LLILAS Benson is proud to announce the publication of A Library for the Americas: The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection by the University of Texas Press (August 2018). Founded in 1921, the Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection at the University of Texas at Austin has become one of … [Read more...]
Faculty Spotlight: Jason Borge
BY SUSANNA SHARPE In his new book, Tropical Riffs: Latin America and the Politics of Jazz (Duke, 2018), Jason Borge uses jazz as a way to interrogate the complex intersections of North and South, race and class, cultural identity, and even politics and foreign policy. The very earliest seeds … [Read more...]
Faculty Spotlight: Kelly S. McDonough
BY SUSANNA SHARPE There is a term in the Nahuatl language that means learned person, sage, or knowledge keeper: itxtlamati (plural, ixtlamatinih), a compound of the words meaning face and to know. The concept of knowledge gleaned from experience is central in the work of Kelly S. McDonough, … [Read more...]
Alumni Spotlight: A Language Is Not a Widget
BY JOSEPH M. PIERCE It has been five years since I completed a PhD in Spanish American Literature, and seven since completing the MA in Latin American Studies at LLILAS. A lot has changed in the past decade. But change is always a matter of perspective. I was recently at LLILAS for a conference … [Read more...]
María Luisa Puga: A Life in Diaries
BY JOSÉ MONTELONGO Deciding how to end a novel is the author’s privilege. To write novels for a living is a volatile career choice, at least when it comes to paying rent, but the destiny and shape of your characters is not volatile at all, it’s your prerogative—you are the one choosing when and … [Read more...]
Eduardo Lalo: Words in Austin
Even before the devastation of Hurricane Maria, contemporary Puerto Rico was confronting unprecedented challenges. A spiraling debt crisis, record-breaking population exodus to the mainland, and draconian cuts to public services and education led to mass protests in the streets, higher taxes, … [Read more...]
Living in a Material World: Art and Otherworldly Understanding in Colonial Latin America
BY BRITTANY ERWIN It was a bustling scene. Excited crowds of people had gathered along the processional route in the city center, which had been elaborately decorated for the occasion. Dressed in their finest wares, a group of civic officials and the religious elite solemnly proceeded along a … [Read more...]
Up All Night: A Librarian and Two Truckers Travel Cross-Country with 16th-Century Goods
BY BROOKE WOMACK and SUSANNA SHARPE A librarian and two truckers are on a mission. They will travel for 27 hours, through four states, and at least one of them won’t get much sleep. Their journey involves high-security cargo, a climate-controlled 18-wheeler, and some rare documents from the 16th … [Read more...]
Una vida en 327 cuadernos: el archivo literario de María Luisa Puga
BY JOSÉ MONTELONGO Para algunos, un diario es una excursión hacia adentro, confrontación con uno mismo que se emprende en momentos de crisis y de transformación. Para otros no es un proyecto pasajero —que acompaña un rito de pasaje— sino una necesidad vital y cotidiana, una respiración. Eso fue … [Read more...]
Cardenal en tiempos difíciles
POR LUIS CÁRCAMO-HUECHANTE Leer en inglés Fue un invierno de 1979. Ya cursaba mi cuarto año de educación secundaria en el liceo de la ciudad de Valdivia, sur de Chile. En una de mis clases, la profesora de castellano sorprendió al curso y llegó al aula con un tocadiscos. Lo prendió y puso en … [Read more...]
