Baltasar Fra-Molinero

Renaissance Whoopi: Elizabeth Regina

BFM in his howmetown of Ponferrada, with a 14th century Gothic crucifix behind

Baltasar Fra-Molinero obtained his Ph.D. in Spanish at Indiana University in 1990. He taught at the University of Florida (1990-1994), and he is currently Associate Professor of Spanish at Bates College, in Lewiston, Maine. He also holds a Doctorate in English Philolopy from the University of Seville (1986).

He is the author of La imagen de los negros en el teatro del Siglo de Oro (Siglo XXI Editores, Madrid, 1995), and of several articles on the subject of the literary and cultural representation of Blacks in the Spanish Renaissance and in Spanish American Colonial literature. His articles have appeared in Romance Quarterly, Hispania, The Indiana Journal of Hispanic Studies, Bulletin of the Comediates, Afro-Hispanic Review, and others.

Currently he is working on the life and works of Sor Teresa Juliana de Santo Domingo (c. 1676-1748), born with the name of Chicaba. She is the first known African woman writer in Spanish or any other modern European language.