According to the 2000 census one of the fastest growing areas in the country in terms of population is the South (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama), and in the South the fastest growing segment of the population is the Latino population, made up primarily of Mexicans coming from not only Mexico but also from California and Texas who have come to work in construction, the poultry industry, the rug-making industry, and agriculture. The Latinos are being touted for keeping these industries booming, so much so that at the recent Cinco de Mayo celebration sponsored by the Consulado Mexicano in Atlanta, Governor Roy Barnes went to personally thank the Latino immigrants for the important role they are playing in the economy of the state of Georgia.

In the last five years an area that traditionally has been White and Black has become multicultural and the social insitutions, primarily the schools, find that they are unprepared for the 300% increase of the Latino population.

Therefore, it is particularly rewarding to see that two Latinas in the Department of Romance Languages have been bringing positive attention to UGA through their work as writers and scholars.

In the Spring of 2000 Amarilis Torres Jordan completed her thesis, directed by Dr. Roberta Fernandez, for an MA in Spanish. In the Fall of 2000,  the Graduate School at the University of Georgia selected Amarilis' thesis entitled "Nacion y nacionalismo en MALDITO AMOR: Una novela de Rosario Ferre" as the Best M.A  thesis written at the University of Georgia between 1998 and 2000, making it the first time that the Dept of Romance Languages had one of its students' thesis honored with the award. The thesis went on to become UGA's entry into  the competition sponsored by the Consortium of Southern Graduate Schools. As a Teaching Assistant of Spanish, Amarilis Torres Jordan served as a Master Teacher for the other TAs, and in 2000-2001, she worked as an Instructor of Spanish in the Dept of Romance Languages. At this point in time, Amarilis and her husband Gene Jordan are getting ready to move back to Puerto Rico, where she expects to not only continue her graduate studies but also to submit her thesis to the University of Puerto Rico Press for possible publication.

Roberta Fernandez was awarded a one-semester research fellowship by the Center for Humanities and Arts at UGA for her study of Chicana feminism in the revistas of the Chicano Movement which will be published by the University of Texas Press. Her own Spanish version of her award-winning book, INTAGLIO: A NOVEL IN SIX STORIES, is scheduled for a Fall, 2001, publication by Arte Publico press and is entitled FRONTERIZAS: UNA NOVELA EN SEIS CUENTOS. The novel deals with cultural and artistic expressions of women on the Texas-Mexican border and the manner in which these expressions are transmitted from one generation to the next. In the Fall of 2001. Roberta and Judith Cofer will serve as Humanities Scholars for a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Library Association in sponsoredship with the Athens-Clark County Public Library. The project entails leading discussions on Latino/a literature at libraries in five Georgia cities, including Athens, Gainsville, and Dalton, all  areas with new Latino settlements. In Gainsville the Public Library is sponsoring its discussions in Spanish. The exhibit, "Twenty-five Years of Hispanic Literature: 1965-1990" which Roberta curated at the University of Houston in 1992 is being sponsored by the Texas Humanities Resource Center in Austin as a traveling exhibit entitled "Voces Americanas: Literature by Writers of Latino Heritage". This traveling exhibit, which first opened the at the University of Texas at El Paso in the Fall of 1996, came to two venues in Georgia in 2000-2001: the main library at the University of Georgia (as part of the Hispanic Heritage Month activities in Sept-Oct, 2000) and the Cornelia-Habersham Public Library in Cornelia, GA., in April, 2001. Her course, ROML 2550 "Latino Literature and Culture" was offered as Romance Languages first Maymester course in May, 2001. 

During the week of September 10-14, Roberta will be hosting Chilean American poet, editor and script writer Marjorie Agosin who will be on campus as a Visiting Artist sponsored by the Center for Humanities and Art. A human rights activist, Agosin will be conducting a workshop on the political memoir. This workshop will be the first writing workshop at UGA that is offered in a language other than English, as Agosin will be working with writers who wish to write in either English or Spanish or in both languages. Agosin will also be reading from her own work in Spanish at 12:20 on September 12. On Tuesday, September 11, at 4 p.m. she will be presenting a public lecture in Park Hall 365 on human rights, ethics and th political memoir. Finally, on Friday, September 14, the Women Studies Brown Bag series at the Tate Center will feature "Threads of Hope," a film based on a script by Agosin about the "arpilleras" in Chile during the Pinochet years who protested the regime through their assemblages on fabric.  Marjorie Agosin was born in Bethseda, Maryland but grew up in Chile. Her father, Moises Agosin, is retired from UGA's Chemistry Dept. Marjorie received her B.A. from UGA in Philosophy and Spanish. Her Ph.D. in Spanish literature is from Indiana University. She teaches at Wellesley College, where she is the chair of the Spanish Dept. Her publications include THE ALPHABET IN MY HANDS: A WRITING LIFE, and numerous books of poetry and fiction. The United Nations recognized her for her work in international human rights.