The Renaissance Society of America is the largest international academic society devoted to the study of the era 1300鈥�1700. Founded in 1954, the RSA has thousands of members around the world. Members include a wide variety of scholars interested in Renaissance studies. The Society produces the Renaissance Quarterly Journal and sponsors publications, fellowships, awards to support research. Its annual meeting brings together scholars from North America and around the world, representing a wide variety of academic disciplines.

Garcia鈥檚 paper for the conference explores the use of performances within one of Cervantes鈥� captivity plays. These plays-within-a play have a double function of allowing the playwright to process the trauma of being a former slave and also bringing the predicament of Christian slaves in North Africa to the attention of the audiences in Spanish corrales.

By tracing references to performance in Cervantes鈥� El trato de Argel (1582), Garcia argued that the use of metatheatre is especially useful as a therapeutic tool, but also as a political tool that is allowed to exhort the authorities in ways that were banned to others. By doubling characters and staging theatrical acts, Cervantes attempts to offer spectators a glimpse into the harsh reality of slavery. This use of metatheatre makes actors within the play aware of their own agency in the social drama of captivity and, to some extent, the theatricality of captivity itself.

The volume titled “” was edited by Garcia, Erin Cowling of McEwan University in Edmonton, Canada, Tania De Miguel Magro of West Virginia University and Glenda Y. Nieto-Cuebas of Ohio Wesleyan University.

The new work discusses the challenges facing the humanities in general and in Spanish Comedia studies specifically. It explores how adaptations of classical theatre portray social justice and how throughout history the writing and staging of comedias have been at the service of a wide range of political agendas.

This collection of original new essays focuses on the many ways in which early modern Spanish plays engaged their audiences in a dialogue about abuse, injustice, and inequality. Far from the traditional monolithic view of theatrical works as tools for expanding ideology, these essays each recognize the power of theatre in reflecting on issues related to social justice.

The first section of the book focuses on textual analysis, taking into account legal, feminist and collective bargaining theory. The second section explores issues surrounding theatricality, performativity, and intellectual property laws through an analysis of contemporary adaptations. The final section includes interviews that reflect on social justice from the point of view of practitioners, including actors and directors.

Along with co-editing the volume, Garcia also contributed an essay titled, “El Trato de Argel and the Immigrant Crisis.”

In his review of the new book, Manuel Delgado from Bucknell University notes that “this volume engages modern readers and spectators in issues that transcend our speculation. The arguments presented are articulate, insightful, clear, and convincing. The analysis takes into consideration relevant and meaningful bibliographical sources on current social justice issues related to social class, gender, Native Americans, distributive/commutative justice, Moriscos, farm workers, and the enemy/other.”

Bruce Burningham with Illinois State University calls the work “a very timely book” that “will be of interest to scholars and students of what used to be called the Spanish “Golden Age” theatre, as well as anyone working on pan-European early modern theatre or those interested more generally in social justice issues.”

An ethnohistory on the spiritual and territorial incorporation of the indigenous people in colonial Mexico into the Spanish empire, the new book examines the role played by the shifting concept of idolatry in the conquest of the Americas, as well as its relation to the subsequent construction of imperial power and hegemony. 

Contrasting readings of evangelization plays and chronicles from the Indies with legislation and literature produced in Spain, Garcia places theoretical analysis of state formation in colonial Latin American within the historical context. The conquest of America was presented, in its first instances, as a virtual extension of the Reconquista, which had taken place in Spain since 711, during which Spaniards fought to build an empire based in part on religious unity. The fight against the “heathens” (Moors and Jews) provided the experience and mindset to practice the incorporation of the other, making of Spain a cultural laboratory that was transported across the Atlantic Ocean.

"Idolatry and the Construction of the Spanish Empire" is a wide-ranging exploration of religious orthodoxy and unorthodoxy during Spain’s medieval and early modern period as they relate to idolatry, with analysis of events occurred on both sides of the Atlantic. The book contributes to the growing field of transatlantic studies and explores the redefinition that took place in Europe and in the colonies.

