Acceso usuarios
W. Daniel Holcombe
On November 16, 2017, David William Foster (1940-2020) presented "Hispanic Studies: The Humanities Vanguard" at Clemson University, during which he shared profoundly personal and professional insights-spanning over fifty years as a university professor and scholar-regarding the historic development of Hispanic Studies, or Hispanism, in the United States.1 Dr. Foster shared personal anecdotes as a young student within the mid-twentieth century U.S. school system and delineated his professional observations as an academic within Hispanic Studies. With special emphasis on the lack of cultural and institutional recognition of Hispanism, Foster guided the attending public through his observations of key historic precedents, offering a first-hand account of the historically toxic relationship between the United States and Hispanic cultures (especially with Latin America), the controversy surrounding migrant Hispanic workers, and the systemic prejudice underlying the anti-Hispanic Black Legend. David William Foster was Regent's Professor of Spanish and Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University and authored and edited many seminal books and articles, which are inclusive of diverse themes such as women and gender theory, prominent and marginal Spanish and Latin American authors, urban spaces and modernity, film, photography, and the graphic novel. The lack of respect, the lack of decency, the lack of appreciation of Mexico, and the recognition of its crucial importance on the world stage is a real blind spot, both in America's foreign policy or general cultural horizons as citizens of the United States, as well as it is a tremendous blind spot in terms of not only the current administration in Washington, but many previous administrations.
