Harry Vélez Quiñones
Associate Professor of Spanish
My Background
I was born
in San Juan, Puerto Rico, a beautiful island
which I am sure you would like to visit sometime. I lived in San Juan until just after
finishing high school and then went to college at Washington University. After a couple of years
in Saint Louis I left for Madrid,
Spain, to study during my junior year.
It was while living there that I decided that I would become a
literary scholar and a teacher. Once I left college, I enrolled in the Graduate
School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University where,
several years later, I earned my Ph.D. in Spanish Literature. In 1990, after finishing my doctoral
dissertation, I
joined the Department of Foreign Languages and Literature at the
University of Puget Sound where I have been teaching, writing,
and having fun until today. In
1998 I met my partner, Jason Stratton,
who is a wonderful cook. Formerly the sous-chef at Café Juanita in
Kirkland, WA, Jason was one of the opening chefs in Jerry
Traunfeld's restaurant in Capitol Hill,
Poppy. A year later he took over Spinasse, also on
Capitol Hill. Last summer, after expanding Spinasse, Jason opened Artusi next door, a lovely
aperitivo bar and restaurant. In
2010 he was named one of Food & Wine's Best New Chefs.
Last
year he made the semi-finalist list for the Beard
Foundation's award for Best Chef in the Pacific Northwest.
If you want to know more about my career here's my curriculum
vitae, the document that
spells out all of the academic information above.
Finally, if you are curious to know what do I look like, just
click right here.
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Contact: velez@ups.edu