Obituary of Elpidio Laguna Díaz

Elpidio Laguna Díaz (Born 2-15-1945- January 25, 2016) Elpidio Laguna Díaz, Emeritus Professor of Spanish from Rutgers, The State University of NJ-Newark, was born in Río Piedras, P. R. His parents were Elpidio Laguna Matienzo and Elina Diaz Rivera, also from Puerto Rico. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Asela Rodrigez Seda; three daugthers, Asela Maria, Maria Eugenia and Alexandra Maria; their spouses, Emilio Mourao, Mark Graham and Richard Del Rio; seven grandchildren; a sister, Maria Laguna and a brother, Arturo Laguna Diaz, from Puerto Rico. He received a B.A. from the U of Puerto Rico with a degree in Philosophy and French, an M.A from St. Johns’ University and a Ph. D from the Graduate Center, CUNY, in Hispanic Studies. He joined the faculty at Rutgers-Newark in 1972. From 1992-1998 he chaired the Department of Classical & Modern Languages. During his term as chair he initiated the first agreement with the Instituto Camões, and began preparing the way for the current Portuguese & Lusophone Studies Program by supporting and promoting the teaching of Portuguese and cultural programming on Portugal, Luso American and Brazilian topics. At Rutgers, Professor Laguna served in numerous committees, contributed to establish student organizations (Portuguese American Club in the late 80’s), served as advisor to many others (the Spanish Club, FELA, PRO, LUNA, PASO) and mentored and accompanied the first group of students who participated at the Organization of American States Model Assembly (1988) in Washington, DC. Twice he directed the Summer Study Abroad Program in Salamanca, was co-director of the Azores Archaeological Project with Dr. Bob Stieglitz in 2000 and supported, participated or co-directed several conferences (First International Conference on the Dominican Republic, the 30th Annual Meeting of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations and many others). In 1979 he added an interdisciplinary Spanish concentration, the Hispanic Civilization and Language Studies Program, later renamed the Iberian and Ibero American Major. From 1980 to 1994 directed numerous papers for the Honors Program. But above all, he distinguished himself for his dedication to the teaching of Spanish Medieval, Golden Age, and 19th and 20th centuries Spanish Peninsular literature. Many of the courses, seminars and topic courses he developed and taught, “Hispanic Civilization” or “Iberian and Ibero American Civilization”, “Ibero American Thought”, “La inscripción de los EEUU en el ensayo hispanoamericano”, “ Ortega y Gassett”, “Los místicos españoles”, “ La construcción textual de la realidad histórica.”, “España e Hispanoamérica durante las luchas de independencia”, “Approaches to Civilizational Studies.”, “Don Quijote”, “La generación del 98″, “Música y Literatura en España e Hispanoamérica” and others, had the interdisciplinarity Laguna signature way of enchanting the students with the texts, alerting them about the many imprints of Spanish cultural production in world context, of connections between history and literature, and between understanding, interpretation, readings and misreadings of past and contemporary cultural production, with a touch of critical humor. He was most proud of all the students he met during his tenure at Rutgers. He was Vice- President of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilizations (1998-2004) a member of the New Jersey Council for the Humanities, the Real Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua (NY), and of the Historia a Debate group in Santiago, Spain. He published El tratamiento del tiempo subjetivo en la obra de Gabriel Miró; Pablo( prosa poética); Sombra azul (poemario), Los retratos y biografías de Ramón Gómez de la Serna and essays on Pedro Mir, Julia de Burgos, Nominalist and Christian-medieval thought, Americanization and Globalization in journals such as El Cotidiano (Mexico), Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos, Cruz Ansata., Hispamérica,, Revista Chicano-Riqueña, Latin American Women Writers of Today, Vida Hispánica (England), Asomante. His last publications appeared in Mexico (2005), Switzerland (2006) and Spain (2010). Currently he was involved in the writing of three long term projects (Isidore of Seville and the Monstrous Races; Isidore of Seville and the emergence of medieval Christian monarchy and his long term project on Spanish Civilization). In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Rutgers, the State University of NJ, Conklin Hall, Newark, NJ 07102 for the creation of a Laguna Study Abroad Award. After cremation, a mass will be held at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. Ashes will rest at Holy Spirit Catholic Columbarium.