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DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE
THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON
1018 VAN HISE HALL - 1220 LINDEN DRIVE - MADISON, WISCONSIN - 53706-1557
PHONE: 608.262.2093 FAX 608.262.9671 EMAIL: SPANPOR@MHUB.SPANISH.WISC.EDU
WEBSITE: HTTP://SPANPORT.LSS.WISC.EDU
Ivy Corfis, Editor
SPRING 2005
FROM THE CHAIR
In these pages we have attempted to capture the many events and on-going cultural activities
which have taken place during this past year and that are a testament to the extraordinary energy and
creativity of our students and faculty. The Residencia de Estudiantes, our undergraduate learning community
located in the Lakeshore dorms, continues to flourish under the direction of Rubén Medina, director of the
International Learning Community (ILC), and graduate student, Giannina Reyes, who incessantly works to
make the Residencia a cultural center for undergraduate students. The Zona de Carga creative writing
group grows and has already published its second volume of poetry and narrative, examples of which are
contained within this newsletter. Faculty and graduate students have come together to organize several
significant conferences: “Re-Mapping 18th- and 19th-Century Spanish Studies,” “Medieval Iberia:
Crossroads of Culture,” “Wisconsin Symposium on Cuba,” and “The Other Nineteenth Century.” Organized
by Ellen Sapega and the Portuguese section, the department has also had the honor of hosting Portuguese
novelist, Lídia Jorge, who delivered a most beautiful lecture titled “For an Unknown Reader.”
I would like to thank all of the faculty and students for their priceless contribution to making our
department a vibrant learning community in the midst of economic uncertainty and budget cutbacks. While
we face difficult times, for me as chair it is inspiring to witness the time, effort, and creative talent our
community invests in the creation of a scholarly and artistic culture for our collective benefit. Thank you all.
ALDA BLANCO
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Zona de Carga ............................................................................................................................... 2
Residencia de Estudiantes................................................................................................................ 2
Department Play................................................................................................................................. 3
Novelist Lídia Jorge Visits Madison.................................................................................................... 3
Grupo Lusofilme.............................................................................................................................. 4
Necrology: Norman P. Sacks............................................................................................................. 4
Conferences...................................................................................................................................... 5
Faculty, Student and Staff News........................................................................................................ 6
Lectures in the Department................................................................................................................ 8
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ZONA DE CARGA
Zona de Carga, the Department of Spanish and
Portuguese’s journal of literary creation, held its fourth
annual fall semester fundraiser and poetry reading at The
Cardinal Bar on December 3, 2004. Despite the predictions
that paper deadlines and general end-of-the-semester stress
would keep people from attending, the event was, once
again, a success. A teeming throng of poets, poetry fans,
musicians, and fun seekers gathered to listen to and share
the recent creations of those from within and outside of our
department. Those who were there only for drinks and
conversation enjoyed themselves as well.
Because of funding from various sources, such as the
Department of Spanish and Portuguese; Associated
Students of Madison; the Latin American, Carribean and
Iberian Studies program; and private donors, Zona de Carga
has enjoyed four years of life. It is a space that has allowed
many to share the workings of their imagination, a place
where people from many different backgrounds have been
able to come together and publish, often for the first time,
their literary creations. A real sense of excitement and
community has evolved around the journal, and we look
forward to your future contributions and the forthcoming
publication.
Thanks again to The Cardinal Bar and all who
participated and attended this semester’s event, both in
body and in spirit, and a special thanks to Nancy Bird-Soto
for organizing the event. If you are interested in helping in
the production of the journal, you can contact Rubén
Medina, John Burns, Nancy Bird-Soto, or Mike Rueter. And
if you have something you would like to contribute to next
year’s publication, don’t forget to e-mail submissions to
zonadecarga@hotmail.com.
