FORMER UNM PROFESSOR DIES IN ARGENTINA

March 21, 2003

FORMER UNM PROFESSOR DIES IN ARGENTINA

Dinko Cvitanovic, University of New Mexico professor of Spanish from 1973-1980, died Feb. 19 of a heart attack at age 64 in Bahía Blanca Argentina. A scholar of note, he is survived by his wife and sometime collaborator Nilsa, and son Gastón Mauricio.

Born in Croatia, Cvitanovic, his family immigrated to Argentina, the nation of his identity, when he was very young. He earned a doctorate at the Universidad de Valladolid followed by fellowships at the University of Louvain, Belgium, and the Instituto de Cultura Hispánica of Madrid.

His academic life was spent largely at the Universidad del Sur in Bahía Blanca, where he achieved remarkable success in teaching, research and administrative functions designated ultimately while he served as principal investigator of Conicet (Argentina's National Council for Scientific and Technical Research). He directed the research literary section of the Fondo Permanente de Literatura Argentina and the general editorship of the prestigious journal "Cuadernos del Sur." He was named corresponding member of the National Academy of Letters.

Cvitanovic came to UNM because the dictatorship in Argentina disrupted the humanities in Argentine universities. First a visiting professor of Spanish and Spanish American Letters, Cvitanovic later achieved full professorship. Concern for his students, largely upper division and post-graduate degree candidates, won him the admiration of American and Mexican students alike. They referred to him affectionately as "Don Dinko."

Raymond MacCurdy, former UNM colleague, said, "Dinko was not only a congenial colleague, but contributed a great deal to the productivity of the department, both in publication in Latin American literature, but also in Spanish peninsular literature.

"He was always willing to read colleagues' publications and manuscripts and always provided good suggestions for changes. A fine gentleman, he contributed to the social amenities of the department."

Cvitanovic has been recognized as a solid, straightforward analyst and critic. The 1980 collapse of the dictatorship and normalization of academic activity in Argentina allowed him to return and resume his role there in higher education.

Cvitanovic became a central figure in the restructuring and rejuvenation of the Humanities Department at the Universidad del Sur, so sorely disrupted during the anti-intellectual years of dictatorship.

His research and teaching, both in New Mexico and Argentina spanned the literatures and cultures of Spain as well as Spanish America as may be seen from these representative published titles: "La novela sentimental española" (1973), "De Berceo a Borges" (1995), "Tierra y literature" (1999), "Carpentier: una revisión lineal" (2001) and "Tradición americana y mundo global" (2001).

Cvitanovic founded and directed the literary review "Boehi." He and his wife Nilsa Alzola collaborated frequently in that publication, as well as in collections of essays such as "La Argentina y el mundo del siglo XX." Of note, as well, were his initiatives in seminars, both national and international in scope, notably the "Jornada: La Argentina y el mundo" held in 1997, and "Hispanismo contemporáneo" (1990). Essays and articles appeared in the literary supplement of "La Nueva Provincia" of Bahía Blanca and other periodical publications.

"Dinko's early departure from Albuquerque was a loss felt greatly by UNM faculty and colleagues, and certainly his untimely and premature demise represents a great setback for the study of Spanish American and Iberian letters at his institution and others where his insights were fully recognized," said Marshall Nason, former director of UNM's Latin American Institute and one of Cvitanovic's Spanish department colleagues.

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