Ignacio Sanchez Prado
@isanchezprado
Scholar of literature, cinema, gastronomy and Mexico. Post about that plus dogs. Occasional Words: ignaciosanchezprado.substack.com
Sophy Romvari’s Blue Heron, a brilliantly shot, subtle, emotive film devoid of melodrama and hyperbole on mental illness and the gaps between trauma and memory, a truly excellent first feature, with echoes of Akerman and Martel but ultimately boasting a very personal cinematic style. In Criterion
Olivia Wilde’s The Invite, a capacious remake that delivers a 21st century updating of Albee, with four actors at the top of their powers turning a small film into a perfect balance of tension, eroticism, and humor. In theaters
I’m very happy to receive the 20th book in the SUNY Series in Latin American Cinema, which I coedit with Leslie Marsh: John Mraz’s Film and History in Revolutionary Cuba, which studies ICAIC and proposes historical readings of Memorias del subdesarrollo and other films.
W.H. Auden and Elizabeth Mayer on the question of translation
Gaston Solnicki’s The Souffleur, a beautifully shot film on the tension between the commitment to tradition and the gentrifying winds of change centered on the Intercontinental hotel in Vienna, architectural and deadpan, featuring a lovely performance by Willem Dafoe. In Kino Film Collection.
Freshly arrived form Spain, a new bilingual edition of Rimbaud
Lucrecia Martel’s Nuestra Tierra, a masterclass in filmmaking and a transformative work for documentary genre, one of the best films ever made about the everyday forms of dispossession and their longue durée, full of cinematic countercutsrion and rich layers of testimony and historicity. In theaters
I am very grateful to my friends in St Louis on the Air, producer Emily Woodbury and host Elaine Cha for the kindness of inviting me for a farewell interview, where I spoke about the importance of the humanities and the interdisciplinary programs in universities Link: www.stlpr.org/show/st-loui...
Today, I begin my new adventure as the Emerson Hinchliff Professor of Hispanic Studies at Cornell University!
A great little book showing the ways in which Massive Attack’s debut Blue Lines emerged out of anti-Thatcherite subcultures embracing multiculturalism in Bristol, a lineage out of hip hop that is not US but driven by the Afro-Caribbean diaspora and the creative interracial alliances of the time.
This has been an incredible year in music. I have heard a lot in hours of driving, packing and working and I still have to process much, but these are my favorite albums of the first half of 2026, in no particular order : 1-4
An interesting entry in the Bernhard-Sebald-infused line of narrative voice in Anglophone fiction, this time through a character that is a pathological liar haunted by visions of violence, which actually does a great job in challenging the earnestness of this kind of narrative.
Found the Mexican special edition Lays chips commemorating the three hosts of the World Cup: tacos al pastor for Mexico, brisket americano for the US, miel de maple y tocino for Canada. The “exotic snacks” store in the mall fulfilled its promises.
Special edición of the film Un Poeta with a collectible slipcover
A fascinating imaginative novel about extinction, no less, with a first half in dialogue with Ishigurean speculation, moving into the narrative of a remote future, all with exemplary narrative economy. Perhaps bogged down a bit by the subjectivity of its narrators but overall a very good book.
New Mia Couto translation into English. He is one of the greatest writers in the world but hasn’t gotten his due in the language regardless of the Neustadt Prize he received a few years ago. Run to read this. It’s a real masterpiece.
spectacular biography of Paul Celan, beautifully written, captivating in its description of history and places, intelligent in its reading of the poetry without subsuming it to the poet’s life, intellectual and personal in balance. Just released in English on June 9. A true masterclass of the genre
Packing my library: I have this shelf of very long books I want to read or reread, from which I choose these 15 to stay with me through the move. Hopefully I’ll finish six or seven of them and they will heal my anxiety of not having the rest of my library with me for a couple of weeks
The last collection I completed: Abada’s volume bilingual annotated edition of Fernando Pessoa’s poetry, edited by Juan Barja and Juana Inarejos. It entailed sourcing volumes from four different countries. Volume III was sold out everywhere but I tracked a copy to a bookstore in Buenos Aires.