Contact Information
University of Illinois
1408 West Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801
Research Areas
Biography
Antonio Sotomayor is Associate Professor, Historian, and Librarian of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, and has faculty appointments in the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese, and of Recreation, Sport, and Tourism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has taught Latin American and Caribbean Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the University of Chicago, and at Knox College in IL, and has presented his work at the Conference on Latin American History, the Latin American Studies Association, the Association of Caribbean Historians, and the Puerto Rican Studies Association, among others. His book, The Sovereign Colony: Olympic Sport, National Identity, and International Politics in Puerto Rico (winner of SALALM's 2017 José Toribio Medina Book Award), was published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2016.
Research Interests
Cultural and Identity Politics
Nationalism and National Identity
Sports and Leisure
Spanish Caribbean History
Colonialism
Research Description
Professor Sotomayor's research views sport as a window to observe and analyze politics, culture, and national identity in Latin America and the Caribbean. I also do research on genealogy and family history in Modern and Colonial Latin America.
Works in progress:
* Sotomayor, Antonio. Religious Games: The YMCA, Sport, and Imperial Statecraft in Cuba and Puerto Rico, 1898-1950s. (book length project in preparation).
* A multi-volume edition of the collection of almost 300 letters from the family of the Conde de Montemar, 1761-1799.
* Articles on Puerto Rican family history during the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries.
Education
History, PhD, The University of Chicago
Latin American and Caribbean Studies, MA, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Counseling, MS, Indiana University Bloomington
Psychology, BA, University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez
Awards and Honors
Additional Campus Affiliations
Librarian of Latin American & Caribbean Studies, University Library
Associate Professor, University Library
Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Associate Professor, History
External Links
Recent Publications
Sotomayor, A., & Escanilla Huerta, S. (2020). Cartas para la historia: El epistolario de los Carrillo de Albornoz y Bravo de Lagunas, condes de Montemar, en el ocaso del imperio español en América, 1761-1799. Revista de Historia de América, (158), 403-420. https://doi.org/10.35424/rha.158.2020.586
Sotomayor, A. (2020). La colonia soberana: Deportes olímpicos, identidad nacional y política internacional en Puerto Rico. Consejo Latinoamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO). https://f054d46f-e575-45a6-b638-a02251e4a4ae.filesusr.com/ugd/3948f8_bfa4c18ef02b486191d2d20fe36987ce.pdf
Sotomayor, A., & Torres, C. R. (Eds.) (2020). Olimpismo: The Olympic Movement in the Making of Latin America and the Caribbean. (Sport, Culture, and Society). The University of Arkansas Press. https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvs09qtw
Sotomayor, A. (2020). Sport in Latin America and the Caribbean. Oxford Bibliographies Online. https://doi.org/10.1093/OBO/9780199766581-0234
Sotomayor, A. (2020). The Nationalist Movement and the Struggle for Freedom in Puerto Rico’s Olympic Sport. In A. Sotomayor, & C. R. Torres (Eds.), Olimpismo: The Olympic Movement in the Making of Latin America and the Caribbean (pp. 73-94). (Sports, Culture, and Society). University of Arkansas Press. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctvs09qtw.8