Illustrating Spain in the U.S.

Comic strips are more than colorful and creative. They serve as a platform to tell a story, evoke an emotion, express an opinion, or share information. The versatility of this artform was highlighted during an exhibit at Le Moyne titled Illustrating Spain in the U.S., organized by Josefa Alvarez, Ph.D., of the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures, through a collaboration with the Spanish Embassy in Washington, D.C. It featured comic strips that feed on academic knowledge and demonstrate that Spain has been part of the American reality since long before the U.S. was founded. The exhibit combined the graphic expressiveness of comics and their authors with the inquisitive perspective of scholars who had written a series of complementary articles. The opening of the
exhibit, attended by the cultural attaché of the Spanish embassy, Miguel Albero, featured a lecture by exhibition curator Ana Merino, an award-winning writer and a professor at the University of Iowa, and Ana Penyas, a comic artist and recipient of the 2018 Spanish National Comic Award.