N E W S L E T T E R

DELANTE

In This Issue

2 The Department Has Gone Digital

3 Students in the Spotlight

4 Graduates

6 Focus on Faculty

THE DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE

6 Go Away… With Us That Is!

7 Reaching Out

Alice Boebinger (Dempster) attended the U of A College

of Humanities Homecoming Event this October where she

was honored for her contributions. While here, she shared

many fond memories of her time as an undergraduate in

Spanish decades ago. Yet, she wistfully recalled how she

was unable to participate in a study abroad program. Now

she has made that dream come true for others with her

endowment of the Study Abroad Fellowship for our

department. Her generosity will enrich the lives of

students for decades to come.

A Message From the Head

Amazing Alum Makes Dreams Come True

Study Abroad Fellowship Endowment

Malcolm Alan Competillo

Vol. 1, Fall 2011

8 The P in Spanish and Portuguese

5 Undergraduates

It has been quite some time since the Department has produced a newsletter. The

primary focus of this latest one is to let you, our alumni and friends, know the

news from our Department and our students, past and present. This annual

newsletter will become one of the cornerstones of the Department’s efforts to

maintain a wider-ranging community engagement.

Since 1995 when I assumed my duties as head of the Department the incredible

level of achievements, the enormous efforts made by the faculty, graduate

students and staff alike in support of the University’s mission have been

absolutely outstanding. The most noticeable transformations have been the

numerous changes to the faculty, ones which have given the Department the

ability to rejuvenate itself while at the same time solidifying its national and

international reputation. We are now positioned as one of the strongest teaching

units on campus at all levels. (Next page)

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University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011

Melissa Fitch

We believe strongly in the importance of an overseas study

experience and encourage all our majors to participate in

one of the wide variety of programs we offer during the

academic year and summers. Thanks to the generosity of

Alice Boebinger Dempster’s Endowment of our Study

Abroad Fellowship, we can now offer greater support for

students participating in our programs.

Without public and private support, our national reputation

could not have been achieved. The benefactions of

individuals and organizations have provided substantial

supplements to funds provided the state of Arizona. The

combination of private and public assistance is vital if we

are to meet the challenges ahead.

We are grateful to you, our supporters, our outstanding

alumni, distinguished faculty, and talented students.

Because of your contributions, the Department has had the

opportunity to reconfigure the curricula, to establish new

study abroad programs and to extend our outreach efforts

to our local community.

I invite you to read the news from the fifth floor Modern

Languages and to share your comments with us. Please

send us your information using the attached link or

response card. We look forward to hearing from you!

Malcolm Alan Compitello

A Message From the Head (cont. from pg. 1)

Departmental Facebook Page

Prof. Melissa Fitch has created a slide

montage of some of her former Latin/o

American Popular Culture students from

the last ten years, interspersed with images

of a few of the topics she'll cover this fall

in that course. The slides are set to Amy

MacDonald's "Don't Tell me that it's

Over" because of the refrain repeated in

the song: "It's only just begun." She hopes

that new UA students--most of them in

their first year --will be inspired by those

who have gone before them and become

doctors, lawyers, teachers, activists,

business leaders, one pro golfer, a

librarian, a member of the U.S. Foreign

Service and a graduate of trapeze school.

The Department Has Gone Digital

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ozw3eyvKSgs/

U of A on You Tube

www.facebook.com/uasap

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University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011

Click below to see some of our latest activities.

Undergraduates

Angelica Pozo-DesPortes graduated in May 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree she earned from The

University of Arizona’s Department of Spanish and Portuguese in Translation and Interpretation,

but she’s putting her talents to work in a more musical way than most of her peers.

Graduate Students

Students in the Spotlight

Ricardo Andrés Guzmán

Our 1885 Society Graduate Fellowships in

Fine Arts and Humanities Winners

Ricardo Andrés Guzmán won first prize for the best graduate student essay during the 32nd

Annual Association for Borderland Studies Conference in Denver, Colorado for his essay

“Anti-immigrant Websites and Post-social Rationalities of Government” in 2008. This

summer, he received funding from Cornell and the U of A to attend the School of Criticism

and Theory at Cornell University, where he also attended a workshop on teaching literary

theory by Jonathan Culler!

Our department was very well represented at the Congreso Internacional sponsored by the

Universidad de Puerto Rico Arecibo. Armando Chávez, Morbila Fernández, Rosario

Hall, Teresa Lorenz and Prof. Eliana Rivero all presented well-received papers. When

renowned Mexican novelist Elena Poniatowska accepted a Doctorado Honoris Causa, she

publicly thanked Rosario for her presentation on La Flor de Lis (Poniatowska’s fictionalized

autobiography).

