The Cambridge History of Cuban Literature (2024):

Author Biographies

• Ivan Gabriel Grajales Melian, Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG))

  Professor and researcher. Bachelor’s degree in Literature, with a specialization in Spanish Language (LE) from the University of Oriente (2004). Ph.D. in Literary Sciences from the University of Oriente, Cuba (2019). Assistant professor with over eighteen years of teaching experience in undergraduate Literature programs (Literature, Linguistics, and Classical Languages), specializing in Spanish Language. He has taught courses related to the teaching of Spanish as a Foreign Language (SFL), Applied Linguistics for SFL, Literary Sciences, Research Methodology, among others.

  He holds postgraduate studies in Applied Linguistics for the Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language. He has experience in academic writing and research methodology in the English language. He is a collaborator in the Graduate Program in Literature at the Federal University of Tocantins / Federal University of Northern Tocantins (PPGL-UFT/UFNT).

  Specialist in style correction, proofreading, editing, and translation of texts in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. His research focuses on the regional literary heritage of Santiago de Cuba, with an emphasis on colonial, republican, and contemporary periodical publications.

  He has worked as a Spanish as a Foreign Language teacher in primary and secondary education (levels I and II), as well as in high school, within private institutions in Araguaína, Tocantins. Currently, he is a visiting professor at the Institute of Letters and Arts (ILA) of the Federal University of Rio Grande (FURG), Rio Grande do Sul, teaching in the Portuguese-Spanish Language Program and the Graduate Program in Literature at the same university.

• Yessy Villavicencio Simón, Professor

  Ph.D. in Linguistics and Literature from the Graduate Program in Linguistics and Literature (PPGLLIT) at the Federal University of Northern Tocantins (UFNT), Araguaína campus (2020–2024). Bachelor’s degree in Literature (2006) and Master’s degree in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (ELE) (2007–2009) from the University of Oriente, Santiago de Cuba. Specialist in style correction, proofreading, and translation of texts in the Spanish language.

  She has fifteen years of experience as an assistant professor, teaching the course Comprehensive Practice of Spanish as a Foreign Language at the Faculty of Humanities (2006–2016) and at the Language Center of the Faculty of Foreign Languages at the University of Oriente, Cuba (2016–2020). She was a member of ASELE (2010), an internationally recognized association dedicated to Spanish as a foreign language, and served as Coordinator of the Comprehensive Practice of Spanish as a Foreign Language course at the Language Center of the University of Oriente, Cuba (2019–2020).

  She has teaching experience in the course Lexical Teaching (2011–2017) and has supervised four master’s theses (2011–2017) during the third and fourth editions of the Master’s Program in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language, coordinated by the Department of Literature at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Oriente, Cuba.

  She was selected as a candidate for the PRO-UNILA Talent Exchange Program for short-term activities in Additional Languages - Spanish (UNILA Circular No. 192/2013, May 8, 2013). Her work focuses on Applied Linguistics, with an emphasis on teacher training in the didactics of Spanish as a foreign language.

  Her research interests include: language and literature didactics, literary studies, phraseodidactics of Spanish as an additional language, competency development, didactic materials, and assessment in the teaching and learning process of the Spanish language.