SJB baja al sur

The SJBlog will dim its lights for the next ten days as its author makes her first trip to South America, to the only country there where she can't speak the language. Yes, it's back to the overwhelming crowds at the Latin American Studies Association conference, which is a whole different ballgame than the stuffy, tense, never-exotically-located MLA conference. Unfortunately, there aren't very many panels about Spain, but I guess that would be a lot to expect, huh?

It seems that after the last time I presented at the LASA conference, in 2006, I was prescient about this moment:

In fact, I suspect that in 2009, when LASA goes to Río de Janeiro, I will once again find a pressing transatlantic issue in my research, so I can ditch the MLA and party with the Latin Americanists!

And that's what I did. My presentation is on Guillermo del Toro, the Mexican filmmaker, and his two films set during the Spanish Civil War: El espinazo del diablo and El laberinto del fauno. Most of you probably saw the latter, translated as Pan's Labyrinth. Last month, I was able to give three Guillermo del Toro newcomers a private screening with the author of "Why is Spain in the Frame? Guillermo del Toro, Mexico and Historical/Mythical Resistance," and responded to their tough questions ("Wait, is she dead?" and "Are those guys the fascists?" and "Is that really what goes on with mandrake roots?" and "So, why did he make this movie?") with, arguably, aplomb. All excellent practice for a presentation at 9am on a Sunday morning in Río which only the really hardy and hungover will attend.