I have four cities in my heart. The first one, Medellín, Colombia, where I was raised, and where I lived until I came to the United States to study my Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies. The second one is Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love and sisterly affection, where I have lived for the last fifteen years, while teaching at Penn. Madrid is the third one; I visit it every summer to work in the Penn in Madrid Summer Program. And last but not least, Estepona, a small city in Andalucía, Spain, where Lidia, my wife, and I escape every summer after Penn in Madrid, to spend time with our large Spanish family and enjoy the light of the Mediterranean seashore and the amiability of Andalusian people.

My courses at the Department of Romance Languages cover a diversity of topics. Lately, I am obsessed with stories about conspiracy and I dive into this subject in my seminar “Fictions of Conspiracy in Contemporary Latin American Literature.” I also regularly teach a class about Colombian literature; and another on Gabriel García Márquez and Magical Realism. Besides those, I teach advanced Spanish language, and introductory levels on history and culture of the Hispanic world.

I am an avid and sometimes chaotic reader. On my nightstand table there are always four or five books piled. They encompass a plurality of genres and traditions. If I look now, I will find a long novel by Haruki Murakami; an apocalyptic essay about sea rising levels, an academic study about biopolitics, and a collection of short stories by Latin American women. When I imagine a perfect day, I picture myself on the beach, resting in a hammock, immersed in a good reading, and petting Popota, my twelve-year-old cat.

I love cooking plant-based foods, listening to Latin music, trying to improve my salsa dancing —though I was born having two left feet! I love cats, and dogs, and hamsters, and birds, and animals and nature in general. It runs in the family: in my house in Colombia, we currently have ten cats, two dogs, and two old terrestrial turtles… my sister and my mom are so proud to be regarded as the crazy cats ladies of the neighborhood!

I am so happy to be a part of the KCECH community, and to contribute my grain of sand to making your time at Penn and at the house a memorable one.