News & Events
Siempre el corazón:
Symposium on the life and works of New Mexican author Jim Sagel
October 20, 2011
University of New Mexico Campus
Ortega Hall Reading Room and Lounge
The University of New Mexico Department of Spanish and Portuguese will host a symposium on New Mexican author Jim Sagel on October 20, 2011. The symposium features scholarly discussions of Sagel's writing and role in the community, readings of his works, and performances by local theater troupe Teatro Paraguas.
Jim Sagel (1947-1998) was born into a monolingual English-speaking family in Colorado and moved to Española, New Mexico, in 1969. He later learned Spanish from his wife's family, and became keen observer of northern New Mexican Indo-Hispano culture. His first major publication, the bilingual short story collectionTunomás Honey, won the 1981 Premio Casa de las Américas literary prize, sparking intense debate within the Chicano literary community about the Chicanesque nature of his writing.
Sagel's numerous short story and poetry collections, including Sabelotodo Entiendelonada (1988) and Más que no love it (1991), were often published in both New Mexican Spanish dialect and in English, a rare undertaking at the time. His triptych of children's books, Donde soplan los vientos de canela (1993), Jardín de cuentos (1996) and Siempre el corazón (1998) were likewise published bilingually and met with success, as did his award-winning play Doña Refugio y su comadre(1997). While a prolific creative writer and journalist, Sagel was also an impassioned instructor of creative writing, literature, and Spanish language at several northern New Mexico colleges. This symposium was organized in response to the recent growth of scholarly and popular interest in Sagel's life and writing, and aims to contribute to the discussion.
Check it out...
Events you missed:
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese invites you to:
It all began with "U" (Uli)
Alumni Reunion & Fund Raiser
Join us to celebrate the contributions of past & present professors of Spanish and Portuguese including Prof. Sabine Ulibarri's* legacy at 5:00pm with Dr.Enrique Lamadrid. Followed by a reception at 6:00pm.
Please RSVP by Friday, September 9, 2011 to spanport@unm.edu or 505-277-5907
The proceeds of this event will benefit research and scholarship in the department
The Latino Literary Imagination Conference is a collaborative initiative of the University of New Mexico and Rutgers faculty, organized by the UNM Office of the Provost, the UNM/NHCC Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Student Working Group, the Rutgers Office of the Associate VP for Academic and Public Partnerships, Rutgers Center for Latino Arts and Culture, the National Hispanic Cultural Center and the Nuyorican Poets Café.
This year focused on an East Coast/South West Dialogue on Narrative Voices and the Spoken Word, the conference will explore the broad and diverse spectrum of U.S. Latina/o literary creativity and activism from the latter half of the 20th century through the first decade of the 21st. Well known authors and emerging creative voices representing a wide range of literary modes, including poetry, novels, plays, new media, conceptual performance and multi-disciplinary work will be presented through panels, roundtables, readings and performances.
In Albuquerque, there are four concurrent, conference-related exhibitions:
"Latino/a Visual Imaginary: Intersection of Word & Image," at 516 Arts, February 19 – May 14. View Program Guide
“Illustrated Identities: the Book in the Latino Imaginary,” at UNM Zimmerman Library, Herzstein Latin American Reading Room Gallery, March 5 – May 5.
“Text and Subtext: Latino Artists at Tamarind,” at Tamarind Institute of Lithography, April 15 – June 30.
“Framing the Imaginary: Responding to Works from the NHCC,” at The National Hispanic Cultural Center Museum, April 16 – June 19.
Support for the conference is provided in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
16th Annual Conference on Ibero-American Culture and Society...
Moros, Moriscos, Marranos y Mestizos: Alterity, Hybridity, & Identity in Diaspora
On the 400th anniversary of the expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain, we consider historic and contemporary texts, traditions, and expressive culture from Moorish - Jewish - Christian - Native American encounters in Iberia and the Americas.
Lady in Blue: Sor María de Jesús de Ágreda
A University of New Mexico Homage
Nowhere is the Spanish nexus between the Old World and the New better seen than in the colonial period of New Mexico. One of the most exciting legends from this period that ties perfectly into this belief is the story of María de Jesús de Agreda.
Please see the Lady in Blue event website for additional information.
