Dr Leonel Alvarado Mención en el Premio Casa de las Américas

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is pleased to announce that a former doctoral student, Dr.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese is pleased to announce that a former doctoral student, Dr. Leonel Alvarado, originally from Honduras and now at Massey University in New Zealand, received word that in the latest literary competition held by the prestigious Casa de las Américas of Cuba, his book of poetry, Retratos mal hablados, was singled out for “Mención”(which means it came in second to the First Prize awarded to Pujato, by Gabriel Cortiñas (Argentina).

Interesting note: Dr. Alvarado received his doctorate in 2003 under Sandra Cypess' direction, working on a Honduran poet: ” THE LIFE AND WORKS OF HONDURAN POET EDILBERTO CARDONA BULNES. His committee included Professors Ana Patricia Rodríguez, Juan Carlos Quintero Herencia,  Hernán Sánchez, and Professor Pierre Verdaguer, Dean’s Representative. Because of ViSA difficulties at the post 9/11 world, his dissertation defense was the first to be accomplished by video-conferencing.

The Committee met in the afternoon of a Monday in February (winter) and Leonel was in New Zealand, on a Tuesday morning, in the summer!