WILLIAM MICHAEL RUETER
RETRATO CUBISTA DE MUJER SOLA
SPRING 2005
por la espalda
como una leve y tierna interrogante
Alberto Martínez
from Zona de Carga
Residencia de Estudiantes
The Residencia de Estudiantes is a Spanish immersion
program that serves a wide range of students interested in
perfecting and practicing their Spanish by using it on a
daily basis. The program was initiated in 2003, and now,
during its second year, continues to be one of the best
options for students to maintain and improve their language
proficiency. At the same time, it provides an opportunity
for those who are planning to study abroad in the future to
gain valuable preparation. The main objective of the
Residencia is to create an environment in which the students
speak Spanish in everyday situations and become familiar
with the language as much as possible. To enhance their
linguistic skills the students speak Spanish in daily
circumstances as well as while having dinner together three
times a week. There are cultural activities each month,
tutoring, and a weekly cultural discussion class. The
Residencia is not only a fun and effective way to learn
about Spain and Latin America, but it also provides contact
with other cultures around the world through international
residence living. The Residencia is part of the International
Learning Community, an association of eighty American
and international students who are immersed in a constant
exchange of culture and language. For more information on
the Residencia de Estudiantes, or to join us for any of our
activities, please contact Giannina Reyes Giardiello, the
current language floor coordinator, by e-mail
(gareyes@wisc.edu) or by phone (608-213-9144).
GIANNINA REYES GIARDIELLO
los senos
—próximos a las rodillas—
se confunden con sus gordos pensamientos
las manos están incrustadas en las caderas
un eco se asoma por las orejas
con premeditación y alevosía
el horizonte es ciego en el talle
y dado que la nariz chorrea cabellos rubios
su mirada entorpece la posibilidad de un pañuelo
todo lo que ella es
tiene un nombre húmedo
y sin sombra
en fin
los colores le corren
Residencia de Estudiantes
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON
SPRING 2005
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PAGE 3
life at the residencia
Towards the end of my senior year of high school, after
researching colleges, visiting campuses, and submitting
applications, I was left with one final task: deciding, once
and for all, where to spend the next four years of my life.
Ultimately I chose the UW-Madison, and there was one
main factor that tipped the scales in its favor: its wealth of
multicultural learning opportunities. As a prospective
International Studies major, I couldn’t wait to join the
Wisconsin International Scholars, to participate in the
activities of the International Learning Community, and, most
of all, to improve my Spanish as a member of the Residencia
de Estudiantes. I was not disappointed. After my first
semester here at UW, my language skills are noticeably
better, and, perhaps more significantly, I have plenty of
great memories involving the Residencia. Throughout the
semester, I went to bi-weekly dinners with other members of
the Residencia and our R.A. Nina, a graduate student from
Mexico. We also planned different events, such as movies
in the dorm or meals from other countries. One of my favorite
activities was Cuban Night. We watched Vampiros en La
Habana, an animated Cuban film, and later we ate a Cuban
meal prepared by Nina and her friend from Havana.
Although the dinners and events are fun, I think my favorite
thing about living in the Residencia is, well, the life itself.
There’s a certain element here that makes the dorms a more
interesting place. I walk down the hallway and see posters
in Spanish taped to the bathroom door. I check my inbox
and find an email from Nina, in Spanish of course, with
reminders for the week and a few jokes thrown in. Even
now, as I sit at my desk typing this, I can see a sugar skull
from Día de los Muertos on my desk, a souvenir from Nina
from one of her trips home. All in all, I’m glad I chose to
come to UW Madison, and I’m especially grateful that I had
a chance to live in the Residencia. I’ve had a great time here
so far, and I intend to come back next year.
ERIN ELIZABETH FLEMING
DEPARTMENT PLAY
The Department of Spanish and Portuguese will be
presenting La farsa del amor compradito, a comedy by
Puerto Rican playwright Luis Rafael Sánchez. We are proud
to have a wonderful mix of staff, graduate students and
professors as part of our cast: among them, Joyce Gausmann,
Chris Schulenburg, Marilén Loyola, JoAnn Debo, Julio
García, John Oppenheimer, Juan Egea, and Matt Juge. We
take to the stage at the Memorial Union’s Play Circle on
March 14th, 15th, and 16th at 7:30 PM.. The co-directors
are: Talía Guzmán-González and Nancy Bird-Soto. For more
information contact Talía or Nancy at:
tguzmangonza@wisc.edu or birdsoto@wisc.edu.
