The place to be this evening, I feel, is the Plaza Real in Barcelona but on Facebook, I have alleged I am at Elizabeth’s Restaurant on Gallier Street, en ville. A chat window opened and it was my Louisiana friend in San Francisco, informing me that it takes work to have “talent.” He is taking black and white pictures on 35 mm film and developing them.
Academics remind us not to be perfectionists and also warn about how competitive everything is, but at 24th and Mission it is assumed one must do the best one can to become competitive. Which view is the most logical? Also on Facebook some of your friends were striding by. They were posting pamphlets more mainstream than those I had posted, yet they remained interesting.
I am studying a .pdf on cultural studies by Mabel Moraña and realizing I should actually read that book she edited, Ideologies of Hispanism, if I am ever to call myself a Militant Hispanist. I see something I am sure everyone else knows: the term “Latin Americanism” refers to an academic identity as well. You can decide whether you want to be a “Hispanist” or a “Latin Americanist.” I am not sure what I think of this as I do not really identify as either.
Axé.
coldhearted scientist وداد 
I’m recalling that book today. My colleague in the office next to me has it, I know, but he won’t mind. The article from Resina makes the same points he’s made in other articles. They are valid points, motivated by his Catalan nationalism in part, but things that all radical hispanists need to hear. I’ve met Mabel and Ignacio from Akiko’s dept but I don’t know them well.
I’m also getting Malcolm Read’s books on ideology of Hispanism.
I am so used to our not having anything published in the siglo XXI that I did not even think of looking in our library. But miraculously, we have it. I’ve read the Resina article and I understand Castilian is the dominant language, but his construction of the suffering Catalan seems melodramatic — perhaps I am unkind.
I know Mabel fairly well but have never met Ignacio. I should also read Read. (I am so behind, it is a shame … but I may catch up yet.)
OK, now: watch me leave the office, go to the library, find a book I want, and check it out. This is an unusual event and I hope to succeed.