Rogelio Miñana

Associate Professor of Spanish
Specialization
Early modern transatlantic (Spain and Latin America) studies, Cervantes, discourses of empire and resistance (early modern and 21st century), monster theory in US, Latin American, and Spanish cultures and politics (early modern and 21st century)


Rogelio Miñana studies the foundations of Hispanic/Latino cultures to gain a greater perspective on Spanish-speaking cultures today. He loves Don Quijote, and strongly believes that Cervantes’ masterpiece has changed his life and the lives of those who have read it – including Charles Dickens, Ernesto Che Guevara, Subcomandante Marcos, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (the prime minister of Spain), and Miñana’s students.

Miñana has published two books: one on early modern verisimilitude (or the relation between “truth” and fiction) and another on Cervantes and the discourse of monstrosity, numerous articles, and has had the privilege of exchanging ideas with audiences in Colombia, Mexico, Austria, and the U.S., among other countries. In his latest research project, Miñana examines how Don Quijote is re-signified as a universal symbol of nationalism, identity and resistance in contemporary Latin(o) America and Spain. Miñana has received small grants from a variety of foundations and institutions (including the Ford and Mellon foundations) and two awards for his graduate work in Canada and the U.S.

At Mount Holyoke, Miñana teaches courses that focus on the themes of empire, monstrosity, and identity in a wide range of early-modern and contemporary Spanish and Latin American cultural production, from Cervantes’s Don Quijote to the Zapatista revolution in today’s Southern Mexico, and from early-modern Latin American conquest narratives to today’s “war on terror."