As part of its visit, this company from Mexico City really made an effort to get to know 黑料不打烊 joining the Polyglot lunch, giving a talk for the Latin-American Studies minors and teaching Dr. Garcia´s advanced Spanish class.

In all those venues, the company had the opportunity to talk about its mission: to make the classics relevant for today’s audience and to make Golden Age Spain fun and approachable.

This was evident in the show where more than 70 people in attendance laughed from beginning to end and stayed for more than half-an-hour while the company entertained questions. It was a great opportunity to take learning into a new environment and a good reminder that language is more than grammar, but rather that it’s attached to communities, cultures and history, an invitation to open our minds to understand that the production of culture and the relationships between cultures are best seen from a global perspective

​Garcia’s paper explores the connections between one of Cervantes’ plays, “El Trato de Argel,” written in 1581-83 right after his release from five years of captivity in Algiers to the current immigration crisis. In the aftermath of the Cervantes’ centenary the Centro Dramático Nacional (Madrid), in an attempt to make the author relevant again, proposed a new approach to “El Trato de Argel.” They reflected on the desperate situation of many immigrants in today’s world, who in search of a better life, leave their places of origin and venture across their borders.

This is the premise of “Tratos,” a 2016 performance of the Cervantes’ play where this connection was explored. Instead of the African jail where Cervantes lived for five years, we are transported to a center for undocumented immigrants in Spain where the poor treatment of the newly arrived is brought to center stage and where the immigration policy is questioned with every word. All of a sudden, a play from the 16th century becomes contemporary again and its claim for social justice, more relevant than ever.

This presentation is part of a bigger project, a collaboratively edited volume on social justice in early modern drama that was just sent out for publication.

This is a collaborative project that involves scholars specialized in the area of early modern Hispanic literature and cultures. The goal of the symposium was to explore new ways to examine and teach Hispanic classical theater and to make it more relevant to college students at liberal arts institutions in the United States.

In a world where everything is holistically connected and where learners consume information regardless of the constraints of different genres, it is important that we provide our students with a similar approach to the Hispanic World.

Traditionally, Hispanic theater has been taught mainly through text analysis, which can limit the possibilities for students to engage with and a corpus of knowledge and literature that is foreign to them. However, with the introduction of digital media, ad hoc translation and contemporary media adaptations, among others, students can engage, understand, and connect the complexities of the Early Modern Hispanic World and the Transmedia age in which we live.

Students, faculty, administrators, staff and community members are welcome to participate. Readers may sign up to read in any language by visiting this website: . The department will have available copies in both Spanish and English. Readers choosing a different language can bring their own copy.

The marathon reading at 黑料不打烊 is organized by Associate Professor of Spanish Mina Garcia, along with Rafael A. Osuba, founder and artistic director of El Quixote Festival.

In this presentation, he will take as his point of departure a 17th-century play  that deals with a town that rebels against their unjust local authorities in order to protect one of their neighbors. This  topic resonates in different ways today in the neighboring towns of El Paso and Ciudad Juárez right on the Mexican-American border. Since Dr. Garcia Lorenzo has taught in the Universidad de Ciudad Juarez, he will use his experience as faculty in the area, to compare and contrast this Early Modern struggle with the reality of today’s borders.

His talk will be in Spanish and will take place in the Isabella Cannon Room at 5 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.

Sponsored by the Arts & Sciences Fund for Excellence and the Department of World Languages & Cultures

Garcia’s paper dealt with the use of diabolically possessed women on stage, in particular in San Carlos, by Andres de Claramonte, and Barlaan y Josafat, by Lope de Vega.

The article, “A pact with the Devil in 17th Century Spain,” analyzes how the demonic pact was used by some relevant playwrights of the Spanish Golden Age such as Mira de Amescua, Lope de Vega and Calderón de la Barca. Immersed in the midst of the Counter-Reformation Movement, these authors debated the role of the devil, free will and predestination on stage.                  

This series, PATRIMONIO LITERARIO ANDALUZ, is organized by Antonio A. Gómez Yebra, a professor at the Universidad de Málaga, the institution that supports the publication. The series is based on Andalusian writers and also those who lived or wrote on Andalusia, Spain.