René Alberto Campos

René Campos was born on September 30, 1946, or at least that is what official documents say. He was actually born on August 19, but he was postdated by a clerical error. This mistake allowed him to claim two birthdays each year, and those who knew him have been happy to celebrate his birth twice over and many times more. He was born in Corral, a small coastal town in southern Chile. He grew up there and then attended the Universidad de Concepción, where he took an M.Ed. in Spanish in 1970. His career as a teacher of Spanish began at a high school in Concepción, and later he became an instructor at the university. But then in 1973 came the Chilean coup. He might have stayed in Chile had it not been for the violent and repressive dictatorship instituted after the coup. Both to leave the dictatorship and to continue his education, he entered the doctoral program at the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1975. There he found lifelong friends, with whom he could argue, play music, sing, and enjoy one other's company. While he was there, he also met the man who was to become his life partner, Joel Brereton, who was teaching in New York at that time. René completed his Ph.D. in 1982 and held several part-time teaching positions in New York until in 1984 he went to the University of Missouri-Columbia, where Joel was then also teaching. Later, in 1992, he joined the faculty at Spelman College in Atlanta, and it was there he spent the best part of his career, the best part in every sense. His classes on Latin American literature attracted enthusiastic students with whom he shared his passion for the art, literature, and music of South America. His students carefully analyzed novels, they sang folk songs to his accompanying guitar, and they wrote poetry in the style of Pablo Neruda, the Chilean Nobel laureate. As an exile himself, René brought an immigrant's story to his students, giving them a richer understanding for the gifts of both art and democracy. The originality and diversity of his teaching were reflected also in his scholarship. The intellectual quality that René most admired and that he exemplified in his own work was the ability to find unexpected connections across different forms of art and culture. He was particularly interested in the interconnections between popular culture and the literary arts. His principal work was "Espejos: La textura cinemática en La traición de Rita Hayworth" ("Mirrors: The Cinematic Texture in Betrayed by Rita Hayworth"), a book that studied the function of Rita Hayworth's films in the novel by the Argentinian writer, Manuel Puig. He also wrote and lectured on the roles of songs, detective novels, theatrical farce, and film noir in other novels and short stories. When René went to Atlanta, Joel was still at the University of Missouri until he also left to go to University of Texas, Austin. Academic careers are difficult to coordinate, and while the two were often separated, they were never apart. They commuted between Columbia and Atlanta and then Austin and Atlanta and spent time together whenever they could. In 2010, René retired from Spelman and moved to Austin where Joel and he remained together. Some summers, they traveled to Europe, especially Italy, which René loved. On these travels they visited museums and churches, clubs and ruins, or just walked the streets. But they also spent summers in a lake cottage in Canada, where they visited flea markets and farmers' markets, read, or just watched the wildlife. René found joy in many things and gave joy to many people. After a long illness, René passed away at his home on July 18, 2025. He is survived by Joel and by his sister, Rosa Campos Pérez, and her children, grandchildren, and greatgrandchildren. We miss him. A memorial for René is planned for October.

René Alberto Campos

September 30, 1946 - July 18, 2025