TALIA GUZMAN-GONZALEZ and NANCY BIRD-SOTO
Lídia Jorge delivers her lecture
Novelist LIDIA JORGE VISITS
MADISON
Lídia Jorge, one of Portugal’s leading novelists, visited
the Department on October 18, where she delivered a public
lecture titled “Para um destinatário desconhecido” (“For an
Unknown Reader”). Jorge is the author of eight novels,
including O Dia dos Prodígios (1980), A Costa dos
Murmúrios (1988, trad. The Murmuring Coast,1995) and O
Vale da Paixão (2000, trad. The Painter of Birds). Speaking
in Portuguese, she discussed her fiction’s often uneasy
relationship with collective experience. As Jorge remarked,
her novels often incorporate the lived memory of her
generation; she then added that “the weight of reality keeps
the majority of writers tugging along the floor of narrative
that reproduces the stuff of the real. I think I belong to this
team.” For those who were unable to follow the original
Portuguese of the lecture, a simultaneous translation was
provided with a PowerPoint translation. In addition to the
lecture, Jorge met with undergraduate and graduate students
enrolled in Professor Sapega’s Portuguese 467 class (Survey
of Portuguese Literature Since 1825) who took advantage
of the opportunity to converse with Jorge about her writing
and her engagement with the work of other nineteenth- and
twentieth-century Portuguese authors.
ELLEN W. SAPEGA
If you would like to submit news or items of interest for the
annual newsletter, please send them to Professor Ivy Corfis
at the Department of Spanish & Portuguese or e-mail her at
iacorfis@wisc.edu.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON
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SPRING 2005
enamoráramos por primera vez y dejar de preocuparme
por ser siempre una continuidad repetida de lo que
conozco como yo.
tener, en fin, muchas vidas distintas o una sola que no se
gaste con el uso.
conseguir, al fin, dejar de escribir poemas y poder crearme
y recrearme con sólo una palabra que nunca sea
capaz de recordar
de esas que aún no encuentro en el diccionario y que
rima, invariablemente, con olvido
Giannina Reyes
from Zona de Carga
NECROLOGY
left to right: Luis Madureira, Kathryn Sanchez, Lídia Jorge,
Severino Albuquerque, Ellen Sapega
Grupo Lusofilme
Grupo Lusofilme was formed by the Portuguese
graduate students to bring more Lusophone cinema to
campus. With support from Associated Students of
Madison and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese,
Grupo Lusofilme shows three or four movies per semester,
always seeking a balance of regional variations in language
and culture. In the fall of 2004, Grupo Lusofilme showed
three Brazilian new releases and award winning films such
as “O homem que copiava” and the documentary “Saudade
do futuro.” Talía Guzmán-González and Aneydis Rodríguez
were in charge of hosting the movies. Those interested in
being part of Grupo Lusofilme are encouraged to become
involved.
TALIA GUZMAN-GONZALEZ and STEVE SMITH
It was with great sadness that the department learned
of Professor Norman Sacks’ death in early August 2004. He
was an important part of the Madison department for 23
years and well remembered by all students and faculty who
knew him. We print here his necrology, graciously provided
by Professor Margaret Carol Brown, one of Professor Sacks’
former students and dissertators. Professor Brown, emeritus
professor of the California State University at Sacramento,
received her degree from the University of WisconsinMadison in Spanish Linguistics in 1976. We are most grateful
to her for allowing us to reproduce the necrology.
Norman P. Sacks 1914-2004
recorte de servicios
he decidido cancelar mi memoria
dejar de pagar las cuotas mensuales y que me recorten el
servicio por intereses atrasados.
voy a dejar de recordarme todas las mañanas, de llevar
nomeolvides a mis tumbas personales y de poner atención
a esos recuerdos inútiles que me dicen que: me llamo
giannina, me gusta el otoño, tengo 26 años y me dan
miedo los ratones.
quiero todas las mañanas levantarme y poder inventar un
nombre nuevo para el lugar en donde me encuentro,
descubrir mi cara en el espejo, oler mi café como si nos
The world of Hispanic letters suffered a significant loss
with the recent death of Norman P. Sacks, Professor Emeritus
of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Professor Sacks
died August 5, 2004, at the age of 90, in Pasadena, California,
where he made his home for the final three years of his life.
