In defence of Cervantes' magic

Una versión abreviada de este ensayo, ofrecida como conferencia de clausura en el Congreso de las Academias de la Lengua, celebrado en San Juan de Puerto Rico en 2016, vio la luz en internet: http://congresosdelalengua.es/puertorico/clausura/lopezbaraltluce.htm. La presente es una versión aumentada y actualizada del ensayo pionero de 2016.Con su “verdadera historia” —es decir, verosímil— Miguel de Cervantes pretende desmantelar las voces mágicas del Amadís de Gaula y del Palmerín de Inglaterra, inaceptables ya en la tosca “edad de hierro” desde la que escribe. Se le ha estado prestando excesiva credibilidad a la propuesta teórica de la “verosimilitud” cervantina, y en este estudio pasamos a explorar las numerosas rupturas del plano real que presenta el Quijote: la obra está encriptada simultáneamente en caracteres árabes y góticos impenetrables; don Quijote parece morir dos veces; la pluma de Cide Hamete habla sola mientras pende de la espetera de cocina; los tiempos y los espacios se anulan merced al caos que siembra la escritura compartida por innumerables instancias narrativas. “Íntimamente, Cervantes amaba lo sobrenatural”, propuso Jorge Luis Borges, y el presente ensayo le da la razón.With his “true story” —that is to say, plausible— Cervantes pretends to discredit the magical literature of novels of chivalry like Amadís de Gaula and Palmerín de Inglaterra, which was totally out of favor in Baroque Spain. Too much credibility has been given to Cervantes’ theory on “literary realism”, as this essay will try to prove. Cervantes’ novel is simultaneously encrypted in Arabic and Gothic letters; don Quixote seems to have died twice; Cide Hamete’s pen speaks out loud while hanging from a kitchen rack; time and space are blurred by the strange interaction of innumerable narrators. Borges claimed that “intimately, Cervantes loved the supernatural”, and we could not agree more

The Integrated Process of Engagement in Adult Learning

This paper explores the role of engagement in adult learning based on Illeris’ three dimensional model of learning and Yang’s holistic theory of knowledge and learning. Engagement and learning are integrated processes by which adult learners gain a deeper understanding and make meaning of the activities he or she is exposed to in a given learning environment

Hydrogenation of Nitro Compounds to Amines Using Polymer Bound Catalysts

A polymer bound catalyst is a relatively new type of catalyst. The basis of polymer bound catalysis lies in the chemical attachment of a homogeneous catalyst to a solid support, in our case, polystyrene. Applications of polymer bound catalysts started in the late 1960’s, and have been used in several types of reactions. In some cases such a catalyst offers a series of advantages over the classical models of catalysis, homogeneous and heterogeneous. The hydrogenation of various aromatic and aliphatic nitro compounds, such as nitro-benzene and 2-nitropropane, were performed successfully. The hydrogenation activity in most cases was high, and in some reactions the catalyst was able to hydrogenate molecules that the analogous homogeneous catalyst could not. Different metals; specifically palladium, platinum, nickel, and rhodium, were attached to the polymer and the effects of varying the metal on the activity were studied. Palladium supported catalysts with anthranilic acid as a polymer supported ligand were found to be more active and selective than palladium catalysts with a bipyridyl ligand. Substitution on the aromatic ring of the substrate alters the reaction rate. Steric effects have a large influence over the catalytic activity. Electron withdrawing groups do not alter reaction rates greatly, while resonance effects can increase the rate of reaction. Finally the effect of the reaction conditions (temperature, pressure and time) on the catalyst activity were analyzed

FIU and MDPLS: Engaging our community in language learning at public library spaces

Dr. Melissa Baralt\u27s proposal presents a community language teaching collaborative intership spearheaded by FIU and the Miami-Dade Public Library System. The program trains student instructors to teach Spanish classes at a public library site to make language learning more accessible

The Vanished Voices of The Caribbean: Spanish Colonialism and the Pre-Columbian languages in the first voyages