Jessica Zeitler received a prestigious Marshall Foundation Fellowship for 2011 that will

support her dissertation research for the entire year. As only six Marshall Fellowships are

awarded each year, this is quite an honor. Congratulations!

Both Mark Aquilano (currently enrolled in our Ph.D program) and Andrew Racja

(Ph.D. 2010) won the prestigious award for students completing their doctorates in

Spring 2010. Since completing his dissertation, Andrés accepted a position at the

University of South Carolina. Mark successfully defended this semester.

Daniel Calleros Villareal, who has recently joined our program, competed

successfully this Fall for The 1885 Society Graduate Fellowship in Fine Arts and

Humanities for first year students.

Felicidades a todos!!!!

Undergraduates Angelica Pozo-DesPortes graduated in May 2010 with a Bachelor’s degree she earned from The University of Arizona’s

Department of Spanish and Portuguese in Translation and Interpretation, but she’s putting her talents to work in a more musical

way than most of her peers.

Pozo-DesPortes, whose thematic minor was in Latin American communication, is recording her first musical album in three

languages—English, Spanish and Portuguese.

http://humanities.arizona.edu/spotlight/angelica-pozo-desportes

Graduate students with Elena Poniatowska in Puerto Rico

Mark Aquilano

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University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011

Carl Atlee (Ph.D 2002) teaches at Rice University where his

research specifically focuses on the life and times of fifteenth-

century Castilian writers. His article, "Political Protest in Gómez

Manrique’s Defunzión del noble cauallero Garçía Laso de la

Vega," will appear soon in the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies.

Julia Dominguez-Castellano (Ph.D 2005) After only five years

as an Assistant Professor of World Languages and Cultures, Julia

has received three teaching awards: the Iowa State University

Award for Early Achievement in Teaching (2010); the Cassling

Family Award for Outstanding Teaching (2010); and the Liberal

Arts and Sciences College Award for Early Achievement in

Teaching (2009).

Manuel Gómez (Ph.D 2004) is currently serving as the Director of

Education and Training for the Higher Learning Comission of

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.

Sarah Owens (Ph.D 2000) published her book, The Journey of

Five Capuchin Nuns, with The University of Toronto Press. Her

work received the prestigious Josephine Roberts Award for the

best scholarly edition in 2009 from the Society for the Study

of Early Modern Women. She has begun her next research

project on religious women and breast cancer in the 18th

century.

Susan Sotelo (Ph.D 2003) has published her work, Chicano

Detective Fiction: A Critical Study of Five Novelists, with

McFarland.

Sarah Owens

Carl Atlee

2000s

Book Sarah Owens

Graduates

Book by

Susan Sotelo

ctive lums

1990s Claudia Aburto (Ph.D 1998) teaches at Bates College as an

Associate Professor. She continues to publish actively, both critical

studies and creative works. Based on her work along the border,

she recently wrote a foreward to Crossing with the Virgin: Stories

From the Migrant Trail by Kathryn Ferguson, Norma A. Price and

Ted Parks, published by the University of Arizona Press.

Leah Fonder Solano (Ph.D 1997) serves as Chair of the

Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at the University

of Southern Mississippi. She played a leadership role in creating

an introductory Arabic language course sequence and securing an

IHL/NCAT grant for curricular redesignThe Department of

Foreign Languages and Literatures at USM became one of only six

programs in the U.S. awarded "National Recognition" from the

National Council on Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)

for the Spanish and French licensure programs.

Alicia Garza (Ph.D 1996) is currently an Associate Professor of

Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages at Boise State

University. In 2003, she was named “Carnegie Professor of the

Year.”

Leah Fonder Solano Claudia Aburto

Guzman

Alicia Garza

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University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011

Matt Teller

1980s and Before

1990s cont.

Susan Larson (Ph.D 1998) is an Associate Professor

in the Department of Hispanic Studies at the

University of Kentucky. Her most recent book,

Constructing and Resisting Modernity: Madrid 1900

– 1936, was published this year in Madrid by

Vervuert / Iberoamericana. She received funding

from National Endowment for the Humanities for her

current project on the politics and social consequences

of the urban policies of the PSOE (Partido Socialista

Obrero Español) between 1982 and 2000.

Matt Teller (M.A. Linguistics 1993) holds the

position of Head of School at Green Fields Country

Day School in Tucson.

Bonnie Frederick (Ph.D 1983) is a Full Professor in

the Spanish and Hispanic Studies Department at

Texas Christian University, where she served as Chair

for six years. She enjoys being on the faculty with

two of her UA graduate school colleagues, Arturo

Flores and Don Frischmann.

Bonnie Frederick

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University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011

Nina Barber (B.A. 1979) teaches in world languages for

Hamilton Middle School, part of the Denver Public School

System.

David Browning (B.A. 1974) works in Denver and

specializes in outbound corporate international tax,

including international business expansion. He is

experienced in dealing with foreign tax authorities and

assisting US companies doing business in foreign

countries.

