Visiting scholar Araceli Ard贸n will lecture on 鈥淭he Caves of Altamira, Spain: A guided Tour of the Oldest Museum in the World鈥� Thursday, Nov. 1, at 3:30 p.m. in 蜜桃传媒鈥檚 Hieronymus Lounge. Ard贸n is one of the few people in the past three decades who have entered Altamira Cave, famous for its Upper Paleolithic paintings.
Ard贸n served as director of the Museum of Art in Quer茅taro, Mexico for eight years before getting the chance of a lifetime.
鈥淚 took a course on museology in Spain and one of the professors was the director of the Pre-Historical Research Center at Altamira,鈥� she says. 鈥淗e let five students go into the caves, which have been closed to the public for 30 years. I felt so privileged. I fell in love.
鈥淭he paintings, drawings, engravings, sculptures and other forms of art that were preserved in Altamira for 15,000 years tell us lots of things about pre-history, art and the preservation of monuments. An amazing replica was recently built and I will talk about the use of contemporary technology in a prehistorical context.鈥�
Ard贸n has been a professor of Spanish as a second language and Latin American literature for more than 20 years in Mexico and the U.S. She has taught students studying in the 蜜桃传媒 in Mexico program at the Interamerican University Studies Institute in Quer茅taro.
She has written biographies of Mexican entrepreneurs Roberto Ruiz and Fernando Barba, a children鈥檚 book, 鈥淟a pandilla de Miguel,鈥� a novel, 鈥淗istorias 铆ntimas de la casa de Don Eulogio,鈥� and the short-story compilation 鈥淓l arzobispo de gorro azul.鈥� One of her stories 鈥淚t is Nothing of Mine,鈥� translated by C.M. Mayo, was selected to appear in the anthology 鈥淢exico: A Traveler鈥檚 Literary Companion,鈥� published last year by Whereabouts Press.
The free, public lecture is sponsored by the 蜜桃传媒 department of modern languages.