Welcome to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, students will soon come to know the strengths and specialties of the faculty members, the support of staff, and to enjoy the camaraderie and enthusiasm of their fellow graduate students. The selection of new graduate students is one of the most serious tasks of the departmental faculty, and working with graduate students is one of the activities to which the department most looks forward. As scholars and researchers, the work can only become more complete through interaction with students; the faculty grows intellectually in response to students' inquiring spirit. Students will find an excellent faculty who will not only work hard to teach and mentor them but who also wish to interact and exchange ideas and concepts with them.

Graduate instruction in Spanish and Portuguese has been taught at The University of New Mexico since 1937 and the University’s first PhD was awarded in Hispanic Linguistics. Many of the world’s greatest Hispanists and writers have taught at the University of New Mexico. Ortega Hall is named after one distinguished colleague, the Robert Duncan Reading Room after another. Aurelio Espinosa, who wrote one of the earliest comprehensive descriptions of a Spanish dialect about Northern New Mexico Spanish, once taught in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, as did Rubén Cobos, author of the definitive dictionary of New Mexico Spanish. Garland Bills and Neddy Vigil published an Atlas of the Spanish spoken in New Mexico and Southern Colorado. The Department has also been home to several other writers of worldwide fame: Ángel González, poet and winner of many prestigious literary awards, Dinko Cvitanovic, an Argentine literary critic, Ramón Sender, Gustavo Sainz, and Sabine Ulibarrí. Graduates of UNM's programs have added to the faculty of many of the nation’s finest universities and are also found in other professional positions. The department's conferences on literature and language of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds have been resounding successes. Many faculty members have directed important research projects, and other professors have won prizes for creative writing, translation, teaching, and scholarly research.