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Ena Alvarado

Ena Alvarado

Ena Alvarado is a writer, researcher, and fact-checker. She most recently worked at The Atlantic as an assistant editor with the print magazine. She grew up in Caracas, Venezuela.

The first edition cover of "Red Cavalry" by Isaac Babel

Isaac Babel’s Red Cavalry

Set during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919–1920, Babel’s novel captured the indiscriminate violence and injustice of warfare.
From The Wilton Diptych, c. 1395-99

Animal Teachers and Marie de France

The twelfth century poet Marie de France used animals to teach lessons of courtly love.
Statue of Julian of Norwich, Norwich Cathedral

Julian of Norwich, Anchoress and Mystic

A religious recluse, mystic and author, Julian of Norwich wrote of Jesus Christ as a nurturing mother and teacher to the faithful.
An illustration of Incan ceremonies

How an Incan Nobleman Contested Spanish History

Felipe Guaman Poma de Ayala left behind a one-of-a-kind object that undermines the crónicas de Indias.
Lazarillo de Tormes and His Blind Master

How Social Upheaval Gave Rise to the Picaresque Novel

How did the arcadian shepherd and chivalric knight-errant, centuries-old fixtures of European literature, give way to this witty rascal, the pícaro?
Book cover: The cover of a copy of The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

Source: https://flickr.com/photos/cdrummbks/3756574568

The Power of Sibling Bonds in The Brothers Karamazov

In the year of Dostoevsky's bicentennial, a revisiting of familial relationships in one of his most popular works.
Charles Chesnutt

The Ghosts of Slavery in Charles Chesnutt’s Fiction

What begins as a magical escape from the horrors of plantation life soon turns into a spine-chilling testament to slavery’s dehumanizing effects.
Handout for a 1776 performance of Oroonoko

Science and Slavery in Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko

In one of the first novels written in English, a West African prince, fascinated with navigation, boards a ship for a fateful journey.
Scholar Reclining and Watching Rising Clouds, an illustration of a poem by Wang Wei

Wang Wei, Poet of Buddhist Emptiness

Focusing almost exclusively on nature, the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei expressed the philosophy of the Chan school.
From left to right: Lorna Dee Cervantes, Rubén Darío, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Carlos Drummond de Andrade, Eugenio Montejo, Delmira Agustini

10 Poems for National Hispanic Heritage Month

One of the most meaningful ways to celebrate the month between September 15 and October 15 may be to lend our attention to verse.
Portrait of Dominican Republic dictator Rafael Trujillo

The Women (Real and Imagined) Resisting Caudillos

In Latin America and the Caribbean, women's groups have acted to oppose military dictatorships. In fiction, their roles are rarely that of protagonist.
Friedrich Schlegel

What Does It Mean To Be German?

A German scholar's work on India, meant to foster European unity, instead may have sown the seed of nationalism.