26.2.05

Hispanism Conference

I went to the conference. I left after lunch. The end. That could sum up what I witnessed at the “Re-inventing Hispanism in the Age of Globalization” conference but since you guys are worthy of more, I will give you more.

The most interesting presentation of the four that I witnessed was the last of the bunch which talked about a new reading of the Quixote, and even that one was somewhat lame. The rest of them talked about the term Hispanic. In the end, it all came down to what has already been said, it is used to describe those who speak Spanish. It’s nothing new and not a term that I agree with, but I use it if it’s going to benefit me. ¿Convenenciera? Sí, ¿y qué? I’m no different from the rest of this country.

Anyway, I’m getting off topic. There was another presentation by Sebastian Faber from Oberland College who basically told us why he, a Dutch man, studies Hispanism. You know why? Because he likes it and he feel like he needs to help bring attention to this particular subject. Once again, he’s trying to write our story, sort of like what Sandra Cisneros wants to do by living in San Antonio. As my jefito used to say, “A que la chingada.”

The most interesting “talk” I heard was by an Arroz English Lit grad student in the lobby who was telling my sister about her dissertation on redefining the term Chicana. She’s got some interesting stuff, she’s looking at Michelle Serros and Latina Magazine and that fantabulous book (please note that the prior adjective is dripping with sarcasm) Border-line Personalities. She’s supposed to keep in touch with my sister; so hopefully, I hear that her dissertation becomes a book sometime soon.

Speaking of my sis, this news is kinda old, but it’s still great news. Her book is going to be adopted by the Califas University system. We were commenting over lunch about how interesting it was that everyone was talking about the money. That was the last thing she cared about when she hear the great news.

Well, I have so much more to say, but if I keep typing it’s going to come out a garbled mess. I do leave you with this: Elite Universities in Texas, like Rice, really suck. They had one Chicano and one woman presenting at the conference. Furthermore, they did not invite one of the most important people in Hispanic Literature that resides in Houston. My UH degree will by no means carry as much weight as an Arroz one, but fuck, at least I earned my 3.25 (they can pass a class with a P instead of a grade) and our international students don’t equal 613.

That is all.

3 comments:

Mariposatomica said...

Congrats to your sis!! I've already put the book on my amazon wish list;)

Mariposatomica said...

oops it's me again...what is an arroz?

Georgina Baeza said...

I was just translating Rice (as in Rice University) to Spanish.