Born in Madrid, Spain, Dr. Mariano Lopez earned his doctorate in Spanish Literature from Catholic University of Fribourg, Switzerland in 1990. The next year, he spent time between the United States and Switzerland as a foreign language instructor and literature professor including at St. John’s Seminary before becoming a Full-Time Associate Professor and Chair of the Spanish Program in 2004. Since then, Dr. Lopez has worked across California as an Adjunct Professor of Spanish at St. John’s Seminary, California Lutheran University, Ventura College, Moorpark College and College of the Canyon. Among his published works are: El teatro de Vargas Llosa: una ilusión dramática” (Fondo de Cultura Económica; El Colegio de México, México, 2007); Espacio geosocial y representación ideológica en La frontera de cristal de Carlos Fuentes.” (Castalia, Madrid, 2000); La autobiografía en lengua española en el siglo veinte (Lausanne: Sociedad Suiza de Estudios Hispánicos, 1991). His doctoral dissertation, El mito en cinco escritores de posguerra, was published in Madrid (Verbum, 1992). Dr. Lopez is a member of the Asociación Internacional de Hispanistas (AIH), The American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFC); Modern Language Association (MLA), and the Asociación de los Antiguos Alumnos de Jesuitas (Spain).
Among Dr. Lopez’s interests are reading literature (novels, mystical poetry), essays, newspapers in different languages (French, German, English, Spanish, and Italian), watching foreign movies, and practicing some sports such as cycling, swimming, and running (having run three times for vocations in the LA marathon).