t was standing room only October 7 at the lecture kicking off the opening reception for the Cohen Library’s exhibition, Hispaniola: One Island, Two Cultures, on view in the Cohen Library Atrium through November 15 in celebration of Spanish Heritage Month.

Following Chief Librarian Pamela Gillespie’s welcoming remarks, Professor SilvioTorres-Saillant, Associate Professor of English and Director of the Latino-Latin American Studies Program at Syracuse University as well as founding director of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, introduced the program’s featured speakers.

The Dominican Perspective

Well-known Dominican historian Frank Moya Pons, author of more than 20 books of which the most recent is The Dominican Republic: a National History, addressed the Hispaniola experience from a Dominican perspective, starting off the program with a quick overview of the island’s divided history. He began four thousand years before Columbus and moved forward succinctly through the 1804 founding of Haiti, the first independent state in Latin America, which resulted in the bifurcation of the island of Hispaniola between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

The Haitian Perspective

Professor Patrick Bellegarde-Smith, director of the University of Wisconsin’s Department of Africology and well-published author—most recently of Fragments of Bone: Neo-African Religions in the Americas—began where Mr. Pons left off, immediately following Haitian independence. He proceeded, as he said, “at breakneck speed” to explore the similarities and differences between the two countries that are Hispaniola. He noted that the Dominican Republic identity was framed by elites; the Haitian, by its history of slavery.

The large audience directed many questions at the speakers who fielded them thoughtfully and at length. This thought-provoking event was a highlight of the college’s annual celebration of the Spanish heritage shared by so many of CCNY’s community.

The sponsors of the exhibition, curated by Sarah Aponte, librarian and administrative coordinator of the CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, Professor Julio Rosario of the library’s Reference Division,  and Professor Torres-Saillant, are the City College Library, the Institute, and HABTAC (Haitian Bilingual-ESL Technical Assistance Center).  Partial funding was received from the New York Council for the Humanities.
 

Harlod Gee
Mr. Gee brings a business background to his role as a CCNY adjunct reference librarian. His current employment at Lazard Freres where he is the senior reference librarian follows stints at Lehman Brothers and PaineWebber. Proficient with online databases, he will be most adept in helping patrons with electronic information searching as well as with the more traditional library resources. Mr. Gee earned his MLS from Queens College, an MBA from St. John's University, and his BS in management and finance from New York University.

Grace Mattioli
Recently arrived from San Francisco where she worked in various college, high-school, and public libraries, Ms. Mattioli joins us with legal researching skills learned while working for a prominent California law firm. Database searching and PC troubleshooting skills are also among her strengths which are sure to be called on in the Cohen Library's newly expanded public workstation area. Following her BA from Villanova University, she earned her MA in Library Science from the University of Arizona in Tucson.

David Sanders
Another MBA joins the adjunct reference staff! Mr. Sanders earned his at New York University and his MLS at Columbia University. His CUNY undergraduate degree comes from Brooklyn College. His brings a background as a researcher in the New York Office of the US Department of Labor and for the New York Life Insurance Company. Currently Mr. Sanders works also at the Borough of Manhattan Community College Library.
 
 
 

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