Come away with me to Spain! Discover Spanish culture and history!
In the summer 2009 eleven students joined me in an amazing journey through Spain. That was my first time as a study abroad director. The Honors College Study abroad Program in Spain had a long tradition and I had big shoes to fill. It was such an honor (really!!) to be chosen as the leader of this program.

I am a native of Granada, Spain, who moved to the United States to pursue my PhD in history in 1989. I graduated from the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where I lived for 12 years. In 2001, I moved to Miami and since 2002 I have been an associate professor of History and Women’s Studies at Florida International University.  I teach history of Spain from a gender perspective. My first book, True catholic Womanhood: gender Ideology in Franco’s Spain was published in 2000 by Northern Illinois University Press and a paperback reprint came out in 2008. In April 2010, my second book entitled The Seduction of Modern Spain. The Female Body and the Francoist Body Politic, will be published by Bucknell University Press. Although I am a scholar and researcher, I take pride in my teaching, and the Honors College gives me the opportunity to get to know the best and the brightest students. Therefore, I jumped immediately into the challenge when Dean Northup offered me the opportunity to lead the Spain Study Abroad Honors Program. Students who successfully complete the program satisfy the fourth-level Honors College requirement (IDH 4007 and IDH 4008).  They venture into international travel at the same time they pursue an excellent interdisciplinary academic curriculum.  

The 2009 study abroad was very ambitious. We covered a lot of geographical terrain. We arrived in Madrid, capital of the country since the sixteenth century, on May 4 where we stayed for a week: we visited the city and took day-trips to Toledo, Salamanca, Escorial and Valle de los Caidos. Our trip took us next to Barcelona where we enjoyed an intense three days of cultural and sport centered festivity. The Barcelona Football Club won a major world cup and the Ramblas where our hotel was located was flooded with funs until dawn. On our way to Andalucia, in Southern Spain, we stopped in Valencia where we visited the magnificent Park of the Arts and the Sciences-- A celebration of the senses.
The last half of the trip we spent in the southern Spanish cities of Granada, Cordoba, and Sevilla. Our very own talented journalism major Tiffany Huertas has put together a companion video for you to see what an amazing journey this was.

Yes, Last summer 2009 I took eleven young people to my homeland-- most of them 20 years old. Twenty years wow! That is exactly the time I have been living in the United States.  And so the song Volver kept playing in my head during our journey into Spain.  You might know this song from Almodovar’s Volver movie featuring Penelope Cruz and beautifully sung by flamenco icon Estrella Morente. That song tells of the fugacity of time, twenty years, it tells us, are so short really. I was able to see Spain through the eyes of eleven twenty-year-old American students--.So fresh, so bright, so emotional. I realized my twenty years away from home now had a beautiful purpose, to share it with you my students. And so,  I would like to invite you to come away with me to Spain again this summer 2010 and discover all over again that learning is more than memorizing a list of data but actually an adventurous journey into self-discovery-- For me too.