E. Autumn DiGaetano Fedoruk (Spanish Linguistics

and Economics, 2005) works in New York in operational

management for MacMaster-Carr. Since graduating, she

spent two years in Teach for America and then served as

Director of Marketing and Recruitment for the ProWorld

Service Corps. She also worked for a nonprofit

organization called Uncommon Schools that starts and

manages outstanding urban charter public schools that

close the achievement gap and prepare low-income

students to graduate from college.

Amanda Marie Lester received her Spanish degree in

2005 from the U of A, where she also majored in

Agricultural Sciences, then went on to get an MS at Texas

A & M University in 2007 and a Ph.D at Purdue

University in 2010 in Agricultural Economics,

International Trade and Policy. She will move to

Washington, D.C. in January to begin a position as a

research economist at the USDA Economic Research

Service in the Market and Trade Economics Division.

Amanda has lived and/or studied and conducted research

in Spain, South Africa, Guatemala, Brazil, and Japan.

Undergraduates Anne McGettigan (Economics, Mathematics, Political Science and

Spanish, 2008) works as an Associate Consultant at the Semiar Brossy

Consulting Group in Los Angeles. She reports that in her job, she has

served both public and private companies, with revenues from $500M to

over $30B. She also served as an intern with the Federal Reserve Board

in the Division of International Finance-Advanced Foreign Economies

in 2007.

Nick Madrid got his degree in Spanish/Portuguese and Business in

2006. He is currently the Latin American Equity Analyst with the

Bloomberg Corporation, a New York-based company that employs more

than 10,000 people in over 135 offices around the world.

Jennifer Philips (Political Science and Spanish Literature, 2009) is

currently in law school at USC. She was excited to share the news that

she has been selected for USC’s Law Review, a tremendous honor. She

hopes to focus on emerging issues in immigration or international law,

specific to Latin America.

Lauren Giesecke Sontag (Spanish and MCB, 2004) was accepted

into every medical school that she applied to after finishing at UA,

including Harvard and Johns Hopkins. She decided to go to Mayo

Medical School on a complete scholarship, where she is currently finishing her studies.

Lauren Giesecke

Sontag

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University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011

Our website and Facebook provide regular updates on the

amazing achievements of our faculty in research, teaching

and service. Below are just a few highlights:

Prof. Katia Bezerra has distinguished herself as Director of

Graduate Studies through her dedication to our graduate

students. Yet, her contributions to our undergraduate students

are equally impressive. In Spring 2010, she won the College

of Humanities Distinguished Undergraduate Advising and

Mentoring Award.

Prof. Jaime Fatas reports that the National Council for

Interpreting in Health Care (sponsored by the California

Endowment for the Humanities) has selected our Translation

and Interpretation sequence as one of ten outstanding

programs they will feature in a certification report to be

published soon.

Prof. Robert Fiore was awarded the Encomienda con Placa

de La Orden Civil de Alfonso X el Sabio in 2006. He joined a

handful of international scholars on whom the government of

Spain has bestowed one of its highest honors in the field of

arts and sciences. Imagine his surprise when he was

informed that he has earned the right to be addressed as

“Comendador!”

Prof. Lanin Gyurko has recently published three books

(Magic Lens: The Transformation of theVisual Arts in the

Narrative of Carlos Fuentes; The Shattered Screen:Myth and

Demythification in the Art of Carlos Fuentes and Billy

Wilder; and Lifting the Obsidian Mask: The Artistic Vision of

Carlos Fuentes). He also co-edited two significant homage

volumes, one for Enrique Anderson Imbert, the other for

Denah Lida, and was honored by his own students with a

volume dedicated to him in a moving ceremony. In Fall, 2009 he

received the Outstanding Achievement Award, granted by Arizona

Student Union Advisory Council, in 2009. In recognition of those so

honored, the Bell from the Battleship Arizona, now in the Tower of

the Arizona Student Union, was rung seven times on December 7th.

Prof. Antxon Olarrea is busy working on his fifth book;

meanwhile, the College of Humanities recognized his outstanding

contributions to teaching by granting him the Distinguished

Teaching Award.

Prof. Miquel Simonet, working together with Natasha Warner, has

won a $227,000 NSF grant for their project entitled "Speech

Reduction across Languages and Dialects." Look for an article on

Prof. Simonet, the grant, and our new SPORTS (Spanish and

Portuguese Speech Laboratory) lab in the next issue of our

newsletter.

Lanin Gyurko and Robert Shelton

Focus on Faculty

Go Away…With Us That Is! Take advantage of the opportunity to study abroad…it’s never too late to enjoy this rewarding experience. Again, thanks to the

generosity of Alice Boebinger (Dempster), we can now support more students.

