ISU Faculty and Student Interview Renowned Writer and Director Aaron Mark

Assistant Professor Jose Eduardo Villalobos Graillet and Spanish M.A. student Hillary Buckner of the Department of Anthropology and Languages at ISU recently had the privilege of interviewing the renowned writer and director of film, television, and theater, Aaron Mark.

The purpose of the interview was to prepare content for the upcoming fall semester during which Professor Villalobos Graillet will be teaching a fascinating graduate course on the function of gastronomy in Hispanic literature and film. He and Ms. Buckner met online with Mark to discuss how The Horror of Dolores Roach (2023), the Amazon Prime series TV adaptation of Mark’s off-Broadway play Empanada Loca (2015), uses the metaphor of consumption as social commentary to address the interplay of oppression, gentrification, and injustice in the Latinx community in the US.

In addition to guiding Spanish MA students on how to use the language of visual media and film

to critically examine the making, marketing, and distribution of empanadas locas in Mark's series, Dr. Villalobos Graillet and Ms. Buckner have an exciting research project in development.  Their work with The Horror of Dolores Roach will dialogue with director Eloy de Iglesia’s Spanish film La semana del asesino (1972) to form a comparative analysis on the depiction of cannibalism in both works. This fall, they will present their findings at the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association’s 2024 conference in Palm Springs, California.

During the interview, Mark expressed gratitude to Villalobos Graillet for including his series in a graduate course in Spanish at ISU. Dr. Villalobos Graillet is eager for his students to experience the series and find it as thought-provoking as he does.