Gateway to Literature Students Visit Booth Family Center for Special Collections

22 April 2025

After a semester of studying a wide variety of canonical and non-canonical texts from Latin America stretching from pre-Columbian indigenous literatures to contemporary short fiction and crónica, students in instructor Maggie Dunlap’s SPAN 3000 Gateway to Literature visited the Booth Family Center for Special Collections on the fifth floor of the Joseph Mark Lauinger Memorial Library for a special workshop. 

With the help of Jade Madrid, Latin American Studies and Iberian Languages Liaison & Reference Librarian, and John Zarrillo, Booth’s Head of Archival Processing, students interacted with primary and secondary sources related to New Spanish writer Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Nicaraguan modernista Rubén Darío, Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, and Panamanian diplomat Esther Neira de Calvo. 

In mixed groups of undergraduate students from Dunlap’s course and graduate students from the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, participants in the special workshop moved through interactive stations exploring questions of material history and interpreting artistic renderings of the literature they had read and analyzed. As one student remarked, “It was so cool to see how different people interpreted the same poems we had read in class through their art.” Finally, everyone came together to share their observations with the larger group. The opportunity to add material history to their study of literature was a welcome opportunity for many: “It was interesting to see things physically in front of you, to see their form and their condition from different time periods,” observed a student.  

Through previous visits to the Booth Family Center for Special Collections organized by the Student Library Council (SLC) and the Graduate Students of Spanish and Portuguese Organization (GSPSO), instructor Maggie Dunlap learned that Georgetown’s collection also boasts an authentic Incan khipu, part of the David Landers Peruvian Collection. Made from knotted cords, khipus are recording-keeping tools historically used by various Andean cultures. This important piece of indigenous knowledge was also on display during the workshop. With the help of graduate students present, students made connections between the khipu’s form and material and Andean historiographer Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala’s Primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno (1615). As one student reflected after class, “How did this [khipu] get here? There’s a discussion there.” 

The collection of Gateway courses are designed as entryways into linguistic research, cultural studies, and literary analysis for students who have completed the Spanish language program. Students in Gateway to Literature study a wide range of canonical and non-canonical texts and build their analytical skills in critical reading and writing.