Spanish
Faculty
Ivy Arbulú
iarbulu@mbc.edu
Ivy Arbulú is associate professor of Spanish. She came to the U.S. after completing her college education in literature with a minor in linguistics at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She completed her MA and PhD at the University of Virginia. The two main areas of Spanish language literature that interest her are the Spanish Golden Age poetry and prose and modern Latin American fiction. For the last three years, Professor Arbulú has been learning Arabic. Her goal is to be able to read medieval Andalusian poetry written in Arabic. Apart from learning another language, she enjoys reading, going to the movies, walking with her dogs, and traveling to her native Peru to enjoy the good food that she misses so much.
Víctor Oliver
voliver@mbc.edu
Víctor Oliver studied at Universidad Jose Maria Vargas in Caracas and got a bachelors degree in Business. After that he studied a Masters in Marketing at Universidad Central de Venezuela.
Attracted to his professional passion and based in his experience as a corporate instructor, he started his carrier as a Spanish teacher, in the United States, at the high school level, what he performed it for more than six years. He has being teaching Intermediate Spanish at James Madison University during the last six years and Immigration through Literature. Last year he taught Beginners Spanish and Advance Spanish at Mary Baldwin College.
He decided to move ahead and studied a second Masters in University of Salamanca in Spain, obtaining a degree in Master in Spanish Language and Cultures with outstanding grades. His thesis for this master: Use and Development of Spanglish in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, U.S.A., received a grade of Excellence. He has studied the Spanglish in the U.S. and has written articles about it in conferences in Washington D.C. and Virginia.
He recently studied medical interpretation at Martha Jefferson Hospital and obtained a license to perform as a Medial Interpreter at hospitals and medical institutions in the area, as a part of his help to the Latin community and for bridging the gap between the professionals from that field and non-English speaking Latin people. In addition he is working as a volunteer in nonprofit organizations in the area trying to spread the values and Latin culture. He is an active volunteer also in a group that promotes the college education for the Latin community in Virginia.
Brenci Patiño
bpatino@mbc.edu
Personal website
Brenci Patiño is assistant professor of Spanish and U.S. Latina/o Studies. She completed her BA at the University of Texas at Brownsville, and her MA and PhD at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research interests include cultural and literary representations of working-class women, U.S. Latina/o literature and cultural production, and contemporary Mexican narrative fiction. Her work is, more specifically, concerned with looking at ways in which working-class women and their upper-class counterparts negotiate power.
Dr. Patiño has taught Spanish language courses and Latin American literature and culture at the University of Illinois, Texas Lutheran University, San Antonio College, and the University of Texas at San Antonio. At Mary Baldwin College, she teaches intermediate- and advanced-level Spanish, U.S. Latina/o literature and culture, 20th century Latin American literature, and Latin American and Spanish culture. Additionally, she has an active role in the Latino Culture Gateway.
A native of Brownsville, Texas, Professor Patiño grew up in the bicultural environment of the Mexico-U.S. border. She loves both norteño and Tejano music, traditional Latin American music, son jarocho, Spanish hip-hop, nueva trova, and Latin pop. She enjoys traveling, and spending time with her nieces and nephews in South Texas and northern Mexico.
