Hastings College professor Dr. Pedro Vizoso will give a talk about his latest publication, “Textos Desconocidos,” the unknown poems of Jewish-Venezuelan poet Elías David Curiel, in the Wilson Center Auditorium (814 N. Turner Avenue) on Tuesday, April 8 at 4 p.m. The talk is free and open to the public.
The publication of the poetical works of Curiel (1871-1924) in an annotated edition was the result of a 10-year endeavor that began in the fall of 2014, when Vizoso received the first Knappenberger Faculty Development Award. The project concluded in September 2024 with the release of the second volume of the two-volume edition.
The project included a research trip to Venezuela in the summer of 2015 and a decade-long investigation carried out in collaboration with Egla Charmell Jameson. The first volume, which was published in 2022, presented the three books in which the poet had arranged his work at the end of his life — most notably his esoteric collection titled “Música astral [Astral Music].”
The second volume, published in 2024, compiles a substantial number of previously unknown or unpublished poems, letters and articles that shed light on his personality, life and times. This second volume also features a 200-page biographical study — the first and only biography published to date — and an iconographic album.
About Vizoso
Originally from Spain, Vizoso received a bachelor of arts degree in Hispanic Philology from the UNED (Madrid, Spain), a master’s degree in Spanish from New Mexico State University, and a doctorate in Hispanic Literature from the University of Arizona.
Since his arrival to Hastings College in the fall of 2010, Vizoso has been responsible for the Spanish program in the Department of Languages and Literatures. He teaches Spanish at all levels, ranging from courses for beginners to capstone courses for majoring students. During his time at Hastings College, he has received the SAA Polished Apple Award, the first Faculty Development Award and the Outstanding Faculty Member by Alpha Chi Academic Honorary Society. He was also named the Hastings College Lecture Series Invited Faculty Lecturer (2017).
His primary area of specialization is Transatlantic Hispanic Modernism. Vizoso is also deeply interested in translation studies, Hispanic crime fiction, Spanish poetry from the Restoration period, and French Symbolist poetry. In his main field of research, he has published a book exploring the relationship between urban space and Madrilenian bohemian literature during the second half of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century: Madrid modernista: El espacio urbano en la literatura bohemia del modernismo español (2016).
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