The Caribbean Antilles, where its islands stretch from the coast of Venezuela to Florida, has been inhabited by various societies since 4000 B.C., shaping its history alongside its inhabitants. Language is crucial to the definition of history, the most obvious facet of civilizations. While archaeology and ethnography have provided some clues about the origins of the Caribbean\u27s indigenous peoples, linguistic work has scarcely been discussed. For this reason, this work not only aims to provide a linguistic description of pre-Columbian Antillean languages but also to present, synthesize, and attempt to add linguistic analysis to the theoretical debate on the origins of these languages. Drawing from contemporary documentation (Granberry & Vescelius, 2004) and information from unpublished texts (Bartolomé de las Casas, Ramón Pané), this paper contributes to the discussion on the linguistic origins of the Antilles. Despite the misconception that a single language was spoken on all these islands (De las Casas, 1875:325), some chroniclers have testified otherwise. At least four indigenous languages were spoken in the Greater Antilles: Taíno, Macorís, Ciguayo, and Guanahatabey (Pané, 1875; Arrom, 1975). Taíno originates from the northern Maipura of the Arawak family. At the same time, Ciguayo is theorized to come from the Tolan languages of the Honduras-Belize coast, and Macorís originates from Waroid populations east of Venezuela. In essence, the theory proposes that the Caribbean was initially populated by speakers of the Tolan family, only to be displaced by speakers of the Waroid family through creolization and linguistic contact (Granberry & Vescelius, 2004, p. 156). This notion is considerably more archaeological than linguistic due to the lack of linguistic analysis. This article argues against the process of creolization and displacement. These findings may be attributed to linguistic contact phenomena such as loans or calques but not to displacement or creolization

Preposition Stranding in Spanish Heritage Language as a non-Local Language Variety.

This study contributes to the ongoing debate on HS grammatical outcome due to cross-linguistic transfer by exploring preposition stranding (PS) between Spanish Heritage Speakers and immigrants in Texas. PS occurs when a preposition is stranded due to the extraction of its noun complement at the end of the sentence (Ross, 1986). Structurally, Spanish does not permit PS (Campos, 1991). However, Spanish Heritage speakers (HS) accept and produce ungrammatical cases of PS (Pascual y Cabo & Gómez, 2015; Phillips, 2018; Depiante & Thompson, 2013) due to cross-linguistic influence (Montrul & Polinsky, 2011; White, 2011). According to Pascual y Cabo (2015), PS is not due to incomplete acquisition or L1 attrition but crucially because of the timing of exposure to the societal language. Based on this assumption and Sorace’s interface hypothesis (Sorace, 2000), I argue that the immigrants’ length of exposure can also influence core syntactic structures. The following grammaticality judgment task and dehydrated sentence production task assessed PS among eight HSs and six immigrants of the same community. The data were analyzed in SPSS. The findings suggest that both immigrant groups reject PS regardless of exposure to the societal language. English Dominant HS do perceive PS as grammatical but do not produce it. These findings reiterate that PS is not a product of language attrition caused by cross-linguistic transfer by the length of exposure, nor an input that is passed down to HS

Task-based language teaching online: A guide for teachers

Technology-mediated task-based language teaching is the merger between technology and task-based language teaching (TBLT; González-Lloret & Ortega, 2014) and is arguably now an imperative for language education. As language classrooms are being redefined, training for how to set learners up to successfully do tasks online must be part of teachers’ professional development. However, while multiple resources have been written on tasks, technology, and task-based language courses online (e.g., Chapelle, 2014; Doughty & Long, 2003; González-Lloret, 2016; Nielson, González-Lloret, & Pinckney, 2009; Thomas & Reinders, 2012), teacher training for this purpose has largely been ignored. To date, no methodological guide for how to do TBLT via online video interactive tutorials has been published for teachers. In this article, we address this need by proposing a methodology framework for doing TBLT online. We begin with a brief review of TBLT fundamentals and demonstrate how to adapt the Willis (1996, 2012) task-based methodology framework for synchronous, online video-based interaction. We describe the framework and show examples of how to apply it while fostering socialization and community building (Hampel & Stickler, 2005). We also discuss unique challenges that teachers face when doing TBLT online, and propose solutions for how these can be overcome to maximize language learning

Los documentos de la Hacienda Buena Vista en Ponce

La colección documental de don Salvador de Vives (1784-1845) en la ciudad de Ponce, es uno de los más grandes tesoros para la historia social y económica de Puerto Rico y el Caribe. La misma marca la trayectoria de la familia Vives y su hacienda Buena Vista durante el siglo XIX. El autor desea expresar su profundo agradecimiento a Silvia, Carmen, Alicia y Guillermo Vives, quienes donaron al Fideicomiso de Conservación de Puerto Rico este tesoro documental que por largo tiempo guardaron tanto ellos como su padre, Guillermo Vives Ascoaga y sus antecesores