For the 2023 Hispanic Heritage Month, the Círculo participated with Chamber Music Charleston, under the leadership of Sandra Nikolajevs, and Luigi Bravo, in premiering the first Latino festival entitled Fiesta on the Square (Summerville).

It also cosponsored two of its unique shows: “Tango Meets Classical” and “Dancing Hands: How Teresa Carreño Played Piano for President Lincoln”. The Círculo also participated in the first Hispanic celebration at Rollings Middle School of the Arts (Summerville).

The SECOND HISPANIC HERITAGE KEYNOTE LECTURE SERIES took place September 21, 2023. Guest lecturer was the distinguished professor at the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, University of Miami, Dr. Yolanda Martinez San Martin, who spoke about the first female poet of the New World, Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz (1648-1695) from the perspective of being in the space in between, a sign of transition, in a thought-provoking lecture entitled “Nepantleras: Reading Sor Juana in Dialogue with Gloria Anzaldúa”.

During October 2023 the Dr. Carlos F. Salinas Scholarship was awarded to cadet student Alison Yamileth Gallegos, from The Citadel. Furthermore, two long standing members of the Círculo, Angel “Tito” Cordero and Lucy Cordero, were recognized for their arduous and important commitment, dedication and contributions to the Scholarship committee and to the mission and activities of the Círculo.

After the pandemic interruption, the Círculo organized and celebrated with much success its 2023 End of the Year Party. A joyful reunion of old and new friends, it highlighted the graduation of the first E-commerce class from Southern Charleston University under the leadership of Nilsy Rapalo and Diana Saillant. Then, it recognized the excellent track of community and educational involvement of Paula Ufret Tejeda, former vice president and president of the Círculo, who also served as one of its best cultural ambassadors. Yuri Cordero, producer of the popular Spanish program Primer Impacto, from Univision, gave an eloquently traced Paula’s trajectory as a friend, a mentor and a professional librarian and community advocate.

The year 2024 began with the Círculo’s participation at the parade to honor Martin Luther King (January). It also attended the Colombian-Venezuelan get together in Orangeburg (“Sancocho de Integración Colombo-Venezolano”) and its Book club benefited from the extraordinary contribution of Professor Dr. Mark del Mastro, from the Department of Hispanic Studies at the College of Charleston, at the first meeting of the year (February 17). An expert of Spanish novelist Carmen Laforet, his intervention, enriched the reading and discussion of Laforet’s novel NADA (1944).

For Women’s History Month the Círculo enjoyed the power point presentation of Dr. Sarah Owens, professor at the Department of Hispanic Studies, College of Charleston, who spoke about “Women on the Camino de Santiago: Past and Present”. This fascinating talk combined Dr. Owens’ personal experience as a modern-day pilgrim with the legacy of religious women on pilgrimage routes in early modern and contemporary Iberia.

In addition, a new initiative, Historias entrelazadas, organized by Marina Lopez, Berenice Marquina and Asela R. Laguna, but coordinated by Marina and Berenice, offered several pilot sections of a reading program based on the famous national program “Gente y cuentos” to bring the enjoyment of listening and discussing literature to the public. The program was tested at the Keith Summey library (North Charleston) and the Johns Island County Library.

From March 28 to April 11 the Círculo paid tribute to Spanish director and producer Carlos Saura (1932-2023) by showing three of his films (Cria Cuervos, Ay, Carmela! and Goya at Bordeau) at the Charleston County Library (Calhoun St)

he Círculo was very fortunate to attract one of students of the Heritage Program at the Department of Hispanic Studies, College of Charleston, to do a voluntary internship. Adela Arian Hudson has helped the organization in the areas of designing, publicity, and translation.

THE THIRD HISPANIC HERITAGE KEYNOTE LECTURE SERIES took place September 19, at the Alumni Hall, College of Charleston. Guest speaker was Dr. Jorge Marcone, Peruvian professor of Comparative Literature, Spanish, Associate Dean at Rutgers, NJ, and co-Chair of the South American Resilience and Sustainability Studies Institute (Uruguay) on Ecology, Environmentalism and Literature. His power point presentation, “An Ecological Amazonian Journey: Past and Present Contemporary Representations in the Arts, Film and Literature” was sponsored also by the South Carolina Commission of Minority Affairs and the Department of Hispanic Studies of the College of Charleston. A small reception followed the presentation.

The Círculo congratulates founding member, Dr. Maria A. Cordova Salinas for her inclusion on the first anthology in Spanish of local women writers from the Carolinas published under the leadership of Nilsy Rapalo, Mujer bienester: Antología mujeres contemporáneas (2024).