Joseph Schraibman is a professor of Spanish at Washington University in St. Louis. His fields of interest include nineteenth- and twentieth-century Spanish literature, the Three Religions in Spain, literature, and the Inquisition in Spain, Latin America, Portugal, and Brazil. His interests also extend to various aspects of Cuban history and literature. He has been the recipient of various honors, including two Fulbright grants, an ACLS grant, and a Galdos prize in the Canary Islands.
Padura has won more than two dozen international awards, the last, the Princess of Asturias prize. On that occasion, he wore a Cuban guayabera and held a baseball when he went up to the podium. First loves never die.