Dr. Pedro Larrea-Rubio is the new teacher for Spanish 1 and Spanish 3, replacing Mrs. Carmen Padilla, who left last year. He was born in Spain. 

Dr. Larrea has taught at the University of Virginia, which was his alma mater, Hollins University, Emory University, to name a few, and he is a poet who has published three volumes of poetry and regularly goes on tour for poetry recitals.

His journey started where some of our readers are now: in middle school. In middle school, he was enthralled with reading and wished to become a poet.

He realised that if he wanted to become a poet, he would need to pursue excellent linguistic and literary skills, and thus obtained his Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and finally, his PhD in Spanish and literature at the University of Virginia. This is a prestigious achievement, as according to the Career information site Zippia, only two percent of Spanish teachers in the United States have a PhD, while a Master’s is only achieved by 23% of these teachers.

Since then, he has kept in touch with his childhood aspirations and has published several pieces, including an online textbook, “Conversaciones Corrientes: Temas de Cultura y Sociedad”, which has received five-star reviews. This textbook is “designed to facilitate conversation in Spanish among intermediate and post-intermediate learners of Spanish.” Among his collections of poetry are The Wizard’s Manuscript, The Free Shore, and The Tribe and the Flame. He has also published Federico García Lorca en Buenos Aires, a detailed study of the Spanish poet’s time in the Argentine capital between October 1933 and March 1934. He also regularly goes on tour.

Now, regarding the most important question we asked Dr. Larrea this week, he took an extremely political view. He says, “Regarding the most crucial question in the interview, cereal is clearly not a soup. When you buy cereal, it is always in dry, solid form. It is afterwards that you can add milk to it, or water, or whatever other liquid.”