernest Hemingway Award.

In 1985, Castillo was selected as the first English faculty at Palo Alto College and the subsequent year became its first chairperson. The college opened in 1985 and is located in the Southside of San Antonio. In 1987, Rafael Castillo was awarded the first Palo Alto College Teaching Excellence Award ($2,000/laptop) voted at-large by the Faculty Senate, and the following year, the National Council of Teachers of English awarded him the "English Journal Writing Award". In l988, Rafael Castillo inaugurated and founded the student-centered "Palo Alto Review" which later morphed into the broad-based academic journal, "The Palo Alto Review". In 1990, Castillo was asked to serve on the Editorial Board of Publications of NCTE, the National Council of Teachers of English. Dr. Castillo is listed in Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors, and Poets; Men of Achievement, and Who's who among Scholars.

A graduate of St. Mary's University (B.A.), the University of Texas at San Antonio (M.A.) and Capella University in Minnesota (PhD), Rafael Castillo was one of the early free-lance writers whose contributions opened the door for Hispanics in mainstream journalism. He was a board member of "Gemini-Ink" of San Antonio, a non-profit literary arts organization and served on the San Antonio Express-News Community Board in 2004–2005. Currently, he is serving as Vice-President of Los Bexarenos Genealogical and Historical Society for 2008-2009, a Hispanic focus group.

A brief literary biography of Rafael Castillo is included in "The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Ethnic American Literature" (2005) and the 1986–1987 "Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors, and Poets". Other biographical listings include "Rafael Castillo" in the "Dictionary of Literary Biography" Volume 209, Gale Publishing, and papers listed at the University of Texas in the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection. Catalogued as SRH-1.109 by Gilda Baeza-Ortego, Mexican American Studies Librarian, the papers are used by visiting researchers, biographers, and scholars. Currently, Rafael Castillo is a tenured professor of English at Palo Alto College in San Antonio, Texas.

References

*Rosales, Jesus. "Rafael Castillo" Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 209. Gale Publishing, 2000.
*Oakley, Helen. "Rafael C. Castillo" Greenwood Encyclopedia of Multiethnic Literature. Greenwood Press, 2005.

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