Summary
Mariana Cecilia Velázquez focuses on late medieval Iberia and the early modern transatlantic relations among Spain, England, Latin America and the Caribbean regions. Her research specializes in early modern transatlantic piracy through the analysis of an interdisciplinary corpus of primary sources that include travel narratives, colonial cartography poetry, legal documents, historical accounts, among others, from the 1500s to the 1670s.
Research interests
- Spanish medieval culture and literature
- Spanish and English early modern cultures and literature
- Spanish Colonial Caribbean and Latin American studies
- Theories of empire and theories of piracy
- Digital humanities
Books
- Cultural Representations of Piracy: Travelers, Traders, and Traitors in England, Spain, and the Caribbean (1570-1604). London: Routledge, 2023
Articles
- “Sir Francis Drake’s Caribbean Raid and the Rhetoric of Blame (1585-86),” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos 45 (2): 437-460, 2023
- “Maritime Predation between the Lines: Charting the Insular Caribbean in the Sixteenth Century,” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Revue candienne des études latino-américaines et caraibes 45 (3): 400-429, 2020
- Pirates and Piracy in the Caribbean. Historias: The Spanish History Podcast. Episode #42
Courses taught
Undergraduate
- SPAN 484: Spanish-American Culture ‘In Short’: Textual and Visual Representations
- SPAN 442: Special Topics in Cultural Studies: Do It Yourself!
- SPAN 355: Masterworks of Spanish American Literature until 1800
- SPAN 353: Masterworks of Spanish Peninsular Literature until 1700
- SPAN 350: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Literature: Voices, Echoes, and Imaginaries
- SPAN 322: Spanish American Culture and Civilization
- SPAN 321: In Transit: Spanish Culture and Civilization
- SPAN 307: Writing for Spanish Heritage Speakers
- SPAN 227: Spanish for Heritage Speakers II
Graduate
- SPAN 792: Close Encounters in Early Modern Latin American Worlds
- SPAN 733: Golden Age Spanish Literature
- SPAN 792: Enemies of ‘Frenemies’ in Late Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Worlds
- SPAN 684: Transatlantic Spanish American Narratives
Education
- Ph.D., Latin American and Iberian Cultures, Columbia University, 2018
- M.A., Latin American and Iberian Cultures, 2012
- B.A., Comparative Literature, University of Puerto Rico, 2011