Can you begin by telling us a little about yourself and how you came to be doing your academic work?

Sure.

I mean, this is a little bit of a long story.

I was born in Cuba, which for those of you that don't know this, it's a communist dictatorship in the middle of the Caribbean.

It's a pretty terrible place to be born in.

However, since I was a little kid, I suppose I was interested in science, literature, general culture, and so on.

And one of the things I was interested in was a writer by the name of Umberto Eco.

Has art influenced your academic work?

Can you begin by telling us a little about yourself and how you came to be doing your academic work?

Sure.

I mean, this is a little bit of a long story.

I was born in Cuba, which for those of you that don't know this, it's a communist dictatorship in the middle of the Caribbean, so it's a pretty terrible place to be born in [laughs].

However, uh, since I was a little kid, I suppose I was interested in, you know, like science, literature, general culture, and so on, and one of the things I was interested in was a writer by the name of Umberto Eco.

Uh, there was his novel, the first one I read, which was called The Name of the Rose, which is a story about monks and a detective story in a monastery, right? Well, in an abbey, to be more precise [laughs].

And there was another book that was influential to me, Foucault's Pendulum.

Has art influenced your academic work?