The first edition of Border-Lines, an academic journal dedicated to Latino issues, will be unveiled at the University of Nevada, Reno. The journal includes essays on political, cultural and social issues involving Hispanics and will be printed annually. Border-Lines costs $15 dollars and can be purchased at UNR’s Latino Research Center.

The Latino Research Center at the University of Nevada, Reno will unveil the first edition of Border-Lines, an academic journal dedicated to Latino issues.

"I started this project two years ago and it's been a labor of love," said Emma Sepulveda, a Spanish professor and director of the center. "We wanted to have a publication that could bring together the experts in their individual field."

The academic journal being presented today, includes essays on political, cultural and social issues involving Hispanics.

The publication complements the Hispanic research and scholarship that has grown at the school in the past 15 years, said Reynaldo F. Macías, chair of the Chicana and Chicano Studies at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Macías established Aztlan in 1970, a premier journal for Chicano Studies.

"Part of the increase in these journals is that there is a much greater production of research and scholarship that has taken place," he said. "Most of them are peer-reviewed academic journals. It (Border-Lines) sounds like something that would be well-received, assuming that it is research-based."

Three UNR professors selected the essays in Border-Lines' first edition. Sepulveda said a board will review submissions for subsequent journals that will be published annually.

"This is the first volume and I think we have learned a lot," she said.

While the first issue has Nevada-focused essays, she said future volumes will be based on national themes.

Information resource

In addition to being a source for academic research, Sepulveda said she hopes Nevada policy makers and community members will use the journal as an information resource.

Jose Gonzalez, an English professor at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Conn., developed LatinoStories.com, a Web site for Hispanic literary resources.

Border-Lines will be a valuable source for publishing works on Hispanic issues that are ignored by mainstream journals, Gonzalez said.

"This is great news," he said.

To really make a contribution to the field of Hispanic studies, Gonzalez said Border-Lines should publish more than once a year.

"I think that it's a good start," he said. "But eventually it would be good to see it at a minimum of three times a year."

Sepulveda said the Latino Research Center, started in 2004, currently cannot afford to publish the journal more than once a year. In fact, she said the center received financial assistance to print the journal from Dean Heather Hardy of the College of Liberal Arts.

The $15 journal can be purchased at the Center.

"But if anybody needs a copy, the Latino Research Center will donate a copy to people who cannot purchase it," Sepulveda said.