She was not only my first Spanish instructor at UC Santa Barbara (I enrolled in two of her Intermediate Spanish classes during my freshman year in college); she also introduced me to the literary works of Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriela Mistral, and Pablo Neruda. In a word, Dr Ascarrunz de Gilman changed my intellectual life forever; because of her, I decided to major in Spanish literature in order to read more of these great Latin American authors! Also, I still remember how one day she showed the class a picture of a fountain in Santiago de Chile featuring Neptune, the Roman god of freshwater and the sea. (For a history of this fountain in Spanish, see here.) Now, many years later, I finally had the opportunity to visit this landlocked Neptune. Gracias Graciela …