she returned to the United States. She currently teaches Latin American Literature and Cultures at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.
In the fall of 2001, after finally settling down here in Ohio, Rodriguez started the Trans-Latina Ohio Women Writing Workshop. Rodriguez stated that she began the workshop as a way of “meeting Latinos, getting together with them and creating a Latino community for myself here in Ohio.” The writing workshop consists of two groups, one conducted in English and one conducted in Spanish. Members come from the community as well as the university and the most recent member is a gentleman who gained entry by stating, “I am a feminist and I have the right to be here!”

The group meets monthly at a member’s home to share their writing. Of course, food is involved! “Latinos always do everything around eating so there is something to eat,” laughs Rodriguez.
In sitting with Rodriguez for just a half an hour’s time, the benefits of learning from her were abundantly apparent. Her life experiences, as well as her academic ones have provided her with not only knowledge, but wisdom as well. It is clear that she has much to offer the Latino community, both here at the University and within the city of Columbus. With regards to her classes, she states, “I raise hard questions. I ask my students to be creative. They tell me that most professors are looking for factual information, but I ask questions in which the students must analyze the information, deconstruct it, and reconstruct it in order to make meaning out of it, not simply regurgitate it. They are at the university to think and to think is hard!”
OSU and Columbus are lucky that Ileana Rodriguez finally considers herself an Ohioan. One can only hope that this new identity is one she will embrace for years to come•