Between Bronze and Oblivion: Heroism and Afro-descendants in Colombia, Brazil and Cuba

Dr. Michael Horswell engages in conversation with Dr. María Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles, an associate professor of Spanish at Florida Atlantic University. In this episode of In Conversation, Alejandra and Dean Horswell discuss her book,  Between Bronze and Oblivion: Heroism and African descent in Colombia, Brazil and Cuba.  They explore the unsung heroes of Black History Month (February 1st- March 1st). María Alejandra Aguilar Dornelles has a doctorate in Latin American Literature and Gender Studies from Washington University in Saint Louis, Missouri. Her research, with an interdisciplinary approach, explores discourses of racial and gender differentiation, as well as politics of contestation in Latin American cultural production. She has published academic articles on poetry, narrative, and theater from Brazil, Colombia, and the Hispanic Caribbean in Latin American Research Review, Latin American Literary Review, and Afro-Hispanic Review. She participated in the edition by María Mercedes Jaramillo and Betty Osorio titled Cantos y Poems: Critical Anthology of Afro-descendant Authors from Latin America, published by the National Library of Colombia in 2020. Her article “Heroism and racial consciousness in the work of the poet Afro-Cuban Cristina Ayala” has been awarded the Harold Eugene Davis Prize awarded by the Middle Atlantic Council of Latin American Studies (MACLAS) and the Ibero-American Prize for 19th Century Academic Articles (LASA).