Past President (1966) and lifetime member of AATSP, he
was an energetic, generous human being who had a
remarkable intellect and a delightful sense of humor. He will
be fondly remembered as an excellent professor, Hispanist
and humanist. His formal career spanned an impressive forty-
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON
SPRING 2005
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eight years, but he pursued intellectual endeavors far
beyond retirement, remaining active well into his eighties.
His Curriculum Vitae reads like a handbook for lifelong
scholars and teachers.
Professor Sacks’ teaching career began in the
Philadelphia public schools where he taught Latin and
French. After completing his doctorate at the University of
Pennsylvania, where he also served as a Teaching Assistant
in Spanish and French, his career as a professor of Spanish
and Portuguese led him to positions in Hawaii,
Pennsylvania, Ohio and finally, the University of WisconsinMadison, where he spent 23 years until his retirement, in
1984. In the golden years of “post-retirement” when many
look forward to a more leisurely pace, he complemented
prior visiting professorships with a semester at Brigham
Young University in 1985, a semester as the Andrew Mellon
Professor at the University of Pittsburgh in 1987, and again,
at the University of Wisconsin, in 1990.
Mr. Sacks’ pedagogy was confined neither to the
classroom nor the academic year. He originated and taught
in the Summer Intensive Spanish Program at the University
of Wisconsin-Madison, and applied Spanish and French
linguistics at NDEA institutes for secondary school teachers.
In addition to teaching Spanish, French, Portuguese and
Latin, Mr. Sacks taught almost all aspects of Spanish
linguistics, Peninsular and Latin American culture and
courses in the Ibero-American Area Studies Program, which
he also directed. In 1993 and 1996, he taught courses on the
state of contemporary English at an Elderhostel in Madison.
Sacks’ interest in the teaching profession led him to
publish several textbooks including a beginning Spanish
text (Spanish for Beginners published in 1957), a collection
of short stories (Cuentos de ayer y de hoy, published in
1956), and the widely acclaimed Modern Spanish (Harcourt,
Brace, Jovanovich, 1960). A major project of the Modern
Language Association, this last text embodied all the best
teaching practices of the times and was written by a team of
authors, including Sacks and five other leading scholars.
Professor Sacks’ long list of publications reflects the
breadth of his myriad interests. He published articles on
the teaching profession, on Spanish and Portuguese
linguistics, and applied and contrastive linguistics. His
publications on Latin American and Peninsular culture
demonstrate his particular interest in intellectuals and
essayists. He received grants from the Rockefeller and Ford
Foundations and the American Philosophical Society as
well as a Fulbright Hays fellowship, all of which afforded
him the opportunity to study in libraries in Latin America,
Spain and Great Britain. The fruit of this research was a
series of articles on such thinkers and philosophers as José
Victoriano Lastarria and Salvador de Madariaga, about whom
Sacks was an acknowledged expert. Throughout the various
stages of his career, he prepared and published a series of
PAGE 5
essays and books about important writers and philosophers
of the modern age, including Lastarria, de Madariaga, George
Orwell, Andrés Bello, Antonio de Nebrija and others.
A tireless reviewer, Professor Sacks published a total
of 34 reviews in Hispania, Hispanic Review, Romance
Philology, Language and Modern Language Journal. He
was a critic-reader of manuscripts for several presses, a
referee for journal articles, and served on the editorial board
of Hispanic Linguistics.
Mr. Sacks was affiliated with many professional
organizations and served as a member or the chair of
countless committees. He was a founding member of many
of those organizations and a life member of most. The myriad
awards and honors he received throughout his career,
notable among them the Certificate of Award he received
from the AATSP in 1978, is a testimony to his continued
efforts on behalf of the profession. Ever the dedicated
professional, he continued to attend conferences and
conventions as often as possible long after retirement.
In addition to his post-retirement activities in teaching,
research and publishing, Professor Sacks traveled
extensively. He was determined to leave no continent untrod
by his feet. He visited each one (with the understandable
exception of Antarctica) at least once. As a result, he became
not only a walking encyclopedia but also a walking atlas.
Norman Sacks, the human being, was a charming,
generous person with an unfailing sense of humor. In my
dissertation defense in 1976, someone mentioned my
“bicentennial” dissertation. “Yeah,” quipped Mr. Sacks. “It
took two hundred years to write.” In classes, his knowledge
was encyclopedic, and as a dissertation director, he never
failed to come up with a useful idea. As a teacher and a
friend he was always available to discuss concerns,
problems, the state of the world, or the weather. He will be
greatly missed by a profession that he served long and
faithfully.
