September 25, 2012 Rolena Adorno to Speak at the Library of Congress Oct. 12

The Hispanic Division of the Library of Congress and the Poetry and Literature Center, in collaboration with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of the University of Maryland, will present a lecture by Rolena Adorno on “Aztecs and Allegory: The Baroque in Colonial Mexico.” The event takes place on Friday, Oct. 12, at 4:30 p.m. in the Mumford Room on the sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. The event is free and open to the public.

The keynote address is part of the “Symposium on Colonial Intersections” organized by the University of Maryland and the Library’s celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month.

Recognized as an expert on colonialism, Adorno is the Reuben Post Halleck Professor of Spanish and chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University. She was awarded the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize of the Modern Language Association of America for her path-breaking book, “The Polemics of Possession in Spanish American Narrative.” Adorno’s work in three volumes, “Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca: His Account, His Life and the Expedition of Pánfilo Nárvaez,” received the Dwight L. Smith Award from the Western Historical Association and the Franklin J. Jameson Award from the American Historical Association, among other honors. She has authored seminal works on the 17th-century Peruvian chronicler Guaman Poma de Ayala. In 2009, Adorno was named to the National Council on the Humanities by President Barack Obama.

The Hispanic Division, established in 1939, is the Library’s center for the study of the culture and societies of Latin America, the Caribbean, the Iberian Peninsula, Hispanic/Latinos in the United States and other areas of the world where Spanish or Portuguese influence exists. For more information about the Hispanic Reading Room and the Hispanic collections, visit www.loc.gov/rr/hispanic/.

The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress fosters and enhances the public’s appreciation of literature. The center administers the endowed poetry chair (Poet Laureate) and coordinates an annual literary season of poetry, fiction and drama readings, performances, lectures, and symposia, sponsored by the Gertrude Clarke Whittall Poetry and Literature Fund and the Huntington Fund. For more information, visit www.loc.gov/poetry/.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution. The Library seeks to advance the knowledge and creativity of the American people through its collections, programs and services. Many of the Library's rich resources can be accessed through its website at www.loc.gov.