Sunday, April 26, 2026
10:00 am PST | 11:00 am MST | 12:00 pm CST | 1:00 pm EST
JOIN US, Sunday March 22nd, 2026 for a discussion of the research behind the book “El Iluminado” by Ilan Stavans, PhD.
Featuring Ilan Stavans, PhD.
What happens when a brilliant professor of Spanish literature and language becomes a character in his own graphic novel, functioning as both author and subject? Nothing less than the creation of a story that holds more suspense and depth than the best “who-dunnit”; one where fiction and reality are clearly blurred.
While crafting a novel around the sudden death of a New Mexican murder victim outside Santa Fe, New Mexico, professor Ilan Stavans is unwittingly drawn into the search for the killer, only to discover that there’s more to the situation than he thought. Behind the crime is the desperate search for a missing manuscript or diary, reported to have been lost centuries earlier and belonging to a Spanish Colonial Jewish martyr, none other than Luis de Carvajal the Younger. In time, Stavans realizes that if one can find the answer to one dilemma, he might find the answer to the other. Since the book’s first release in 2012, the actual Carvajal diary has been discovered, shedding new light on the supposed plot. Join a brilliant scholar for a discussion that centers on the age-old dilemma—”does art imitate life or the other way around?”
BIO:
Since 1993, ILan Stavans, who was born in Mexico City, has been on the faculty at Amherst College, where he is the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture. He is on the editorial board of the literary magazine The Commons and has taught at various other institutions, including Columbia University.
Stavans work includes both scholarly monographs, such as The Hispanic Condition (1995), and comic strips as in his graphic book Latino USA: A Cartoon History (with Lalo Alcaraz (2000). He has edited anthologies, including The Oxford Book of Jewish Stories (1998). A selection of his work appeared in 2000 under the title The Essential Ilan Stavans. In 2004, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Pablo Naruda’s birth, Stavans edited the 1,000-page-long The Poetry of Pablo Neruda. The same year he edited the 3-volume set of Isaac Bashevis Singer: Collected Stories for the Library of America.
Stavan’s autobiography is entitled “On Borrowed Words: A Memoir of Language” (2001). He is best known for his investigations of language and culture, evident in his memoir, “Dictionary Days: A Defining Passion” (2005).
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