Global Languages and Cultures

Herencia (meaning "inheritance" or "heritage") is the first anthology to bring together literature from the entire history of Hispanic writing in the United States, from the age of exploration to the present. The product of a ten-year project involving hundreds of scholars nationwide, Herencia is the most comprehensive literary collection available, spanning over three centuries and including writers from all the major Hispanic ethnic communities, and writing from diverse genres. Here is the voice of the conqueror and the conquered, the revolutionary and the reactionary, the native and the uprooted or landless. Of course, readers will find pieces by such leading writers as Piri Thomas, Luis Valdez, Isabel Allende, Oscar Hijuelos, and Reinaldo Arenas. But what really distinguishes this anthology is its historical depth and its rich, complex portrait of Hispanic literature in the United States.

Focusing on texts produced during a crucial period in the development of Spain's modern consciousness at the close of its imperial age, Nunley (Romance languages, Spanish, U. of Vermont) demonstrates the ways writers' strategies of travel representation reflected and participated in the process of cultural transformation. Nunley highlights the works of Mesonero Romanos, Galdós, Alarcón and Galiano.

Exploring techniques with which Hispanic women authors treat the body, scholars of Spanish literature include representations of the body in writings by Caribbean, Latin America, Spanish, and Chicana authors. They examine how the authors used different themes and strategies to engrave their texts as body, and to etch their bodies onto the text. Their theoretical approaches, analytical methods, and feminine perspectives are as varied as their geographical settings. Some quotations are only in Spanish or only in English.

The term Latin America refers to the Portuguese and Spanish-speaking states created in the early 1820s following the wars of independence, states that differed enormously in geographical and demographical scale, ethnic composition and economic resources, yet shared distinct historical and cultural traits. Specially-commissioned essays by leading experts explore the unity and diversity of the region's cultural expressions. These essays analyze history and politics from the nineteenth century to the present day and consider the heritage of pre-Columbian and Colonial Latin America. There is a particular focus on narrative as well as on poetry, art and architecture, music, cinema, theater, and broader issues of popular culture. A final chapter looks at the strong and rapidly expanding influence of latino/a culture in the United States. A chronology and guides to further reading are included, making this volume an invaluable introduction to the rich and varied culture of modern Latin America.

This glossary offers an introduction to Spanish culture and society, and a route-map to further study. Designed specifically with undergraduates in mind, it contains around 400 short and accessible explanations of the key words, events, figures, and concepts in Spain since 1939.

Located on 3rd floor
Conjugations in all persons and tenses of the most commonly used Spanish verbs. Also available at the library circulation desk is an accompanying CD-ROM with practice exercises and grammar review.