I was born in the Basque Country and studied at the University of Iowa with specialized field interests in Marxist Literary Criticism, Peninsular Narrative of the 20th century and late 19th, especially Unamuno and the Generation of 98. A parallel field is the narrative of 20th century Spanish America. I am interested in issues of nationalism, the role of language in national identity especially pertaining to the role of Spanish in Spanish America as being not fundamental in national identity. I am interested in literary Postmodernism and its non-equivalence with the "vanguardismo" of Latin America and the other "-ismos." Writing by women and the writing of cultural and social minorities are other topics that I try to imbricate into one progressive project where all of them have autonomy but where ¨the last determining instance is the economic."