About Us

• ESLA Journal of Cultural and Literary Criticism is a biannual online journal from the English Literature Department of the Facultad de Letras at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Our aim is to provide a platform for Latin American scholarly voices that are speaking about literature written in English. We also seek reflections on cultural exchanges between Latin America and English-speaking worlds. We accept original contributions from any disciplinary focus, especially those that reflect on the issues we describe in our Call for Papers .
• We welcome academic papers as well as essays, reviews, interviews, and any type of written reflection on literature and cultural productions in English. We are happy to receive and review poetry, graphic novels and short stories. If you would like to propose any other kind of digital text feel free to write us! In both our Non Fiction and Fiction sections, we are open to innovations.
• We are a double blind peer reviewed open access journal. No subscription is required and we pay no fees to authors or peer reviewers. All our contents are protected by Creative Commons (CC) license, which allows the sharing of our contents under the following terms: BY, NC, ND.
• We are indexed in Latindex and Modern Language Association (October 2017).

History

The conversations leading to the creation of this journal began in 2010, a year when student protests were on the rise. Professors continued to be available during class time, which made space for open conversations with students. Fom those, an idea was born: to create a journal within the Faculty of Letters focused on literatures in English. The journal would be a platform for academic articles as well as creative writing by university students and professors. By 2011, professors Carmen Luz Fuentes-Vásquez, Allison Ramay and several undergraduate students: Juan Pablo Vilches, Francisco Aranguiz, Beatriz Rengifo, Manuela Mercado and Francisca Ibaceta, launched the journal White Rabbit: English Studies in Latin America. The name reflected the curiosity and excitement of creating a new journal regarding a topic that had not yet been the focus of academic discussions via a formalized journal in Chile. The topic was literature and contemporary literary and cultural theories in English. A major highlight from Issue 1 was an interview by the White Rabbit staff with activist, theorist and academic Judith Butler titled “Meaningful Protests in the Kitchen: An Interview with Judith Butler”.

In 2017, the journal’s name was revised to English Studies in Latin America: A Journal of Cultural and Literary Studies or ESLA to better reflect its commitment to cultural and literary criticism. Additionally, over time, it became difficult to maintain undergraduates within the permanent staff. And despite the journal’s continued double-blind peer review system in place, it seemed that academics were hesitant to send their contributions because of indexation requirements within Latin American universities. Therefore, in 2017, editors Allison Ramay and Andrea Casals took the necessary steps to index the journal in MLA and Latindex, which was complete that year.

Staff

Editor Andrea Casals, PhD acasals@uc.cl	Professor Andrea Casals’ special academic interests are ecocriticism or green cultural studies, poetry and children’s literature. Besides reading…in her spare time, she enjoys yoga, trekking, family bonding and a coffee cup for warm conversations. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5940-1050
Editor Allison Ramay, PhD  aramaya@uc.cl	Professor Allison Ramay studies indigenous writings of the past and present in Abiayala, intercultural theory, gender, and critical indigenous studies. She finds joy watching her children grow and exploring nearby mountain trails. https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3968-7092
Assistant Francisca Fernández Arce francisca.fernandez@ug.uchile.cl	Francisca Fernández Arce is a former student of Lingüística y Literatura Inglesas at Universidad de Chile and holds a MA on Modern and Contemporary Literature from the University of York. Her academic interests range from contemporary poetry, Northern Irish literature, and the intersection between the visual and the textual.
Layout Design and Web Management Tamara Cubillos tecubillos@uc.cl	Tamara studied English Literature and Linguistics at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and is currently working as a Conversation Designer.
Illustrator Catalina Salvatierra catipsr@gmail.com	Catalina Salvatierra is a Chilean illustrator and tattoo artist, with a diploma in illustration from Universidad de Chile (2017) where she was also a TA in 2018. Formerly a nutritionist, Catalina transformed her passion for drawing and tattooing into her main activity, which she performs as an independent artist.

