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Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies In This Issue It is fitting that the best word to characterize the last volume of die Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies to appear this century is "transitions." There are a number of them in this issue, both in form and content. The most visible is our new format. We have gone to a slightly larger page size. The larger page allows us to be more innovative in our approach to the layout of text and graphics. It also permits us to use a two-column format for the body of most of the essays, which in turn allows us to publish more material in an issue. With this issue we begin a series of guest edited sections devoted to specific themes. Our first presents a series of articles on Madrid, selected and edited by Professor Edward Baker, that explore the culture of Spain's capital from a variety of perspectives. We believe that the essays that Professor Baker has chosen offer innovative interdisciplinary takes on the sweep of modernity in Madrid and the cultural production that it has generated. From architecture to popular culture, from well-known Spanish and international authors to ones less-known to the general public, the essays in this section offer insightful ideas into the nature of urban culture. We thank Professor Baker for providing a wonderful kickoff for what will become a regular feature of our journal. In volume 4 (2000) we will feature a section of articles on the border edited by Professor Charles Tatum. Plans are also underway for Profesor Joseba Gabilondo of Bryn Mawr to guest edit a section of volume 5 (2001). While I was in Spain conducting the round table discussion on photography for this volume of the journal, I discussed the nature of the special section on Madrid with Emilio Gil Cerracin, who took part in our roundtable discussion of Spanish design published in volume 2. Emilio is the Artistic Director of Tau Diseño S.A., one of Spain's most prestigious graphic design firms. He told me that a project that his firm had just finished might add an interesting touch of futurity to our essays, which place Madrid's culture in an historical perspective. Tau Diseño provided the graphic design for the for the award-winning plan by Desarrollo UrbanÃ-stico Chamartin, DUCH, for perhaps the most important urbanistic project the city of Madrid will undertake in the 21st century, the continuation of the Avenida de la Castellana from the Plaza de España to the town of Fuencarral. This project will almost double the length of what has become Madrid's most important avenue and will require some of the most challenging urban engineering the city has confronted. Like the plan for the redesign of the southern end of the Castellana at Atocha, it too includes the remodeling of a train station, this time Chamartin. Through the good offices of Emilio Gil and Enrique Madán of Desarrollo UrbanÃ-stico Chamartin, we are able to feature some of the graphic design from the project proposal on our cover and in this issue. We thank both Emilio and Sr. Madán for permitting us the use of these images. While our guest-edited sections will allow us to concentrate on specific topics of importance in ways we were unable to do so in the past, we remain totally committed to devoting a substantial portion of each volume to the most innovating, challenging 6 Arizona Journal of Hispanic Cultural Studies and thought provoking scholarship on cultural studies that we receive each year. We also remain committed to publishing it in a timely manner by not retaining a backlog of accepted essays. We are especially pleased that volume three presents essays that probe the full chronological sweep of Spanish culture, from Joseph Aguados contribution on the Poema de Fernán González to Rebecca Haidt and Tom Lewis's essays on the 18th and 19th century to Isolina Ballesteros essay on the films of the early years of the Francoist era. All provide fresh approaches to the material under study. We are also pleased to present two essays in...

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