We recently received these words from alumni Donald Frischmann:
This Long, Winding Road... Rolls On!
It was mid-August 1985. With fresh Ph.D. in hand, I watched the magical Tucson Valley fade from view (though never from my heart!) as I began the 1,000-mile journey of a lifetime; my destination: Fort Worth, Texas, to embark on what has been an adventure-filled, 35-year career as professor and Mexico field researcher at Texas Christian University (where in time, three other U of A grads would come to join me as colleagues: Arturo Flores, Bonnie Frederick, and Sohyun Lee).
Last summer as I cleaned out my TCU office, I relived much of my U of A experience of 1978-1985, sorting through long-saved course notes and research papers prepared for professors José Promis, Eliana Rivero, Kirsten Nigro, Renato Rosaldo, Armando Miguélez, Leo Barrow, Nívea Parsons and Lanin Gyurko. Dr. Gyurko, the department's mexicanist, directed my dissertation, El nuevo teatro popular en México, nurtured by two summers of field research in Mexico City. Published in 1990 by Mexico's INBA and launched at the Museo Nacional de Arte, this dissertation-turned-book opened the pathway for others' scholarly interest in popular theater for social change in Latin America.
A decade later, I held the first of two Fulbright Research Awards plus an NEH Fellowship that enabled a fruitful, 10-year collaboration with Mexican writer Carlos Montemayor. We focused our joint inquiry upon new, bilingual literatures being produced by indigenous writers, resulting in our three-volume, critical anthology (in thirteen Mexican languages, Spanish and my English translations): Words of the True Peoples/Palabras de los Seres Verdaderos (Austin: UT Press). Each tome was majestically launched at Mexico's Palacio Nacional de Bellas Artes and at scores of cultural venues in both countries.
Over this past decade, I have worked primarily with Yucatec Mayan writers in both urban and rural settings (and I also held a second Fulbright Research Award at the Universidad Intercultural Maya de Quintana Roo). Montemayor and Mayan writers Miguel May and Wildernain Villegas and I achieved the publication of three additional critical, trilingual anthologies: U túumben k'aayilo'ob x-ya'axche'/Los nuevos cantos de la ceiba/The New Songs of the Ceiba (Mérida: SEDECULTA, 2 vols.) and U suut t'aan/El retorno de la palabra/The Return of Our Word (Chetumal: SEyC). These publications helped "reseed" the practice of verbal art in numerous indigenous communities.
Now as Professor Emeritus, with all annual reports and promotions finally behind me (whew!), I again fill boxes and suitcases for a family move to Mérida. This long, winding road of amazing cultural explorations and learning experiences fortunately rolls on, along with the promise of a full life in the land that has captivated my interest since my adolescence. ¡Infinitas gracias a mis profesores del Departamento de Español y Portugués por haberme nutrido el intelecto y el corazón y por haberme inspirado a seguir este hermoso camino del conocimiento!
Donald Frischmann / Fort Worth, Texas
November 2020