For the latest on our programs, check out the Facebook links:

Arizona in Alcalá: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=100324046697220

Arizona in Chile: http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=114651558573095

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University of Arizona - Department of Spanish & Portuguese Newsletter – Vol. 1 Fall 2011

Our department has a long history of involvement in activities that extend

well beyond the classroom.

On campus, Prof. Eliud Chuffe has coordinated our role in programs to

help students succeed. This semester, all of our Spanish 102 classes are

participating in a student support project sponsored by University of

Arizona Student Affairs to increase student retention of the freshman and

sophomore core classes.

The Basic Language Program has worked with THINK TANK to allow

students in Spanish 101-251 to reach a Spanish instructor and receive

instant feedback. This service provides a total of 39 hours per week

of FREE tutoring! We would like to acknowledge the outstanding

contributions of our graduate instructors--their commitment and dedication

to our program is vital to its success. For more information please visit the

website at:

http://www.studentaffairs.arizona.edu/programs/thinktank/services/spanish

Visit the following link to view an article in the Arizona Daily Wildcat

featuring one of our students participating in the program:

http://wildcat.arizona.edu/news/think-tank-now-at-rec-center-1.1606868

Prof. Sara Beaudrie, in another initiative to enrich students’ lives has

launched the successful “Club Latino.” Many of its members participate in

our Spanish for Heritage Speakers

classes.

The Southern Arizona Language

Fair, an event that invites language

learners and teachers from schools

across the region, is still going

strong. The department looks

forward to this annual event and

always welcomes new ideas about

how we may contribute to its

success.

Reaching Out…

“Pero Miss, yo pensaba que la literatura solo se

escribía en inglés,” exclaimed one student upon

watching the performance of BYU’s theatrical troupe

when the department sponsored a program bringing

Spanish Classical Theater to local middle schools. Indeed, a moving testimony to the importance of

community engagement.

“Most powerful learning experience

ever…”—that’s how students characterized

their involvement in community projects for

Advanced Conversation classes and the newly

created Spanish 480 Service Learning. Prof.

Alba Nora Martínez has her classes

participate in several dynamic Día de los

Muertos activities in local schools and

galleries. Students in Prof. Williamsen’s

course had to identify a community need,

develop a project to address the issue, and

implement their solution. The results were

compelling—one group designed a program

to teach mothers computer skills while their

children participated in the local library’s

reading activities for toddlers learning English.

Parents credited the program with opening up a

new world of opportunities for them in only

five weeks! We want to bring cultural events to

the campus and the community, and to involve

students in more service projects—we welcome

you to join us in our efforts.

Portuguese is alive and well at the University of Arizona! In fact, thanks to the outstanding efforts of a dedicated team of faculty

and graduate teaching assistants it has become one of the largest Portuguese programs in the country, a lasting legacy shaped by

Prof. Nivea Parsons who passed away in 2006 shortly after her retirement. Ana Carvalho, Katia Bezerra and Melissa Fitch

carry on the work she began. They have fashioned a new curriculum that

features exciting new courses of study at both the undergraduate and graduate

levels including a new doctoral concentration in Latin American and Luso

Brazilian cultures and literatures. In the most recent MLA report, the

program ranked 6th

in the nation in terms of enrollment.

The “crown jewel” of the curriculum is our excellent summer program at the

Universidade de Ceará in Fortaleza, Brazil. Students describe the program

as a rewarding and life-changing experience; some have even returned to

teach in Brazil.

A vibrant schedule of academic and cultural activities connects the

Portuguese program to the community and with other units across campus.

“Bate-papo,” a popular Portuguese language discussion group brings

together a diverse group of individuals who all share the desire to improve

their command of the language. Over the years, the Department’s “Carnival”

events have grown in popularity and now draw participants from across Arizona. Parabéns!

The P in Spanish and Portuguese

IQ2: Join Our Quest

Summer Students in Fortaleza, Brazil

International Quixote Quest

Please join us for a

Cervantine Evening

featuring music, tapas, and

a world first: the reading of the opening passage of

in as many languages as possible.

Help raise funds for the Quest Fellowship. If you plan to attend, please RSVP to Prof. Amy Williamsen:

amyw@email.arizona.edu 520-621-3123

http://coh.arizona.edu/spanish/news/current.cfm

Starting April 8, 2011 6:00 PM

Casa Vicente (on the patio) www.casavicente.com

375 S. Stone Ave, Tucson AZ 85701

We cordially invite you to participate in our

fundraiser to endow the Quest Fellowship

designed to encourage transatlantic

considerations of the literatures and cultures

of Spain and Latin America by creating

funds for graduate student research that

transcends traditional disciplinary

boundaries. Your donation now will help

students for generations to come:

www.uafoundation.org/netcommunity/quixotequest