| Alfredo could be described as a Cuban-American fish out of water. Born in Miami but raised in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Alfredo has long shed the syndrome of claiming his part of the Cuban sugar industry. Instead, he prefers to argue that “San Guiven” (most commonly pronounced [saŋgißeŋ] is a classic example of cultural syncretization that has not only facilitated the assimilation process of this immigrant community, but also contributed to such practices as the inclusion of black beans and rice, roast suckling pig, and guava pastries in American dinners in November. As a defecting pre-medical student and (latin) lover of the French language, Alfredo graduated in 2007 with his B.A. in Spanish (minors: French and Biology) from the University of Tampa. He then realized the futility of the Floridian lifestyle, and decided to complete his M.A. in Romance Languages at the University of Provence in Aix-en-Provence, France. It was near the end of this course of study that he developed an antagonistic relationship with the cold, which progressively gave way to his admission to Penn. Alfredo is currently a graduate student in the Department of Romance Languages, where he specializes in Hispanic and Francophone Caribbean literature. In his free time, he enjoys outdoor activities, working out, board games, measuring ambient temperatures by the number of sweaters he wears, and defending the value of minority literatures to hegemonic states.
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