My weekend reading, Emily Wilson’s Seneca, a biography and a translation of his tragedies.

Unpacking boxes I found my very first publication, an essay on Garcia Ponce published when I was 19, during my third year as an undergraduate student in literature in Puebla

Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, a film with a 90s countercultural ethos on the idea that one can depict the frictions between desire, power and precarious labor without being prudish, delivered through a glam aesthetic complemented by a perfect cast, led by a brilliant Olivia Wilde. In theaters

Sophy Romvari’s Blue Heron, a brilliantly shot, subtle, emotive film devoid of melodrama and hyperbole on mental illness and the gaps between trauma and memory, a truly excellent first feature, with echoes of Akerman and Martel but ultimately boasting a very personal cinematic style. In Criterion

Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, a capacious remake that delivers a 21st century updating of Albee, with four actors at the top of their powers turning a small film into a perfect balance of tension, eroticism, and humor. In theaters

I’m very happy to receive the 20th book in the SUNY Series in Latin American Cinema, which I coedit with Leslie Marsh: John Mraz’s Film and History in Revolutionary Cuba, which studies ICAIC and proposes historical readings of Memorias del subdesarrollo and other films.

W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer on the question of translation

Gaston Solnicki’s The Souffleur, a beautifully shot film on the tension between the commitment to tradition and the gentrifying winds of change centered on the Intercontinental hotel in Vienna, architectural and deadpan, featuring a lovely performance by Willem Dafoe. In Kino Film Collection.

Freshly arrived form Spain, a new bilingual edition of Rimbaud

Today in the Pittsburgh Review of Books, a personal essay on packing my library, the history of my collection and why I continue to build it. pghrev.com/a-library-on...

A Library on the Eve of Packing - Pittsburgh Review of Books

I hope a bibliophile like me can be forgiven to write an essay on the eve of my library being packed. Since the publication of Walter Benjamin’s 1931

pghrev.com

Lucrecia Martel’s Nuestra Tierra, a masterclass in filmmaking and a transformative work for documentary genre, one of the best films ever made about the everyday forms of dispossession and their longue durée, full of cinematic countercutsrion and rich layers of testimony and historicity. In theaters

I am very grateful to my friends in St Louis on the Air, producer Emily Woodbury and host Elaine Cha for the kindness of inviting me for a farewell interview, where I spoke about the importance of the humanities and the interdisciplinary programs in universities Link: www.stlpr.org/show/st-loui...

today in destroying higher ed, the country's second largest export (not for long now!), the largest employer in 10 states, 60 cities, dozens and dozens of counties economic sabotage AND epistemic warfare www.nytimes.com/2026/07/06/u...

Decline of Ph.D. Admissions Could Imperil a ‘Generation of New Talent’

nytimes.com

Today, I begin my new adventure as the Emerson Hinchliff Professor of Hispanic Studies at Cornell University!

A great little book showing the ways in which Massive Attack’s debut Blue Lines emerged out of anti-Thatcherite subcultures embracing multiculturalism in Bristol, a lineage out of hip hop that is not US but driven by the Afro-Caribbean diaspora and the creative interracial alliances of the time.

This has been an incredible year in music. I have heard a lot in hours of driving, packing and working and I still have to process much, but these are my favorite albums of the first half of 2026, in no particular order : 1-4

An interesting entry in the Bernhard-Sebald-infused line of narrative voice in Anglophone fiction, this time through a character that is a pathological liar haunted by visions of violence, which actually does a great job in challenging the earnestness of this kind of narrative.

1:30 AM half-packed library badass playlist Slayyyter. Dance… The Last Dinner Party. Big Dog Le Sserafim, Illit & Katseye. Iconic by Mistake. The Warning. Ritual. Dasha. Mad About it. The Pretty Reckless. When I wake up Wolf Alice. White Horses Wet Leg. Mangetout

Found the Mexican special edition Lays chips commemorating the three hosts of the World Cup: tacos al pastor for Mexico, brisket americano for the US, miel de maple y tocino for Canada. The “exotic snacks” store in the mall fulfilled its promises.

Special edición of the film Un Poeta with a collectible slipcover

A fascinating imaginative novel about extinction, no less, with a first half in dialogue with Ishigurean speculation, moving into the narrative of a remote future, all with exemplary narrative economy. Perhaps bogged down a bit by the subjectivity of its narrators but overall a very good book.

New Mia Couto translation into English. He is one of the greatest writers in the world but hasn’t gotten his due in the language regardless of the Neustadt Prize he received a few years ago. Run to read this. It’s a real masterpiece.

spectacular biography of Paul Celan, beautifully written, captivating in its description of history and places, intelligent in its reading of the poetry without subsuming it to the poet’s life, intellectual and personal in balance. Just released in English on June 9. A true masterclass of the genre