Spanish Literature Conference Brings International Scholars, Accomplished Alumni to CSU Dominguez Hills

Argentine poet Alejandro Guillermo Roemmers was the featured keynote speaker at the International Symposium of Hispanic Literature, which was held March 19-20 at California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson. The event, titled “The Role of the Writer in the Hispanic World” brought together a variety of students, scholars, and writers from around the world.

Professor Benito Gómez organized the event, which was co-sponsored by the CSU Dominguez Hills Department of Modern Languages, the Instituto Literario y Cultural Hispánico (ILCH) of Westminster, Calif., and the Ministerio de Educación, Política Social y Deporte of Spain.

Alumnae Ruby Ramírez and Karen P. Pérez returned to their alma mater from their doctoral studies at the University of California, Riverside, to give presentations. Ramírez spoke on “La representación de la serpiente como liberación sexual en Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza” (The representation of the serpent as sexual liberation in Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza) and Pérez gave a talk on “El realismo social: El intento y la transgresión de un estilo literario en El balneario y El cuarto de atrás de Carmen Martín Gaite” (Social realism: the attempt and transgression of a literary style in El balneario and El cuarto de atras). Undergraduate student presenters included Cindy Adame, Esmeralda Ramirez, and McNair Scholars Itzel Olivares and Juan Orellana.

Gómez says that the conference afforded an invaluable experience for undergraduate students to present alongside graduate students and their professors.

“The students who are presenting are highly motivated,” the associate professor of modern languages and McNair Scholars mentor says. “They’re going to need that drive to get a Ph.D. This is a great opportunity for them as undergraduates to network, present research, and have a chance to publish their work along with scholars from other countries.”

Other presenters included Dr. Juana Arancibia, president and founder of ILCH and a longtime adjunct faculty member in the university’s modern languages department, and Julio Balbueno Lopez Alfaro, the consul general of Peru in California, who gave a presentation on the 16th century Peruvian historian and writer Garcilaso de la Vega. Some faculty from CSU Dominguez Hills moderated panels and some gave presentations, including Gómez.

In a Daily Breeze article about the event, CSU Dominguez Hills president Dr. Mildred García is quoted as saying that the university is “a mirror of what this country is becoming and what the world is,” and that the conference illustrates the institution’s commitment to preparing students to live and work in a diverse global society. Gómez says that the conference is an example of how multiculturalism enhances a society.

“All the countries in Latin America are already very multiracial, multicultural,” he notes. “They are very creative and... open to trying new things, to experiment. Any time that you have more things to compare to, you are going to be enriched by that. When you know more than one language or culture... you can compare and contrast. You learn more about your own culture, and it’s more enriching when you have access and contact with different cultures.”

The event was also supported by the music and art departments at CSU Dominguez Hills.

For more information on the Department of Modern Languages, click here.

- Joanie Harmon

Photo above: Associate professor of modern languages Benito Gómez and his students celebrate their achievements at international conference on Spanish literature.

Pictured with Gómez, L-R: Alumnae Karen P. Pérez, Ruby Ramírez and McNair Scholar Itzel Olivares

Photo by Joanie Harmon