MARGARET CAROL BROWN
CONFERENCES
The Department has been active in organizing
conferences, both local and international, in 2004. Two
were held on the UW-Madison campus this past year.
Re-mapping 18th- and 19th- Century Spanish
Studies
March 25-26, 2004
The two-day conference was organized by Professor
Alda Blanco of our department and sponsored by the
Department of Spanish and Portuguese; the Anonymous
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON
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Fund; and the Program for Cultural Cooperation between
Spain’s Ministry of Education, Culture and Sports and
United States’ Universities.
Two keynote addresses were delivered by: Jo Labanyi
of the University of Southhampton (“Researching Popular
Culture in the Past: Getting Bodies and Emotions Out of the
Archive”) and Lou Charnon-Deutsch of the State University
of New York at Stony Brook (“Yankee Pigs Go Home:
Lessons Not Learned from the ‘Splendid Little War of 1898’”)
The three sessions showcased seven papers presented
by: Rebecca Haidt of the Ohio State University, Hazel Gold
of Emory University, Jesús Cruz of the University of
Delaware, Michael Iarocci of the University of California at
Berkeley, Wadda Ríos-Font of Brown University, Alda
Blanco of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Jesusa
Vega of the Universidad Autómoma de Madrid.
Medieval Iberia: Crossroads of Culture
November 18-19, 2004
This interdisciplinary symposium on Medieval Iberia
focused on the culture, literature, language and history of
the Peninsula and featured scholars from the University of
Wisconsin-Madison as well as from the University of
Minnesota and Miami University of Ohio. The symposium
was organized by Professor Ivy A. Corfis, Courtney
Monahan, and William M. Rueter, all of our department.
The event was sponsored by the Department of Spanish &
Portuguese and the Medieval Studies Program.
There were six sessions over the two days, with papers
read by: Stanley G. Payne (UW, History), María Esperanza
Alfonso (UW, Hebrew and Semitic Studies), William J.
Courtenay (UW, History), Kristin Neumayer (UW, Spanish
& Portuguese), Matthew L. Juge (UW, Spanish &
Portuguese), Thomas D. Cravens (UW, French & Italian),
Ray Harris (UW, Spanish & Portuguese), Thomas E. A. Dale
(UW, Art History), Karl Blaine Shoemaker (UW, History),
María Dolores Bollo-Panadero (Miami University, Ohio,
Spanish & Portuguese), Nhora Lucía Serrano (UW,
Comparative Literature), Pablo Ancos García (UW, Spanish
& Portuguese), Gabriela Cergheadean (UW, Spanish &
Portuguese), and Ivy Corfis (UW, Spanish & Portuguese).
Two conferences are being organized for 2005:
The Wisconsin Symposium on Cuba, organized by
Professors Margarita Zamora (UW, Spanish & Portuguese)
and Francisco Scarano (UW, History) to be held on the
UW-Madison campus March 3-5, 2005.
The Other 19th Century, organized by Kathryn Sanchez
(UW, Spanish & Portuguese) to be held in Madison on
April 21-23, 2005. Keynote speaker will be Carlos Reis of the
University of Coimbra.
SPRING 2005
Watch for next year’s newsletter for a report on these
important upcoming events.
FACULTY, STUDENT, and staff
NEWS
Students
Undergraduate Student Awards and News
Nancy M. Godinho graduated with a major in Portuguese
and was awarded the Dean’s Distinguished Senior Honors
Student Award at the May 15, 2004, Letters & Sciences
Spring Commencement.
María Melgoza, an Undergraduate Research Scholar in
Spanish, was selected from among the UW-Madison
undergraduate scholars to display her research project in
the state-wide Posters in the Rotunda 2004: A Celebration
of undergraduate student research held on April 27, 2004.
Graduate Student Awards and News
Many of our graduate students were the recipients of
awards and prizes. We congratulate them all on their welldeserved recognition.
Natalie Belisle and Victor Pérez were awarded Advanced
Opportunities Fellowships for 2004-05.