Board Members

Héctor Calderón	Professor Héctor Calderón is a specialist in Spanish American, Mexican, and Chicano literature and cultures. He began his career in Spanish American literature and early modern Spain. His Conciencia y lenguaje en El Quijote y El obsceno pájaro de la noche (Pliegos 1987) examines two classic novels within their respective modern and postmodern contexts. However, Calderón is most widely known for his contributions to Chicano literary studies. He is one the field’s leading figures. His co-edited anthology Criticism in the Borderlands (Duke 1991) is considered one of the founding works in the field. His most recent book is Narratives of Greater Mexico: Essays on Chicano Literary History, Genre, and Borders (Texas 2005). Calderón’s numerous publications have concentrated on border studies and the North American Mexican cultural diaspora. His current research projects include Mexican literature, film, and rock and Mexican American fiction of Los Angeles. He is currently completing a book on Mexico, “America Mexicana: The Mexican Cultural Diaspora of North America.” At UCLA, Professor Calderon was founding Chair of the César E. Chávez Center (1994). He has also served as Director of the University of California, Education Abroad Program’s Mexico Study Center (2004-2008) and founding Executive Director of la Casa de la Universidad de California en México, A.C. (2006-2008). Prior to coming to UCLA in 1991, Calderón was Professor at Scripps College (1989-1991) and Associate Professor at Yale University (1983-1989).
Susan Foote	Susan Foote was born in San Diego, California and studied Spanish at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She received her doctorate and master’s degrees from the Universidad de Concepción, Chile where she teaches English Literature in the Foreign Language Department. She also teaches courses in the Magíster en Literaturas Hispánicas and in the Doctorado en Literatura Latinoamericana at the same university. She has led many workshops and talks on poetry in English and has published several articles relating to her workshops. She is interested in the teaching of literature in English in Chile and the therapeutic effects of group literary discussions. Her interests include 20th century American poetry and Postcolonial literature in English as well as Mapuche testimony and poetry. Her book Pascual Coña, historias de sobrevivientes, la voz en la letra y la letra en la voz was published by the Universidad de Concepción Press, November 2012.
Thomas Rothe	Thomas Rothe holds a PhD in Latin American Literature from the Universidad de Chile and is an adjunct professor at the Universidad Católica de Chile. His lines of research include Latin American and Caribbean literature with a focus on translation, cultural magazines, and literary history. He has translated into English many Chilean poets, including Rodrigo Lira, Jaime Huenún, and Julieta Marchant. With Lucía Stecher, he translated into Spanish Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously and Claire of the Sea Light, published in Chile by Banda Propia. He is currently a researcher in the project “Connected Worlds: The Caribbean, Origin of Modern World,” part of the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under the Marie Sklodowska Curie grant agreement Nº 823846.
Francisco Lomelí	Distinguished Professor in Chicana/o Studies and Spanish & Portuguese, Professor Francisco Lomelí has been faculty at UC Santa Barbara since 1978 as part of a joint appointment between the Spanish & Portuguese and Chicana/o Studies Departments. He has published extensively on Latin American literature and culture (Mexican, Chilean, Argentine, Central American, including theory on the novel and translation) and Chicano literature and culture (literary history, Colonial New Mexico, theory on the novel, numerous reference books, journals and translations, and has recovered works prior to 1965). Some of his publications include: La novelística de Carlos Droguett, Chicano Studies: A Multidisciplinary Approach, Chicano Literature: A Reference Guide (co-eds. G.García & I.Ortiz), Dictionary of Literary Biography (3 volumes; co-ed. C. Shirley), Handbook of Hispanic Cultures and Literatures: Literature and Art, Barrio on the Edge (trans.), Defying the Inquisition in Colonial New Mexico (co-author C. Colahan), The Writings of Eusebio Chacón (co-author G. Meléndez), The Chicano Literary Imagination (co-eds. J. Cañero & J. Elices), Routledge Handbook of Chicana/o Studies (forthcoming; co-eds. D.Segura & E.Benjamin-Labarthe), co-director of the journal Ventana Abierta (co-director S.Poot-Herrera), and a special journal issue (Greece, forthcoming; co-eds. S.Emmanioulidou & J.Oliva). Prof. Lomelí has published 35 books and over 120 articles in journals and special collections from throughout the world in addition to being elected to the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (2016).
Alejandra Ortiz Salamovich	Full-time lecturer at the Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades of the Universidad de Chile. She teaches English literature modules in the Licenciatura en Lengua y Literatura Inglesas. She holds an MA in Medieval English Literature and a PhD, both from the University of Leeds (United Kingdom). Her PhD thesis, “Translation Practice in Early Modern Europe: Spanish Chivalric Romance in England”, dealt with the English translation of sixteenth-century Spanish chivalric romance, focusing on Margaret Tyler’s The Mirror of Princely Deeds and Knighthood (c. 1578) and Anthony Munday’s Palmerin D’Oliva (1588) and Amadis de Gaule (1590-1619). She was a part-time lecturer at the Facultad de Letras of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile from 2008 until 2010 and also in 2015, teaching modules in the areas of classical, medieval, and children’s literature.
Mike Wilson	Mike Wilson, PhD, is an academic of Facultad de Letras UC and author of the novels El púgil (2008), Zombie (2009), Rockabilly (2011) and Leñador (2013). His last novel, Leñador, obtained el Premio de la Crítica 2014 y el premio del Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes 2014. He was also editor the of an essays collection called Where Is My Mind? Cognición, literatura y cine (2012).
Maria Ines Zaldivar	PhD in Literature, professor, essayist and poet. She is an academic in the Department of Literature at the Faculty of Letters, PUC (Santiago, Chile). She is the author of the following books Reiterándome, o la elevación frente a la negación (1994), La mirada erótica, (1998), co-author of 100 Años de Cultura Chilena (2006), and Bibliografía y antología crítica de las vanguardias literarias CHILE (2009). She also co-authored Lengua Castellana y Comunicación for primary and secondary education in Chile and other texts on literature and literary criticism. Her poetic works include Artes y oficios (1996), Ojos que no ven (2001), Naranjas de medianoche (2006, finalist for the Critic’s Award 2007), Década (2009), Luna en Capricornio (2010, nominated for the Altazor Award 2011) and Bruma (2012).

Former Staff

How to be a peer reviewer?

Please express your interest to us via email at esla@uc.cl. Our ideal reviewers have published texts in the genre they will review (literary or academic) and hold a graduate degree (MA or PhD).

Why be a peer reviewer?

Being a peer reviewer is a wonderful way to get connected to ESLA. We are a community of readers and writers who enjoy thinking about the production, distribution and interpretation of culture in English from Latin America. As a peer reviewer you will give a writer constructive and crucial feedback, which will also improve your own writing. We also invite our reviewers to include their work as peer reviewers on their CVs.