Managing Editor’s Message

Abstract

Managing Editor’s Message Conxita Domènech In the summer of 2018, we celebrated the 100th anniversary of our organization, the AATSP, in Salamanca; in the current year, 2023, we have returned to this university town where Antonio de Nebrija (1444–1522), Beatriz Galindo (1465–1534)—better known as La Latina—, and Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) lived. Salamanca always offers us a warm welcome. This time, the warm welcome was extended by several officers of the autonomous community, the city, and the university: Alfonso Fernández Mañueco—President of the Junta de Castilla y León—, Carlos García Carbayo—Mayor of Salamanca—, and Ricardo Rivero Ortega— President of the University of Salamanca. As if these inspirational encounters were not sufficient, we were also greeted by Santiago Muñoz Machado—Director of the Real Academia Española— and by Julissa Reynoso Pantaleón—United States Ambassador to Spain and Andorra. It was also a warm welcome because of the hot weather that blanketed this Castilian city as teachers and professors from all over the United States swarmed the terraces of the Plaza Mayor and its surroundings. Although the welcome was just as warm as in the summer of 2018, the Salamanca of 2023 radiated much more majesty and luminosity. Perhaps that luminosity was connected to the many assemblies in which there was no shortage of wine, cheeses, cured meats, and tortilla de patatas. Although we had to say goodbye to our Executive Director, Sheri Spaine Long, she made it very clear that she was not going to disappear. We need you with us, Sheri! Overall, we learned a lot this year in Salamanca and had even more fun than in 2018. We congratulated and welcomed María Carreira, our new Executive Director, at the conference. María has been a constant presence in our organization and annual conference, and she has served as Associate Editor of Hispania. She has also written for Hispania: “Learning for All: Addressing Issues of Access and Participation in Mixed Classes” appeared in the centenary issue. While you can read her bibliography on the AATSP website, it is worth mentioning that María is Professor Emerita from California State University, Long Beach, where she taught Spanish linguistics for over thirty years. Dr. Carreira has published extensively on heritage language pedagogy. She is a co-author of four college-level Spanish textbooks as well as a co-author of Voces: Latino Students on Life in the United States. During the conference, María spelled out her projects and vision for the AATSP. We wish you the best of luck, María! Returning to the United States and matters of our academic journal, Hispania, the September issue contains two short-form articles, seven research articles, and twenty-two book reviews. In the first short-form article, Sylvia López proposes museum projects for an elective Spanish course on health that is open to students at the high-intermediate level and above. In the second short-form article, Antonio Pérez-Núñez describes specific uses of ChatGPT’s capabilities to support foreign language teaching and learning, but he also highlights some of the current limitations and identifies potential issues that may arise from using generative AI systems. The research articles in this issue are geographically varied and study the Spanish of Colombians, Puerto Ricans, and Chinese speakers, as well as the literature and the cinema of Venezuela and Spain. Alana Alvarez reminds us that “Caracas is not Paris,” and questions racial stratification systems reminiscent of colonial times yet still present in twentieth-century Venezuela [End Page 345] through the novel Ifigenia. Meanwhile, Sonia R. Badenas Roig offers us countless exercises for Spanish courses using the film Blancanieves by Pablo Berger. José Miguel Blanco Pena outlines the origins, milestones, and conceptual bases of teaching Spanish to Chinese speakers; and Ester Hernández Esteban analyzes the poems of Chinese-descended poet Paloma Chen, highlighting the identity crisis suffered by the children of immigrants who find themselves between two cultures, two languages, and two sets of expectations. David L. García León and Javier E. García León argue for a raciolinguistic and intersectional approach to...