Lecturer of Spanish Patricia Orozco
Patricia Orozco, Lecturer of Spanish, contributed a paper, “Galdós y artículos de prensa: visiones de ultramar en el libro IV “Política española” as part of the Peninsular Spanish II (1700 to Present) Quadruple Session of the 2022 SAMLA Convention last November. The conference was to take place in Jacksonville, Florida, but had to switch to a virtual conference as Tropical Storm Nicole was forecasted to hit just before November 11. The articles in reference originally appeared in La Prensa, a newspaper from Buenos, Aires, Argentina, between 1883 and 1894. Her work centered on three articles dealing with overseas issues to later make connections to his novels of modernity. Among others, she points out to two issues that are still relevant today: territorial questions about La Isla del Perejil and US politics dealing with Latin America. By studying these overseas matters, Orozco noted how the author’s understanding is later reflected in some of his emblematic characters e.g., Lucrecia Richmond in El Abuelo or Cintia-Pascuala in El caballero encantado. These topics led to a discussion of how his critical eye focused on current events to create fictional worlds with pedagogical interest in mind.