Department History – Ted Lyon
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(a fairly necessary) INTRODUCTION – THE STORY OF SPANISH & PORTUGUESE AT BYU The Department of Spanish and Portuguese first saw the light of day in June of 1967, created from the large Department of Languages in the College of Humanities. Yet foreign languages (German, Latin) had been taught since the creation of Brigham Young Academy in 1876; the first Spanish classes were taught in 1883/1884. The first Portuguese class was offered by Gerrit de Jong, in 1942. I have used many sources to complete the story of Spanish and Portuguese at Brigham Young University. In 1972 an emeritus professor of French, Harold W. Lee, wrote a “History of the Department of Languages” at BYU. His brief account deals with foreign language teaching from 1876 to the early 1970s. A slightly abbreviated version of Lee’s history is available in Bruce B. Clark’s “The BYU College of Humanities: 1965 – 1981. The First Sixteen Years.” I have used a few bits of this fine, detailed, three- volume history which deal with the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. I have read and used the papers and history of Gerrit de Jong. The University Archives have provided curriculum vitae files of all faculty to 1989. In 1990 chair Merlin Forster asked emeritus professor L. Sid Shreeve to complete a history of the department. Sid accumulated hundreds of pages of information and interviews from retired and current faculty members but was not able to complete the anticipated history. I have used some of the documents he gathered to write the present history. Further, since the creation of the department, the secretaries have kept a very detailed annual statistical and historical report. I have read all of these 45 binders of week-by week departmental dealings. These have been invaluable in creating the present narrative. I have read the first M.A. thesis presented to the department as well as Darrel Taylor’s Ph.D. dissertation, gone through old BYU year books, spent considerable time in the picture archives of Special Collections. Most of these source documents are now available in the office of the Department, on a shelf titled “Departmental History.” Cherilee Beus Devore has kept important historical information in various files that have been extremely valuable in creating this history. I have not wanted to place documents and letters into an appendix, fearing (knowing?) that they would likely be forgotten or at least ignored. Rather, I have placed a few such items right in the text. Further, I have used frequent charts and tables that I have created because they summarize much information in such short compass. You may say, “Too many charts.” I respond with, “Better a summary chart than a never-ending narrative.” I hope you’ll read them and not skip over them. It may take you a few minutes to look through these charts – it has taken me many hours, sometimes several days or weeks, to compile them. There are quite a few photos of faculty, some of them rather staid, yearbook-type pictures. I would have preferred more “action” shots, but this is all I could find. Lo siento. You will note that I have concentrated on the earlier rather than the “later” years of the department. This is purposeful – I have wanted to show our roots, the patriarchs from whom we descend, the sources from which we spring, the early traditions that created who we are today. In researching and writing this history I have tried to be as objective as possible. But this will surely be an “objectively biased” story of our department. I have enjoyed teaching in the department too much to simply be coolly or coldly objective. Further, point of view is a problem; we teach about this in our classes. At first I tried to make the history read as if there were no visible narrator, but that became impossible, so I occasionally insert an “I” or a “We”, often to avoid too much passive voice. Besides these pages of our history I have conducted and filmed oral interviews with ten of our retired faculty; these taped interviews will be part of the departmental history, available in the office. 1 Early on I faced a problem of audience. For whom was I creating this history? The faculty? Our spouses? Our students? The dean or a vice president? An “implied reader”? In the process of researching and writing I soon felt the need to emphasize our unique legacy, a history that shows the present how the past has formed us. History as legacy. I hope that as you read you will see what the department has done, and ask yourself, “How are we doing now? What can we do better? What can we ‘use’ from the past?” There are surely typos, misspellings and errors. Forgive them (“Of you it is required. “). I am also sure that there will be a few dates that are not one hundred percent accurate. I have really tried very hard to check and re-check dates, but there will still be a few incorrect dates. Please advise me if I have messed up one (or more) of your favorite dates. If your picture does not appear, forgive me – I have scoured departmental files and did not find exciting pictures of you and your favorite activities. If there is an error in the details in this history, there is none in the intent. Please help me