An Afternoon with José Alcántara Almánzar

Abstract

Jose Alcantara Almdnzar is currently the Director of the Cultural Departmentfor the Banco Central de la Republica Dominicana. He was born in Santo Domingo in 1946 and has been a professor of Sociology at the Universidad Aut6noma of Santo Domingo and the Universidad Nacional Pedro Henriquez Urena as well as the Instituto Tecnologico of Santo Domingo. In 1987-88 he was awarded a visiting Fulbright professorship at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. In addition to his academic activities, Alcdntara is known for his short stories depicting Dominican life in his native Santo Domingo. He is one of the co-authors of the encyclopedia Caribbean Writers, edited by Donald E. Herdeck (1979). His literary publications include: Antologia de la literatura dominicana [Anthology of Dominican Literature] (1972), Viaje al otro mundo [Journey to the Other World] (1973), Callej6n sin salida [Dead End Alley] (1975), Testimonios y profanaciones [Testimonies and Desecrations] (1978), Estudios de poesia dominicana [Studies in Dominican Poetry] (1979), Imagenes de Hector Inchaustegui Cabral [Images of Hector Inchaustegui Cabral] (1980), Las mascaras de la seducci6n [The Masks of Seduction] (1983), Narrativa y sociedad en Hispanoamerica [Narrative and Society in Spanish America](1984), La carne estremecida [Trembling Flesh] (1989, Premio Nacional), and El sabor de lo prohibido: antologia personal de cuentos [The Taste of the Forbidden: A Personal Anthology of Short Stories] (1993).