Christian Elguera Olortegui

Assistant Professor of Spanish, Latin American, Caribbean & Latinx Studies

Bio

Dr. Christian Elguera Olortegui was born and raised in Lima, Peru's capital city. However, he recognizes his family roots in Tingo María (a Peruvian Amazon town in the province of Huanuco). He earned a PhD in Iberian and Latin American Languages and Literatures from the University of Texas at Austin. He also completed a Graduate Portfolio in the Native American and Indigenous Studies program at this institution. Before joining Marist as an Assistant Professor, Dr. Elguera Olortegui held appointments as a Lecturer at the University of Oklahoma and a Visiting Assistant Professor at St. Mary’s University of San Antonio.

His forthcoming book, El marxismo gótico de Xavier Abril, draws attention to the relations between Socialism, Surrealism, and the Spanish American vanguards between 1920 and 1930. In this research, Dr. Elguera Olortegui analyzes the short novel El autómata (The Automaton) by the Peruvian author Xavier Abril to understand the connections between revolutionary and surrealist ideologies, which he calls Gothic Marxism in dialogue with Walter Benjamin, Margaret Cohen, and Michael Löwy. Currently, Dr. Elguera Olortegui is completing his second monograph, entitled. Territorial Translations: The Defense of Indigenous Lands in Brazil and Peru. Here, he explores how Amerindian writers, activists, and intellectuals in Peru and Brazil protect their communities by translating their territorial practices and insights through literary texts, radio broadcasts, and visual arts. In this venue, he studies José María Arguedas’s poetry in Quechua (1960s), Daniel Munduruku’s Crônicas de São Paulo (2004), the Indigenous radio show “Programa de Indio” in Brazil (1985-1991), and the “Nacional Peasant Drawing and Painting Contest” in Peru (1984-1996). 

Since 2021, Dr. Elguera Olortegui has been the Indigenous Literature correspondent for Latin American Literature Today (LALT). As part of his responsibilities, he has invited Amerindian writers to publish their works and translated their poems from Spanish, Portuguese, and Quechua into English. As a literary translator, Dr Elguera Olortegui underlines the crucial role translation plays in cementing global encounters. In his classes, students have translated indigenous poetry from Spanish and Portuguese into English, creating a collaborative network. Finally, he chooses, edits, and publishes the most outstanding translations to emerge from this activity in LALT. For Dr. Elguera, creating opportunities to share students’ intellectual work is one of his principal tenets as an instructor and translator. See the recent Marist student’s translation in the following link: https://latinamericanliteraturetoday.org/2024/12/i-am-not-an-indian-and-other-poems/

His teaching practice is dedicated to educational excellence, incorporating innovative pedagogical strategies to enhance intercultural dialogues. Therefore, his methodology diverges from a traditional approach that views students as passive recipients of knowledge. As an instructor, he aspires to provide high-quality education and expand students' academic and professional opportunities. 

As a creative writer, his first novel Los espectros (The Specters), won the IX Novel Biennial Copé Award in 2023. In 2022, Dr. Elguera Olortegui won another accolade in a literary contest: the Copé Silver for his short story “El último sortilegio de Fernando Pessoa” (“The Last Conjuring of Fernando Pessoa”). In addition, he received an honorable mention in the XXI Short Story Biennial Copé Award for his narration “El extraño caso del señor Panizza” (“The Strange Case of Mr. Panizza”) in 2020. He has also received another honorable mention in the XIII Concurso Nacional de Cuento – Premio José Watanabe Varas 2024. 
 

Education

PhD, Iberian and Latin American Literatures and Cultures, University of Texas at Austin, 2020
BA, Literature, Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, 2013

Research Interests / Areas of Focus

Indigenous Literatures in Abiayala, Quechua Poetry, Decolonial Methodologies, Critical Race Theory, Literary Translation (Theory and Practice), Brazilian Studies, Environmental Humanities, Hispanic Writers in the US.

Selected Publications

Territorial Translation in Contemporary Quechua Poetry: Translating Andean Spatialities in Jarawi by Dida Aguirre. Literary Translation in Latin America in the 21st Century: Bridging Experiences, Theories and Cultures, edited by Dirce Waltrick and Leticia Goellner. University College London. Forthcoming. 

Genealogy of Indigenist Translations: from Colonized Methodologies to Indigenous Self-determination in Peru, 20th and 21st centuries. Mapping Diversity in Latin America, edited by Miguel Valerio and Mabel Moraña. Vanderbilt University Press, 2025, pp. 348-378.

Alianzas afectivas y traducciones territoriales: La masacre Ticuna (1988) en el Programa de Índio.  Metáfora. Revista de literatura y análisis del discurso. Vol. 8, No. 13, 2025, pp. 131-157.

“Os rios, os peixes, as matas, estão pedindo socorro”: Davi Kopenawa y las soberanías Yanomami en el Programa de Índio. Revista de Estudios Brasileños, vol. 18, no. 9, pp. 33–46, 2023.

Traducciones territoriales en la poesía de Ch’aska Anka Ninawan, Dina Ananco, Gloria Cáceres y Dida Aguirre. Vivir la violencia en el Perú del nuevo milenio, edited by Oswaldo Estrada and Carlos Villacorta. Ediciones MyL, pp. 153-176, 2023. 

