María Irene Fornés

This message is to confirm your request submission to the FOIAonline application: View Request. Request information is as follows: (https://www.foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/submissionDetails?trackingNumber=NARA-NGC-2019-000085&type=request)
* Tracking Number: NARA-NGC-2019-000085
* Requester Name: Mary Jo Watts
* Date Submitted: 11/05/2018
* Request Status: Submitted
* Description: To Whom It May Concern:
Pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:
All files related to María Irene Fornés
María Irene Fornés (May 14, 1930 – October 30, 2018) was a Cuban-American avant garde playwright and director, who was a leading figure of the off-off-Broadway movement in the 1960s. Fornés was born in Havana, Cuba, and immigrated to the United States at the age of 15, with her mother, Carmen Collado Fornés and sister, Margarita Fornés Lapinel, after her father, Carlos Fornés, died in 1945. Irene has two older sisters, Margarita and Carmencita, and three older brothers, Rafael (noted cartoonist), Hector and Raul. She became a U.S. citizen in 1951.
The requested documents will be made available to the general public, and this request is not being made for commercial purposes.
In the event that there are fees, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.
Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.
Sincerely,
Mary Jo Watts

Dear Ms. Watts:

Thank you for submitting your Freedom of Information Act request to the
National Archives and Records Administration, via the *FOIAOnline *website.
We received your request on November 5, 2018.

This office handles FOIA and Privacy Act requests for the National Archives
and Records Administration's *operational records* (records created by this
agency). Because your *FOIAOnline* request is for records that may be
*archival* records (records that were created by or originated in a
different agency but that may have been transferred to the legal custody of
NARA), we have forwarded it to our *Office of Research Services, Special
Access and FOIA* staff who handle FOIA requests for archival records.

Since the *Office of Research Services, Special Access and FOIA* does not
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below, or electronically via email.

Special Access and FOIA Staff (RD-F)

8601 Adelphi Road, Room 5500

College Park, MD 20740

By phone: 301-837-3190

By fax: 301-837-1864

By email: specialaccess_foia@nara.gov

That office will let you know if you need to submit additional information
in order for them to locate any responsive records. For your reference, a
copy of your request is below.

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Thank you for contacting the National Archives

Sincerely,
Susan Gillett
Government Information Specialist
Office of General Counsel
National Archives and Records Administration
College Park, MD 20740-6001
301-837-3409
susan.gillett@nara.gov

Dear Ms. Watts,

This is in response to your November 7, 2018 Freedom of Information Act
request (RD #59412) concerning records related to Maria Irene Fornés. Your
request was forwarded to our unit for response on November 1, 2018.

Please be aware that your request for Federal Bureau of Investigation case
files is being processed by NARA's Special Access and FOIA unit under RD#
59413. You can expect a separate response concerning those files.

We make reasonable efforts to assist researchers with their work. Given the
limitations on staff resources, we do not generally conduct substantive
research in response to requests, except in circumstances where documents
are easily locatable.

We conducted a search on the National Archives Catalog for the following:

Maria Irene Fornés (yielded no results)
Maria Fornés (result did not appear to be relevant)

It is possible that *United States Citizenship and Immigration Services
(USCIS)* hold records of interest. The Alien Files (A-Files) contain
documentation on aliens who became U.S. Citizens. To request visa or
A-Files, you must submit a form G-1041a to USCIS. For more information
about the searches and services provided by USCIS, please visit:
http://www.uscis.gov/g-1041a.

Please note that other relevant travel, immigration, naturalization records
may be available online via Ancestry.com. As part of our on-going
commitment to preserve our records, the National Archives has entered into
digital partnerships. The records you seek are available in digital form
and can be searched and viewed online via http://www.ancestry.com/. You
can access the website for free at National Archives locations and at many
public libraries.

Court records are generally held in Record Group 21: Records of the U.S.
District Courts and are in the legal custody of the NARA regional
facilities. Records of the proceedings are usually among the records of the
U.S. District Courts in which the proceedings took place. These records are
arranged numerically by court case number. Naturalization records often
appear among these records. You may contact our regional branches for
access to those records. You can read more about the records at
https://www.archives.gov/research/court-records

We are happy to assist you in any additional research questions you may
have and hope this has been helpful in your search. We do not consider this
a denial of your FOIA request. However, if you are not satisfied with our
action on this request, your options for appeal and dispute resolution are
outlined in the attached enclosure.

Sincerely,
--
Haley J Maynard | archivist
Textual Reference Operations
National Archives at College Park, MD