During our last full day in Puerto Rico, we drove our rented Fiat 500 to the University of Turabo for a commemorative event in remembrance of my dad's legacy as a scholar of postcolonial and cultural studies and as a professor.
The event was held at the García-Passalacqua-Acosta Reading Room at the university's library, which now holds almost 4,000 of the books my dad collected over his lifetime, most of which are underlined and commented on and have a summary of themes with page numbers written on the first page, all in his own hand.
I was one of the invited guests who said a few words about my dad's work and, while it seems like I'm singing opera in this photograph, I really enjoyed sharing my understanding of how my dad changed the scholarly landscape in Puerto Rico.
There are now plans to hold a three-day seminar in the summer on postcolonial and cultural studies and they've invited me to come and give one of the sessions. This means the world to me, not only because I will be keeping my dad's important legacy alive, but also because it gives me the chance to give something back to students and teachers in my own country from which I am usually so far far away.
This was a lovely way to end the three weeks we've spent here, which have been amazingly productive. I have been able to finish and/or begin on all the scholarly and work-related projects I had on my "to do" list and I've been able to reconnect with lots of friends and family (and even my 10th grade English teacher!), who I hadn't seen in a long long time.
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