On the occasion of this presentation, a select group of academics that included Professor of Spanish Mina Garcia was invited to explore New World dramaturgy and its interactions with drama in Spain.

“La monja alfĂ©rez” is the story of Guzmán, a woman, who flees a convent in Spain dressed as a man, travels to The Americas, and becomes a renowned soldier throughout Latin and South America. In PerĂş, Guzman falls in love with Doña Ana, then leaves her because they cannot consummate the relationship.

Teatro Círculo was launched in 1994 by Founding Artistic Director José Cheo Oliveras to revive the Spanish Golden Age Theatre. They approach themes of Spain’s Golden Age plays not only as universal, but also relevant to the social justice issues of our time, with such contemporary concerns as social mobility, women’s rights, equity, and justice. By pairing both Golden Age experts and practitioners, this symposium brought together theatrical history, heritage and cultures for a fruitful discussion in New York City.

The conference, sponsored by AITENSO (Asociación International de Teatro Español y Novohispano de los Siglos de Oro) took place in Puebla, Mexico, amid the celebration of the Day of the Dead from Oct. 30 through Nov. 1.

This international conference explored variations on the topic of death in the theater of the Golden Age: Speech, Society and Transcendence, and was dedicated to Aurelio Gonzalez, who was the second president of the association and passed away recently.

Garcia’s paper was based on her monograph in progress on moriscos (Muslims converted to Catholicism in Early Modern Spain) characters in Lope de Vega’s plays. Lope de Vega was a renowned Spanish playwright during the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature, which ran from 1492 to 1659. His literary production includes 3,000 sonnets, three novels, four novellas, nine epic poems and approximately 500 plays. Within his work, there are more than 300 Moriscos characters in more than 70 plays who are the focus of Garcia’s new book and the presentation she gave in Puebla, Mexico.

The Renaissance Society of America is the largest international academic society devoted to the study of the era 1300–1700. Founded in 1954, the RSA has thousands of members around the world. Members include a wide variety of scholars interested in Renaissance studies. The Society produces the Renaissance Quarterly Journal and sponsors publications, fellowships, awards to support research. Its annual meeting brings together scholars from North America and around the world, representing a wide variety of academic disciplines.

Garcia’s roundtable also included Erin Cowling (MacEwen University, Edmonton, AB, Canada), Tania de Miguel Magro (West Virginia University) and Glenda Y. Nieto Cuebas (Ohio Wesleyan University). Together they discussed a new project they are working on about safe spaces for women in Early Modern Spain, or more specifically, the limited spaces that women’s actions and collaborations were able to secure for themselves in a masculine world.