Michael Ugarte

Mercedes Light and Dark is everything the title implies and more. Leaving war-torn Spain and her disapproving family behind her, Mercedes, her handsome husband Paco, and their firstborn son make their way to the United States to find a new lease on life. They settle in New England where Paco has accepted an academic position at Dartmouth, and Mercedes begins building an integrated life in her new adopted culture. But was it her new culture? Was she becoming integrated? "Could be true, but didn't happen" is Mercedes' favorite response to many of the dilemmas she faces and to which she must respond. Many surprises await the reader in this memoir infused with historic reference to the Spanish Civil War, the Spanish literature of that period, and how all these influences shaped Mercedes' life. Michael Ugarte tells a well thought-out story after excavating the "truths" he is able to find, and from Memory, both his friend and betrayer. Of course, this reminiscence is not only focused on Mercedes--the woman and mother she was--but it also exposes her son, Michael through his cathartic journey to understand his mother, her past, and his own emotions about his life with her.

Mercedes Light and Dark

An Intertextual Study of Juan Goytisolo

Trilogy of Treason

Kathleen McNerney

Francisco Ugarte

This accessible introduction to the history and civilization of Spain is an excellent vehicle for introducing intermediate or advanced students to Spanish civilization and culture. The sixth edition retains the solid cultural and historical coverage from previous editions, while adding new information about contemporary Spain and new and revised writing and research topics.

España y su civilización

What differentiates emigration from exile? This book delves theoretically and practically into this core question of population movements. Tracing the shifts of Africans into and out of Equatorial Guinea, it explores a small former Spanish colony in central Africa. Throughout its history, many inhabitants of Equatorial Guinea were forced to leave, whether because of the slave trade of the early nineteenth century or the political upheavals of the twentieth century. Michael Ugarte examines the writings of Equatorial Guinean exiles and migrants, considering the underlying causes of such moves and arguing that the example of Equatorial Guinea is emblematic of broader dynamics of cultural exchange in a postcolonial world. Based on personal stories of people forced to leave and those who left of their own accord, Africans in Europe captures the nuanced realities and widespread impact of mobile populations. Ugarte illustrates the global material inequalities that occur when groups and populations migrate from their native land of colonization to other countries and regions that are often the lands of the former colonizers. By focusing on the geographical, emotional, and intellectual dynamics of Equatorial Guinea's human movements, readers gain an inroad to "the consciousness of an age" and an understanding of the global realities that will define the cultural, economic, and political currents of the twenty-first century.

Michael Ugarte

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