Margherita Tortora

Margherita A. Tortora is a senior lector II emerita in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Yale University, where she taught from 1993 until her retirement in August 2025. Over more than three decades at Yale, she was recognized for her dedication to teaching, her commitment to cultural exchange, and her ability to bring language, literature, and film to life in ways that connect the classroom to the wider world. Her work has inspired generations of students to engage deeply with the Spanish-speaking world through empathy, creativity, and critical thought.

Professor Tortora earned her MA in Spanish and Latin American literatures from the University of Texas at Austin in 1985, completing a thesis titled “Literature and Modernization: The Short Narrative Works of José Luis González.” She pursued doctoral studies at Princeton University and earned her BA cum laude with distinction in Hispanic studies from Smith College. She also completed studies at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and the Universidad de Puerto Rico, Río Piedras. Prior to her years at Yale, she held teaching appointments at the University of California, Berkeley; Emory University; and Princeton University.

At Yale, Ms. Tortora created and taught a number of celebrated courses, including Spanish Through Film, Writing in Spanish, and Advanced Spanish Language and Andean Cultures—a summer study abroad program in Ecuador that she designed in 2016 and has directed since 2017. The course, which she plans to continue leading in retirement, allows students to learn through direct engagement with Indigenous and Afro-Ecuadorian communities, fostering cultural understanding through dialogue and shared experience.

Ms. Tortora is also the founder and executive director of the Latino and Iberian Film Festival at Yale (LIFFY), which celebrated its fifteenth edition in 2024. Recognized internationally on the Internet Movie Database, LIFFY has become a vital platform for filmmakers and audiences to explore pressing issues of identity, migration, and social justice across the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds. She now hopes to raise the necessary funds to continue this legacy with LIFFY #16.

In addition to her academic career, Ms. Tortora has served as a juror for international film festivals in Ecuador and New York and has worked closely with film professionals from across Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula.

Born and raised in New Haven, Connecticut, she remains an active member of her community. She is fluent in Italian and Spanish, the proud mother of two grown sons, and a devoted grandmother.