(with Daisy Saravia). Octavio Paz, The Task of an Unknown and Modern Translator: Matsuo Bashō and Alberto Caeiro's Poetry According to Paz’s Versions. Routledge Handbook of Latin American Literary Translation, edited by Denise Kripper and Delfina Cabrera. Routledge, pp. 222-240, 2023. 

Antiracist Spatial Narratives in Daniel Munduruku’s Crônicas De São Paulo: Indigenous Place-Names and Migration in the Paulista Capital City. Poetics of Race in Latin America, edited by Mabel Moraña. Anthem Press, pp.185-200, 2022. 

Cities of Rivers, Mountains and Serpents: Non-Human Territorialities in Jaime Saenz and José María Arguedas. Bolivian Studies Journal, no. 17, pp. 1-27, 2021.

Ontological Migrations in José María Arguedas’s Tupac Amaru Kamaq Taytanchisman: The Triumph of Runa Migrants Against the Colonial Violence in Lima. Diálogo, vol. 23, no. 2, pp. 119-132, 2020. 
 

Translations

Three poems in Quechua by Javier Pariona Salvatierra. Latin American Literature Today, no. 34, 2025. Translation from Quechua to English. 

Two poems in Quechua by Gloria Cáceres Vargas. Latin American Literature Today, no. 33, 2025. Translation from Quechua to English. 

“Retomada originária” and “Matriarcal cunhã” by Renata Machado Tupinambá. Latin American Literature Today, no. 32, 2024. Translation from Portuguese to English and Spanish. 

Two poems in Quechua by Dida Aguirre. Latin American Literature Today, no. 31, 2024. Translation from Quechua to English. 

Three poems by Trudruá Dorrico. Latin American Literature Today, no. 30, 2024. Translation from Portuguese to Spanish and English. 
 

Creative Work

Los espectros. Ediciones Copé, 2025.

El último sortilegio de Fernando Pessoa. Días de prueba esperando a Paradise y los cuentos ganadores y finalistas de la XXII Bienal de Cuento Premio Copé 2022. Ediciones Copé, 2023, pp. 37-68.

El extraño caso del Sr. Panizza. El dedo en el disparador y los cuentos menciones honrosas y finalistas de la XXI Bienal de Cuento Premio Copé 2020. Ediciones Copé, 2021, pp. 63-84.
 

Selected Presentations

Infancia y territorialidad andina en Wiñay suyasqayki y Muqu patapi de Gloria Cáceres Vargas. I Coloquio Nacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil: Voces del Ande. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Lima, Peru, September 23, 2025 (Conference Paper).

Literatura infantil en Brasil desde una perspectiva indígena: las traducciones ecológicas de Daniel Munduruku. II Congreso Internacional de Literatura Infantil y Juvenil: Ambiente y Nuevos Medios. Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru, August 29, 2025 (Conference Paper).

“Adubados com sangue indígena”: Traducción territorial y pensamiento medioambiental en la obra de Trudúa Dorrico.  XLV Congreso Internacional Instituto Internacional de Literatura Iberoamericana (IILI), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru, July 19, 2025.  

Traducciones territoriales en la literatura quechua. Casa de la Literatura Peruana, Lima, Peru, January 16, 2025  (Guest Speaker).

Huellas del archivo colonial andino: Guamán Poma de Ayala en la novela Muchas veces dudé de Luis Nieto Degregori. LASA 2024, Hybrid Congress: Reacción y resistencia: Imaginar futuros posibles en las Américas, Bogotá, Colombia, June 12–15, 2024 (Conference Paper).

Perspectivas Quechua, Tsotsil y Macuxi sobre el canon literario latinoamericano. Universidad Antonio Ruiz de Montoya, Lima, Peru, December 1, 2023 (Guest Speaker).

José María Arguedas, traductor de textos quechuas del periodo colonial: Apu Inka Atawallpaman y el archivo de la traducción. I Congreso Internacional José María Arguedas. Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Peru, December 1, 2023 (Conference Paper)

Editar literaturas indígenas hoy: antologías de poesía quechua y náhuatl. VII Encuentro Intercultural de Literaturas Amerindias (EILA). Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos, Monday, August 21, 2023 (Guest Speaker).

La función de la literatura quechua en Bolivia: memoria, saberes ancestrales y componentes sobrenaturales en las narraciones de Gladys Camacho Ríos y Noemy Condori Arias. LASA 2023, Hybrid Congress: América Latina y el Caribe: Pensar, Representar y Luchar por los Derechos, May 24–27.

Media Links

https://latinamericanliteraturetoday.org/translator/christian-elguera/

https://cultura.petroperu.com.pe/canto-errante-dialogos-sobre-traduccion/

https://limagris.com/entrevista-a-christian-elguera-olortegui-premio-cope/

https://limaenescena.pe/christian-elguera-ravines-es-el-simbolo-de-la-crisis-politica-actual/

https://www.revistaquehacer.pe/15/tantas-veces-tantos-ravines

 

Image of Christian Elguera Olortegui

Contact Information

Academic School

School of Liberal Arts

Office

Fontaine 316

Email

christian.elgueraolortegui@marist.edu

Phone

845-575-3000 ext. 2581