Julie M. Beutler was awarded the Tinker-Nave Short-Term
Research Grant for the summer of 2004.
Elena Iglesias-Villamel was awarded the University
Humanities Dissertation Fellowship for Spring 2005.
Marilén Loyola was awarded a FLAS Fellowship from LACIS
for 2004-05.
Pilar Melero was recently hired by UW-Whitewater as a
tenure-track assistant professor of Spanish and Chicano/
Chicana literature. She also presented a paper (“Sara Estela
Ramírez and Andrea Villarreal Gonzales: Revolutionary
Voices”) at the Eighth Annual Recovering U.S. Hispanic
Literary Heritage Conference held in Albuquerque, New
Mexico, on November 5-6, 2004. Ms. Melero was also
recognized by the UW-Whitewater Student Leadership
Center as Outstanding Professor for 2003-04 and was
additionally awarded a STEP (Saying Thanks to Excellent
Professors) award by the freshman class of UW-Whitewater.
Two of our TAs were awarded UW-Madison Teaching
Assistant Awards for 2004. Mike Rueter was awarded the
Exceptional Service Award, and Rebecca Atencio was
awarded the Early Excellence in Teaching Award.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON
SPRING 2005
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MA degrees were conferred in 2004 on: Saylín Alvarez,
Beatriz Botero, Nadia Cervantes Pérez, Jill Felten, Tricia
Price, Megan Propst, Erin Real, Kerri Rentmeester, Sara
Amanda Rosas, Angela Volpicelli, and Nicole Weinfurtner.
We would also like to make a correction to last year’s
newsletter. Marilén Loyola’s name was inadvertently
omitted from the list of MA recipients. Our apologies for
the error. Congratulations to Marilén, and our best wishes
for her continued success in the program.
Ph.D. prelims were successfully completed in August
2004 and January 2005 by: Julie Beutler, Patricia Giménez,
Melvin Hinton, Courtney Monahan, Kristin Piazza,
Candace Scott, and Bretton White.
We are also proud to announce the following theses
that were successfully defended in 2004.
Pablo Ancos García, “La forma primaria de difusión y de
recepción de la poesía castellana en cuaderna vía del
siglo XIII,” December 2004
Kendra L. Douglas, “Uruguayan Portuguese in Artigas: TriDimensionality of Transitional Local Varieties in Contact
with Spanish and Portuguese Standards,” December
2004
Juana Gamero de Coca, “Soñando fronteras de cielo y barro:
Nación y género en la invención de Extremadura,”
August 2004
Matthew L. Mayers, “Historical Sociolinguistics:
Nominalizing Suffixation and Lexical Choice in Spanish,”
May 2004
Lisa A. Petrov, “For an Audience of Men: Masculinity,
Violence and Memory in Hernán Cortés’s Las cartas de
relación and Carlos Fuentes’s Fictional Cortés,” May
2004
Martin P. Pflug, “Convergencia de literatura, tecnología y
subjetividad en Latinoamérica,” December 2004
Congratulations to the new Ph.D.s!
PAGE 7
Ksenija Bilbija was promoted to the rank of Full Professor
in Spring 2004.
Biruté Ciplijauskaité, John Bascom Professor Emerita of
Spanish & Portuguese and of the Institute for Research
in the Humanities, in December 2003 was awarded the
honorary title and medal of Commander of the Order of
Alfonso X el Sabio by King Juan Carlos and the Ministry
of Education and Culture of Spain in recognition of her
contributions to the advancement of Spanish culture.
And Professor Ciplijauskaité’s book La construcción
del yo femenino en la literatura was published by the
Universidad de Cádiz in 2004.
Juan F. Egea’s book La poesía del nosotros: Jaime Gil de
Biedma y la secuencia lírica moderna was published
by Visor in 2004. And Professor Egea was granted tenure
and promotion to Associate Professor in Fall 2004.
Diana Frantzen was granted tenure and promotion to
Associate Professor in Spring 2004.
Jeff Kirsch is the winner of the 2004 National Senior Spelling
Bee. He bested 23 other contestants to win the title on
September 11, 2004.
Guido A. Podestá was named Director of Latin American,
Caribbean and Iberian Studies as of Fall 2004.