Neurosis and Masculinity in the Contemporary Argentine Novel
Professor Idelber Avelar, of Tulane University will be visiting the University of New Mexico on April 14th and 15th. On April 14th he will give a talk on “Neurosis and Masculinity in the Contemporary Argentine Novel.” The lecture will take place from 4:00 to 5:30 P.M. in Room 335, in Ortega Hall.
Idelber Avelar is a full professor of Latin American Literatures (specializing in the Southern Cone), Critical Theory, and Cultural Studies at Tulane University. He is a preeminent scholar of postdictatorship Southern Cone fiction and culture and has published extensively on this topic. Besides being the author of various essays on Latin American literature and culture, Professor Avelar has also published The Letter of Violence: Essays on Narrative, Ethics, and Politics (2004) and The Untimely Present: Postdictatorial Latin American Fiction and the Task of Mourning (1999), winner of the MLA Kovacs prize and which was translated into Spanish and Portuguese.
Most recently, he won the Brazilian Foreign Ministry essay contest on Machado de Assis. Currently Professor Avelar is working on two monographs, El vértice y el desamparo: Arte, subjectividad y masculinidad en la novela argentina post-crisis and Timing the Nation: Rhythm, Race, and Nationhood in Brazilian Popular Music. Additionally, he is editing Brazilian Popular Music and Citizenship (with Christopher Dunn).
For more information on Professor Avelar and his research/writing, please go to:
Website: http://www.tulane.edu/~spanport/avelar.htm
Blog: http://www.idelberavelar.com/
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The Feminist Research Institute Presents
African Queens in Colonial Quarrels:
Reflections from the Making of an
Ibero-Atlantic Anthology
Kathryn McKnight
Asssociate Professor, Spanish & Portuguese
Women of African descent in Spanish and
Portuguese colonial America exercised leadership
in their communities, drawing on both ancestral
and colonial models to respond to conflict. Dr.
McKnight discusses the "quarrels" of two Afro-
Latino queens: Leonor of the 17th-century maroon
community of Limón (Colombia) and the unnamed
widow of the Mina Maki king who had led the
confraternity dedicated to Saints Elesbão and
Iphigenia in 18th-century Rio de Janeiro. Dr.
McKnight places these women's agency in
relationship to both their transatlantic (Angolan)
counterpart Queen Njinga and the many women
who accessed a principle colonial technology of
domination-bureaucratic writing-to carve their own
self-determination. The paper reports on an
ongoing collaborative anthology, which presents
the highly mediated voices of Afro-Latino people
living in the early modern Ibero-Atlantic world
For more information, contact femresin@unm.edu or 277-1198
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Code-switching and grammatical change: Yo and I in New Mexico
Professor of Spanish, Rena Torres-Cacoullos and
Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, Catherine E. Travis
Spanish has been spoken in New Mexico for 400 years, existing in intense contact with English for the past 150 years. One linguistic consequence of this contact is widespread code-switching among bilingual New Mexicans, for example:
sure I’m glad que yo no estoy -- .. putting any kids to school now.
‘sure I’m glad that I am not -- .. putting any kids to school now.’
It has been claimed that code-switching promotes convergence, or structural similarity, between the languages in contact (e.g. Toribio 2004:172). In this study, we test this hypothesis by examining patterns of subject expression (that is, where subjects are expressed and where they are not) in New Mexican Spanish. We use the comparative variationist method (Poplack & Tagliamonte 2001), comparing patterns of variable “yo” expression among New Mexicans with those found in previous studies for non-contact varieties of Spanish and for English. We make further comparisons in our own data in two environments: (1) across speakers of differing degrees of bilingualism and (2) across contexts where code-switching is, and is not, present in the surrounding discourse. We do not find significant differences in the patterning of subject expression in these environments, and thus our study does not support Spanish convergence with English, nor does it support the notion of code-switching as a mechanism of contact-induced change.
En Vieques, la lucha continúa: Popular Protest and Community Development in Vieques, Puerto Rico
A talk on the success of a grassroots campaign against U.S. militarization in 2003 and the current challenges of community development on the island of Vieques.
Néstor de Jesús Guishard, activist and community organizer
Ortega Hall 335, University of New Mexico
This event is sponsored by the Latin American and Iberian Institute, the Department of Spanish & Portuguese, and the Student Organization for Latin American Studies (SOLAS).
Hot off the press the Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter...
