Nicolás Kanellos and Francisco Lomeli discuss the Hispanic literary heritage of the United States, including works of the Spanish people of Mexico and the Caribbean, Native Americans, and people of the American Southwest. They offer Gaspar Pérez de Villagrá’s Historia de la Nueva and the daily writings of Hispanic women as resources. The scholars presented these views at a conference on the literary heritage of the U.S. held at the National Humanities Center. At the time of the interview, Lomeli was professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and Nicolás Kanellos was professor of Spanish and classical languages at the University of Houston, where he also directed the Arte Publico Press.
In the second interview [14:58], Natalie Zemon Davis and Ronald Sharp discuss the anthropology of giving and gift exchange. They discuss the nature of gifts and markets, motives and meanings that operate in gift relations, metaphors that describe gifts, and the potential for turning gifts and exchange into subjugation and bribery. The scholars presented these views in “The Gift and Its Transformation,” a conference held at the NHC. At the time of the interview, Davis was professor of history at Princeton University. Sharp was a former Fellow at the Center (1986-87) and professor of English at Kenyon College.
This episode of Soundings was conducted by Wayne J. Pond.