STAFF
Arnie Gudel, who has delivered Van Hise (and now
Ingraham) mail for the past 37 years, is one of five recipients
of this year’s L&S Classified Staff Excellence Award. The
award is well deserved. Congratulations, Arnie!
New Graduate Students
We would like to welcome the new graduate students
entering our program in academic year 2004-05. We wish
them great success in their future studies.
Georgina Balbontin, Natalie Belisle, Claudia Bulla Lemus,
Kathleen Connolly, Adriana Fonseca Vargas, Amy Leibner,
Andrea Palladino, Victor Pérez, Leslie Rattan, Jessica
Ribble, Laissa Rodríguez-Moreno, and Krista Sawyer.
Faculty
Katarzyna Beilin’s book, Conversaciones literarias con
novelistas contemporáneas, was published by Tamesis
in 2004.
Arnie Gudel with prize Muskie
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN - MADISON
Nonprofit Organizaton
US Postage
PAID
Madison, WI
Permit No. 658
Department of Spanish & Portuguese
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1018 Van Hise Hall
1220 Linden Drive
Madison, WI 53706-1557
LECTURES IN THE DEPARTMENT
Juan F. Egea (Department of Spanish and Portuguese),
“Versos, dinero e instantáneas: imágenes de Bécquer,”
September 22, 2004
Lídia Jorge (Lisbon, Portugal), “For an Unknown Reader,”
October 18, 2004
Miguel González-Gerth (University of Texas, Austin), “A
Poetry Reading” (Selections from some of his works),
October 19, 2004
Miguel González-Gerth (University of Texas, Austin),
“Peculiaridades en el teatro histórico de Ignacio Solares
(México, 1945),” A Roberto Sánchez Distinguished
Lecture, October 20, 2004
Borges Returns from the Dead
1.
But his life is already in reverse,
a garden wall or a tree with edges blurred
since in his city on the silver river
the haze is eternal, the sun
long ago replaced by an unkempt star.
2.
I come, without explanations, to inhabit
the flat next door, a stranger
recognized at once by the bleary eye.
Bedside, I hold his dry hand
as he narrates the outrages of the emperor
and his henchmen. The names mean
nothing to me, but when I say
Kipling, the code is broken
And the night is spent reading.
He is smiling into the unusual air
like a found child.
3.
At dawn, of course, the soldiers come. One
of us is an assassin, the other the victim.
Borges pleads for the housekeeper
To save him, but she is polishing the teapot
from Adrogué, and can’t be bothered.
“Nothing ever meant more to me,” he calls,
then disappears.
4.
In the catacombs of violence
where they have carried us,
my decrepit beloved, I will
find you. You will have forgotten me,
but only let me spit upon your eyes
so you can see it all, once: the patio
in evening light, the damp pathway
that leads to the beast, a single,
illegible page left lying on the table
by the bed where you died precisely
and without further comment in some
quaint century of your own invention.
Melanie Nicholson
From Zona de Carga
Our 2004 Donors
Gifts of $250 or more
Professor Margaret C. Brown, Professor Herbert E.
Craig, III, The Douglas and Linda Paul Foundation,
Ms. Melissa Jean Eisner, Ms. Rebecca W. Orabona
Gifts of $100 or more
Professor Enrica J. Ardemagni, Professor Paul V.
Bredeson, Mr. Rolf N. Carlsten, Jr., Mr. Charles P.
Dietrick,. Mr. Steven A. Schilling, Ms. Christine L.
Schilling, Ms. Marie S. Spicer, Ms. Nancy A. Then,
Mrs. Teresa Twomey, Mr. Robert V. N. Whitford
Gifts of less than $100
Ms. Meghan Elizabeth Andrews, Mr. Allen P. Bertsche,
Ms. Jennifer S. Bormett, Ms. Kitty K. Brennan, Dr. James
D. Compton, Dr. Mary L. Daniel, Bonnie Kaucic Davis,
Ms. Elizabeth D. Deifell, Reverend Lawrence C. Dilley,
Ms. Laura A. Jahnke, Dr. Gunda S. Kaiser, Ms. Ellyn
Christie Klein, Mr. Danilo Knezic, Professor Gerald J.
