My Fulbright Experience

by Decio Torres-Cruz

Due to a misunderstanding involving my Fulbright assignment at UB, I was sent to the English department, instead of to comparative literature, when I first arrived. I must have applied to a comp lit degree in English without knowing that they were two different departments.

This initial confusion had good results, since I got to know Joyce, the English department's secretary, one of the friendliest and most helpful persons I have ever met. Before classes started, Dr. Ken Rasmussen showed me around the neighborhood. At Talking Leaves, which would be part of my UB life (I even wrote a poem to the bookstore!), he introduced me to Dr. Henry Sussman, who happened to be shopping for books there.

Henry Sussman was in charge of the comp lit department. When he heard about my story and my research, he told me to look for him the next day, and that is how I was immediately relocated to comp lit without any bureaucracy, which surprised my Fulbright advisor. She told me I was getting in a day what it took other people to get in months.

Henry, who had also been a former Fulbrighter in Germany, would turn out to be my mentor and advisor. His friendship, support, and guidance were crucial during my stay at UB. Henry allowed me to transfer credits from my courses in Brazil to the comp lit department. I gained a year to write my dissertation without attending classes, and that is how I was able to get my degree in three years, the exact duration of my Fulbright scholarship.

I have lots of good memories from Buffalo. I had excellent professors, especially Shaun Irlam for postcolonial Caribbean lit and Henry Sussman for postmodernism; Rodolphe Gaschi and Richard Fly were extremely important as well. They furnished me with interesting insights (developed into published papers) and a bibliography that I use in the courses I teach now at the Federal University of Bahia. One of the poems I wrote for a UB creative writing course with Irving Feldman was published in The Buffalo News. I participated in a Wilde play (pun intended!) at the Kiva Room in Baldy, the memories of which I really treasure! And, of course, I made very good friends, whom I'll never forget.