Throughout the fall of 2023 and spring of 2024 semesters, the Spanish program within the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative Literature (MLCL) has been bustling with academic engagement. The program has hosted a variety of events, including guest lectures, orientation sessions, and an Open House for Spanish majors and minors.
In early March 2024, students and faculty attended the Globus lecture entitled “The Art of Colonization: Penal Colonies in the Philippines,” delivered by Professor Aurelie Vialette, (SUNY Stony Brook). Later that same month, Mexican film critics Arantxa Luna, Fabiola Santiago, and Orilia Torres de la Pena led a thought-provoking discussion on contemporary Mexican cinema and society.
In addition, Ms. Marlen Fernández Herrera, Assistant Director of the Peers for Careers Program at Starr Career Development Center, talked to Spanish minors on March 19, 2024. Her session informed students about the resources available at Starr and various career options.
In April 2024, several lectures and events were held. “Writing Your Own Story,” a Globus lecture featuring award-winning Puerto Rican playwright Carmen Rivera, engaged students from the “Latin American Theater” class in MLCL and “Latinas: A Cultural Survey” of the Department of Black and Latinx Studies. Rivera is the recipient of notable awards including an Obie.
An Open House for Spanish majors and minors was held on April 11, 2024, providing an opportunity for students and faculty to talk about the program, as well as discuss major and minor requirements and class offerings. The casual setting featured Latino food and pizza and was enlivened by presentations from graduating Spanish majors Daniel Galindo and Adriana Cuca. The students shared their experiences at Baruch and their career plans.
Following the Open House, Ms Soledad López, an award-winning bilingual actor and the co-director of Thalia Theater in Queens, shared insights into her professional development, experiences in the New York theater scene, and her passion for the theater. The students were captivated and stayed after the talk. This theater event, along with a field trip to see Carmen Rivera’s La Gringa at Repertorio Español Theater on May 7 was made possible by the generous support of the Paula Berggren Enrichment Fund.
A program in early April, co-sponsored by the Initiative for the Study of Latin America (ISLA), the Harman Writer-in-Residence Program, under the leadership of Professor Esther Allen, and with the collaboration of MLCL’s Japanese language section, brought the Japanese-Spanish translator and creator of zines Tana Oshimi to campus, to discuss her visual art and her work translating fiction by Yu Miri, Yuko Tsushima, Yasunari Kawabata and others into Spanish, now that publishing houses in Spain have begun commissioning translations directly from Japanese to Spanish.
Also in April, MLCL collaborated with the Cuban Cultural Center of New York (CCC) and hosted a book presentation and conversation with best-selling and award-winning writer, Armando Lucas Correa, whose novels have been translated into multiple languages.
Finally, in May, the Harman Writer-in-Residence program, in collaboration with MLCL and Black and Latinx Studies, presented Podcaster Alana Casanova-Burgess, the co-creator, host, and producer of WNYC Studio’s La Brega: Stories of the Puerto Rican Experience and the daughter of distinguished and long-time Spanish faculty, Dr. Olga Casanova-Burgess, who recently retired from Baruch.
