By Phil Roberts, 3-18-2024
Recently, I found research notes of an article I wrote for the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 7 (October 2008), about the first U. S. visit by a royal–Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil/Portugal in 1876, the 100th year of American independence. It is a long story of how I became proficient in Brazilian history, especially since my main teaching/research area was the American West!.
Story began some 20 years ago after I was appointed to advise University of Washington undergraduates pursuing degrees in history (following in the footsteps of Jim Warnock, now the Rev. James Warnock, Gethsemane Episcopal Church’s pastor, Marion, Ind., and the late Dr, Sarah Sharbach, history professor at Worcester State, Mass. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in the fall of 2001. (“Her passion for teaching persisted during her treatments, as did her dedication to her friends and family. She passed away in January 2004.”) Also on the team was staff advisor Sandra Walker.
In the job, as a 2nd year doctoral student, I was hired to give academic advice on the courses offered each quarter in order for students to follow complex requirements in order to graduate in a timely way. My duties brought me into regular contact with the some 60 faculty in history, many with joint appointments in the Jackson School of International Relations in another building on campus. Sarah, senior advisor, showed me much of the process as her understudy in the office. One day she introduced me to Dr. Dauril Alden, one of the foremost historians of Brazil (his textbooks were used worldwide, even in Brazil. As I did with each of the other faculty, I chatted at the beginning of each quarter about his course offerings. I was intrigued enough to read several of the books listed on his undergrad syllabus. I was much surprised one day when he invited me to join his doctoral seminar on colonial Brazil. Thinking the group might number in the dozens and I’d never have to reveal my rudimentary knowledge of Brazil and only vague familiarity with Portuguese, I said “yes.” (At the time, I did not even know the Portuguese words for “no cheese”– sem queijo– a phrase that i now know in dozens of languages).
The class met in his office–Dr. Alden and the other two students in the class, the Business Administration librarian Gordon Aamot, later the Director of Scholarly Communications and Publishing at UW Libraries and Teri Kelsey, a few years before, hired by the new start-up, Microsoft to run their Iberian-South American translation division. All three knew Portuguese and I immediately saw a problem–I didn’t so I announced the fact and offered to drop the class. None would allow it. “You’ll pick it up,” they assured me.
The seminar met weekly at 3 p.m. Friday afternoon (hence the low enrollment, I later concluded). “Class” began with cups of chimarrão and, sometimes, a tasty brigadeiro. We discussed either an article or a book each week, assigned by Dr. Alden to us individually. I eventually saw a pattern, the others read books in Portuguese while he assigned me Portuguese books along with the translated version, urging me to read as much of the work in Portuguese as I could. Of course, this entailed a trip to the well-stocked bookstore on “the Ave.” the coop-owned University Bookstore. Despite it all, I had to say “Não entendo” more than once! Nonetheless, colonial Brazil became one of my four doctoral fields of study and I took numerous other courses in the subject!
The second quarter, we each chose a topic for a paper. Mine turned out to be on the first visit to the United States by a royal. When it became a published piece years later, my old friend and professor, Dr. Alden, spotted it in the journal and wrote me a brief note that he enjoyed reading the piece and remembered its origins.
Dr. Alden died in Seattle about a year ago at the age of about 97. He once commented on students like me who had unconventional backgrounds. He wrote in a short biographical profile: “(Because of my) personal background as a onetime street newspaper vendor, sand smuggler, janitor, letter carrier, high school dropout and WW2 sailor I related better to such students than I did to fraternity and sorority youngsters.” I’ve concluded that a fulfilling life includes meeting new people and trying new things, often as a result of happy accidents.