Langowski, Mr. Feliciano S. Ledesma, Mr. Phillip
Emmanuel Losey, Ms. Maureen Maloney, Ms. Kristin
Olmstead Morey, Mr. David C. Peterson, Professor
Michael Pennock Predmore, Ms. Janice R. Rockin, Ms.
Sarah T. Rossman, Ms. Patricia A. Seger, Ms. Ann M.
Skowronski, Ms. Margaret E. Stanton, Ms. Annette E.
Stock, Professor Lynn K. Talbot, Mr. Kirk F. Zimpel
EMERITI NEWS
Mary Lou Daniel spent four months of 2004 in westcentral Brazil, doing technical translation into
Portuguese for the Summer Institute of Linguistics.
While in the U.S. last year, she translated a 400-page
exegetical volume for SIL/BRAZIL and a 100-page
volume of “Working Papers in Mozambican
Linguistics” for SIL/MOZAMBIQUE. During spring
break 2004 she traveled to central Florida, where 45
years ago she taught Spanish, and visited her family in
England during the month of July. She continues to
enjoy singing with the UW Choral Union, in which
ensemble she is joined by Prof. David Hildner.
I’ll make skewers out of Nelken,
Martinez Sierra, make lemon spices
Out of the works of Carmen de Burgos
I’ll devour those 1920s Feminine Mystiques
In two
Three servings
I’ll join their wrath,
Bounce off the testicles
Of the New Republic,
Slap women’s asses with the right to vote
And then a fascist thorn will princk my falange,
And I’ll be forgotten,
forgotten,
Rusting metal on the side of the road…
Amanda Rosas
Crónica de espectáculos
En un espectáculo un hombre se degüella frente al público.
Lo hace todas las noches y siempre hay gente diversa
que lo alienta o desalienta para continuar.
Hay quienes se quejan de la sangre en exceso abundante
o muestran su desagrado por el cuchillo oxidado.
Debería conseguirse uno más brillante y pulido
dicen a la salida. Es muy chabacano.
Otros visitan el escenario coagulado
y lo felicitan por el carácter subversivo del acto.
Un hombre muere cada noche
pero el público no está del todo satisfecho.
Juan Luis Dammert
From Zona de Carga
Studying Feminism In a Foreign Country
Feminism is what brings me to your country
Feminism is what surely shocks the sparkplugs,
Suitcase in hand, traveling between hair follicles
On the rooftops of your skin
Feminism is what they pay me to investigate
To tear apart the antiquities
Spread them like saw dust
On a broken table
Rebecca Atencio and Mike Rueter at the TA Awards Ceremony
YOUR GIFT MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Please consider supporting the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of WisconsinMadison. Gifts allow the Department to maintain and expand our excellence in education at both the
graduate and undergraduate level. With your financial support, we can fund student research, graduatestudent travel, new initiatives in teaching Spanish at all levels (such as an undergraduate writing lab),
support Zona de Carga, and maintain the Residencia de Estudiantes, which has been extremely successful
but is running dangerously low of financial support.
If you wish to discuss a contribution, life income or estate gift to the Department, please contact Mr.
Christopher Glueck at the University of Wisconsin Foundation (608-265-9952) or e-mail him at
chris.glueck@uwfoundation.wisc.edu.
Your tax-deductible donation may be made on line at our departmental web page:
http://spanport.lss.wisc.edu/newsite/gifts.htm
Or by filling out the form below and sending it to:
UW Foundation
1848 University Avenue
P.O. Box 8860
Madison, WI 53708-8860
DEPARTMENT OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE DONATION FORM
NAME________________________________________________________________
ADDRESS_____________________________________________________________
CITY________________________________ STATE___________ ZIP_____________
___ My/our contribution of $_______________ is enclosed.
___ My/our company’s matching gift form is enclosed.
___ Please charge my/our gift of $ _________ to:
_____Master Card
_____ Visa
_____ American Express
Card Number ___________________________________ Expiration__________
Cardholder’s Name (print)____________________________________________
Signature_________________________________________________________
Please make checks payable to: University of Wisconsin Foundation; designate the Spanish &
Portuguese Fund.
You will receive a recept for your contribution. We will also acknowledge all of our yearly benefactors in
future newsletters. Please let us know if you wish to keep your gift anonymous. Thank you!