Zalacain to Join Campus Stacks

Zalacain, a new campus magazine that aims to provide a fresh perspective on the Hispanic world and Latin America, will join the stacks of Harvard publications in the near future.

The magazine staff, composed of both graduate and undergraduate students, celebrated the publication's launching last Friday with a poetry reading in the Eliot House Library.

Esther K. Whitfield, a student in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS), said Zalacain's purpose is "to fill a gap in student publications," by serving as a multilingual collection of articles and creative pieces concerning Hispanic and Latin American society and culture.

"[We want] a magazine where pieces can be published in languages other than English and where we can address Hispanic and Latin American affairs--particularly literary and cultural," said Juan Silva '88, who is also a GSAS student and is a Zalacain staff member.

The magazine, said staff member Magdalena Edwards '99, is "inclusive in terms of disciplines, with segments devoted to topics such as "literature, culture, and art history" and "inclusive in terms of languages, with multilingual submissions."

She characterized Zalacain's future content as a "very dynamic dialogue."

At the poetry reading, Edwards explained that "Zalacain" is a Basque word that means" on the pasture," but has a connotation of "the idea of a nexus-the center of focus."

Staff members say they hope "a nexus and a center of focus" is what the magazine will become.

Submissions now are being accepted for the first edition, which is set to debut in May. Interested students can drop off their contributions in the Woodberry Poetry Room at Lamont Library or at the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies in Boylston Hall until March 26.

Pedro A. Pimentel '99 said the magazine will serve as both an undergraduate and graduate publication.

He called the magazine "more a review of Latin America at Harvard than of Latin America by Harvard" that will seek to provide a perspective on "anything and everything related to Latin America."

Pimentel also said he hopes that the magazine will contain "fun stuff too, "including the writers' personal experiences.

The poetry readers at the magazine's kick-off function included Edwards, Silva and noted poet Joaquim-Francisco Coelho, Smith professor of language and literature.

Coelho set the tone for the reading and for the magazine by telling the audience, "[He] always believed that poetry is not only to be for the most solemn and great moments in life, but for all moments in life."