_________________________________________African Presence in Cuba and Brazil Colloquium...
Monday, Nov. 12th
3 - 4:30 pm A scholarly talk by Prof. William Luis (Vanderbilt U)
"Hurricanes, Magic, Science, and Politics in Cristina García's
The Agüero Sisters,"
Reading Room Ortega Hall 335
4:30 - 6 pm A documentary film on the Afro-Brazilian communities of resistance
"Quilombo Country,"
Ortega Hall 153
Tuesday, Nov. 13th
3 - 4:30pm Bi-lingual poetry reading by Afro-Brazilian poets
Miriam Alves and Conceição Evaristo.
Critical introduction to the works of the two poets (in English)
by M.A. candidate Michele Henrique,
Reading Room Ortega Hall 335
Priscilla Ybarra
Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University
presents:
“All Nature Obeys Me”:
Jovita González’s Environmental Writing and the Transformation of South Texas
Thursday, October 4, 2007
3:00 – 4:00 pm
in the
Ortega Hall Reading Room
ALFRED RODRIGUEZ LECTURE SERIES
Presents:
Adriana Lisboa
University of the State of Rio de Janeiro
"Writing in Brazil after Clarice Lispector: Fictional Snares"
April 17, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Ortega Hall Reading Room
Free and open to the public
UNM, Sabine Ulibarrí SHL Program, &
the McGraw Hill Publishing Company
Announce:
The Politics of Language
Cross Disciplinary Symposium & Workshops:
The Invisible Majority of the Southwest
Learners of Spanish as a Heritage Language
October 19 - 21, 2006
In the Student Union Building.
Keynote Speakers:
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Otto Santa Ana - UCLA
Associate Professor - Chicano/a Studies, Linguistics
English and the Discourse of Fear,
American and a Discourse of Challenge
Friday, October 20, 2006
Erlinda Gonzales-Berry - Oregon State University
Chair, Ethnic Studies Department
Nuestra Herencia, Nuestro Tesoro: Salvaging the Cultural
Self through Heritage Language Programs
Guest Speaker:
Robert N. Smead
Brigham Young University
Thursday, October 5 at 4:30 pm
in the Ortega Hall
Reading Room.
That's what I speak: Pigdin English and [Puerto Rican]
Spanish: Language mixing as evidenced by Luis C., a
first-generation Puerto Rican Hawaiian
Professor Elizabeth Bernhardt
Stanford University
Director of Language Programs
Workshop on Advanced-level Reading
Tuesday, August 15th 10:00-12:00 am
Ortega 335 (Reading Room)
This workshop will focus on second-language reading
proficiency with a specific emphasis on upper-level
expository and literary texts. The workshop will shift
between and among research findings and the application of
those finding to language programs at the second-year
level and beyond. Examples in German, French, and
Spanish.
Presentation
Less Commonly Taught Languages’
Surviving
and Thriving in Conventional College and University
Settings
Tuesday, August 15th 1:30-2:30 pm
Ortega 335 (Reading Room)
DUSTY LUST... Celestina in New Mexico
Celebración Celestinesca / Celestinesque Celebration
The University of New Mexico
in conjunction with
the Instituto Cervantes
19-21 April 2006 UNM CAMPUS
Robert Duncan Reading Room 335 Ortega Hall (Spanish)
&
Third Floor Lounge Ortega (English)
Celebración de la mujer
Lectura de poemas
El 29 de marzo, a las 11:oo de la mañana
en el Reading Room de Ortega Hall
refrendaremos esta celebración con un evento especial: una lectura de textos de mujeres poetas que han dejado su huella en la historia de la literatura hispana.
Ana María Shua
Writings, Reading and Argentina Today
Wednesday, March 22, 2006, 4:00 PM
Ortega Hall 335, Reading Room
Alfred Rodríguez Lecture
Linguistic change: gradual or abrupt?
An empirical characterization of the transition period
Shana Poplack,
Distinguished University Professor and Canada Research Chair,
University of Ottawa.
March 10, 2006
2pm
ORTG Reading Room
Sponsors:
College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Linguistics, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Latin American and Iberian Institute.
UNM Annual Conference
14th Annual Conference on Ibero-American Culture
and Society
¡ Wateke de SAN VALENTÍN !
Professor Enrique Lamadrid Awarded the Américo Paredes Prize
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