In Honor of Sandra Messinger Cypess: Creator of Critical Dialogues

Abstract

In Honor of Sandra Messinger Cypess: Creator of Critical Dialogues Priscilla Meléndez and Amalia Gladhart Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Machado de Assis, Jorge Luis Borges, Rodolfo Usigli, Javier Villaurrutia, Celestino Gorostiza, Salvador Novo, Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Rosario Castellanos, Emilio Carballido, Griselda Gambaro, Carlos Fuentes, Myrna Casas, Cristina Pacheco, Sabina Berman, Nora Glickman: These are only some of the names of distinguished Spanish-American writers that surface when we examine the academic trajectory of Sandra Messinger Cypess—Sandy, to her friends and colleagues—professor emerita and former chair of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Maryland. It is a trajectory that culminates most recently in the publication of Uncivil Wars: Elena Garro, Octavio Paz, and the Battle for Cultural Memory (2012), as well as the co-edited (with Valerie Orlando) Reimagining the Caribbean: Conversations amongst the Creole, English, French, and Spanish Caribbean (2014), a distinguished record to which Sandy has continued to add since her retirement from the University of Maryland. Sandy’s journey as a critic is broad in scope and in depth. The impressive repertory of writers just mentioned hail from all parts of the continent—Mexico, the Caribbean, and the Southern Cone; from diverse periods—colonial times, the 19th century, the avant-garde, and contemporary writers; and from all genres. Sandy has moved with ease from the study of Spanish-American poetry to theatre and narrative, contributing as well to Sephardic and Jewish studies and, in particular, producing a body of influential work on feminist and female writers. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College and Master of Arts from Cornell University, Sandy earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Illinois, writing her dissertation, “The Dead Narrator in Modern Latin American Prose Fiction: A Study in Point of View,” under the direction of Don Luis Leal. During her distinguished teaching career, first at SUNY Binghamton and then at the University of Maryland (with visiting [End Page 9] and invited appointments along the way), she mentored hundreds of students, both graduate and undergraduate. As a scholar, she has mentored hundreds more through her many publications and through her generosity as reader, reviewer, editor, panel participant, and moderator. Sandy’s pioneering role in the study of women writers and feminism—an area of study that touches on the personal and the political—opened the way for many of us as we have traveled in her footsteps. Inspired by her work, we have felt, in our own research and writing, that we were conversing with Sandy, learning from her, even arguing with her about some aspects of the texts. She has the admirable gift of writing scholarly prose that is at once rigorous and accessible, welcoming and at the same time challenging the reader so as to develop that ongoing conversation that is the essence of scholarship. Sandy has played a leading role in the development of Latin American theatre studies in the US, expanding the canon even as it was established. A member of the editorial board of LATR since 1978, she produced some of the earliest studies of Griselda Gambaro, among many other playwrights. Her book La Malinche in Mexican Literature (1991) is indispensable for scholars as well as students. A clear example of the depth and breadth of her work, this landmark book traces the historical and mythical figure of La Malinche throughout Mexican literature, from Bernal Díaz’s account of Malintzin’s role in the conquest of the Aztec empire to Chicana writers’ reformulation of the Malinche myth. Reflecting the central place that theatre occupies in Sandy’s body of work, two of the book’s nine chapters focus on dramatic representations of La Malinche. The first, “La Malinche on Stage,” treats selected plays that deal with the Malinche figure, focusing on Rodolfo Usigli’s Corona de fuego (1960), Salvador Novo’s Cuauhtémoc (1962), Celestino Gorostiza’s La Malinche o La leña está verde (1958), and Carlos Fuentes’ Todos los gatos son pardos (1970). Reinterpretations of the figure are addressed in the next chapter, “Re/visions of the Cultural Metaphor,” through the analysis of El eterno femenino by Rosario Castellanos (1975...