Luis Leal: An Auto/Biography

Chapter Four: Illinois

Chapter Four Illinois Leal in Guadalajara, Mexico, shortly after commencing teaching at the University of Illinois, Urbana, 1962. Urbana MG: Don Luis, why did you decide to leave Emory in 1959? LL: It was mostly because Gladys wanted to be near her mother and sister, who lived in Chicago. In December of 1958, when I was attending the MLA convention in New York, I got together with Professor Renato Rosaldo Sr. from the University of Arizona. One evening as we were visiting the different receptions hosted by many of the big publishing houses, we ran into Professor Shoemaker, the head of the Department of Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese at the University of Illinois. He told Rosaldo, ‘‘We’re looking for a Latin Americanist. Can you recommend someone?’’ So Rosaldo said, ‘‘Well, here is Leal.’’ Shoemaker asked me, ‘‘Are you interested?’’ And I said, ‘‘Well, maybe, yes.’’ And so he said, ‘‘Send me your credentials.’’ I did so after I returned to Emory and discussed the matter with Gladys. They invited me to give a lecture that next February. I remember a big storm that hit the Midwest at that time. But I gave my lecture, and soon after I had returned to Emory an offer arrived from Illinois. I accepted it. A funny thing was that the same year, Southern Illinois University also expressed an interest in me. I sent them my papers. But they later wrote to tell me that I had been eliminated as a candidate because I had no experience directing doctoral dissertations. What’s funny is that after I went to Illinois, I directed a large number of dissertations. But the main reason we went to Urbana was to be near Chicago. Urbana is only 135 miles south of Chicago. Did Emory try to convince you to stay? Oh, yes. The dean called me. They didn’t want me to leave. They offered me everything, but I said, ‘‘Well, I’ve already decided to go. I’m sorry.’’ 64 luis leal How much bigger was the University of Illinois than Emory? Much bigger. Illinois had almost forty thousand students. More importantly , it had, and still does, one of the best libraries outside of Harvard and Yale. It’s a tremendous library. It is very rich in Spanish and Latin American materials. They used to send me to Mexico to buy books for the library. What was your department like at Illinois? It was quite large. It was the biggest Spanish-language department in the Midwest. Besides a large faculty, we had many graduate students. I remember one year when we had fifty students writing dissertations in Spanish alone. I taught only graduate students at Illinois, which was another difference from Emory. You didn’t teach undergraduates at all? No, because I didn’t have the time. I taught two graduate classes per semester . My seminars averaged about thirty students. Was Latin American literature one of the strengths of the department? Yes. There were several Latin Americanists, although the majority of the faculty in Spanish were peninsular scholars. What courses did you teach at Illinois? I was able to concentrate more on Mexican literature there. I would teach seminars on the novel of the Mexican Revolution, the contemporary Mexican novel, the indigenista novel, and, of course, my specialty, the Mexican short story. Why were there so many graduate students interested in Latin American literature at the time at Illinois? This interest began in the 1960s. The growth of graduate students had to do with the Russians putting up Sputnik in 1957—the first man-made satellite in space. To catch up with the Russians not only in the sciences but in other fields as well, the U.S. government sponsored new graduate fellowships. This led to an increase in graduate enrollments throughout the country. Were there many graduate students from Latin America at Illinois? There were some, but not many. There were also a few Chicanos during my years at Illinois. I directed about eight Chicano students. Of course, the Cuban Revolution of 1959 led to an increased interest in Latin America, did it not? Yes. It also led in a few years to a number of Cuban students at Illinois who were given federal scholarships. One of these students was the former head of the supreme court in Cuba, who exiled himself in the United States after illinois 65 Castro took power. He was...