correct any such errors. Jorge Luis Borges once noted that “A philosophical doctrine begins as a plausible description of the universe; with the passage of the years it becomes a mere chapter – if not [just] a paragraph or a [single] name – in the history of philosophy.” As I have researched and written this departmental history I have kept Borges’s sad but true reductionist concept in mind – the quote above is preceded by: “There is no exercise of the intellect which is not, in the final analysis, useless.” Well, I hope not. As all of us have lived, or will live our forty or more years in the department. We have showed up morning, made assignments, corrected quizzes and tests, lived our language every day, and deeply enjoyed our students and colleagues each semester and term. But at some point, someone decides to summarize, make a lot of charts, condense, and hence delimit, those minute by minute, and day by too- fast-moving days into a single volume. Such a work obviously distorts the broad reality of each individual; I hope that the condensed result is not an insult, and at least captures the best of our humanity. I have included a few pictures, of activities, faculty, and students. But I have not tried to make this a yearbook with pictures of every faculty or staff I hope that this story is not too lengthy or detailed to enjoy. I have attempted to capture the people and events that have made us such a unique and dynamic department. I have enjoyed the writing; I hope you will too. Ted Lyon Oct, 2013 2 INDEX Beginnings …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 1 Founding Fathers ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 5 James L. Barker (5) Benjamin Franklin Cummings (7) Gerrit de Jong (8) A Student-Centered Department ………………………………………………………………………………. 12 A New Generation of Founding Fathers .…………………………………………………………………… 18 H. Darrel Taylor (18) Lee B. Valentine (20) Ernest J. Wilkins (22) Growing into Our Own Department …………………………………………………………………………… 23 Our Students ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 28 Ph.D. program (28) M.A. degrees (29) Our undergraduates (32) An Amazing Faculty ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 36 Some Church Service ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 40 Extending BYU Beyond BYU ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 41 Visiting Lecturers (41) Visiting Professors (44) Mini Courses (45) Studying Abroad …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 48 Dramatic Presentations ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 52 Some Faculty Recognition …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 54 “Texting” ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 56 Communications …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 58 “No problema” ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 60 Area Studies ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 63 Goodness Greatness …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 65 Workshops, Conferences, Exhibits ………………………………………………………………………………… 69 Fun(ny) Faculty ‘Fotos’ …………………………………………………………………………………………………… 72 Some Departmental ‘Homes’………………………………………………………………………………………… 77 A Tentative Ending …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 78 3 CHARTS, LISTS, DOCUMENTS Page number Title, description 3 sample pages, first text used at BYA, 1884 6 Spanish Phonetic Manual, 1944, James L. Barker 10 Semester Load Report, Gerrit de Jong 11 Chairmen, Department of Modern and Classical Languages 12 Early M.A. Degrees 22 Letter of calling and creation of FLI (LTM, MTC) 25 Full-time faculty, Spanish & Portuguese, 1967 26 All Department Chairs, Spanish & Portuguese, 1967 to present 27 Departmental FTEs – 1967 to present 28 All Ph.D. degrees granted, 1970 -1980 30 All M.A. degrees, by area of emphasis 30 Selected M.A. recipients 31 Faculty-nominated M.A. recipients 36 All faculty, by year of hire 37 All faculty, alphabetical order 38 Advanced degrees of current faculty 41 Mission presidents 42 Off-campus visitors, lecturers 44 Visiting professors 45 Mini-courses 49 Study abroad programs, by country 52 Dramatic presentations 55 Faculty recognition 59 Sample faculty meeting agenda, 1979 64 Coordinators, Latin American Studies 4 THE STORY OF SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE AT BYU Present-day Utah Valley was once part of Spain! Actually New Spain, but still, Spain. Really! And later it was Mexico, and not just as “our nearest neighbor,” but truly, Mexico. One valley, two Spanish- speaking countries, all before the Mormon pioneers even dreamed of a home in the valley. With the help of Indian guides, Spanish priests Francisco Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and Francisco Atanasio Domínguez (obviously Francisco was a good name if you wanted to explore and become famous; witness Pizarro, Coronado, the current Pope, and others) departed from Albuquerque and made their way to the Valle de Nuestra Señora de la Merced de los Timpanogotzis – in short, Utah Valley. Arriving in September, 1776, they affirmed it as a newly-explored Spanish possession, and promised to return the following year to establish a full mission, similar to the California missions on the west coast.