Jaime Homero Arjona (1906–1967) was Professor of Romance and Classical Languages at the

University of Connecticut The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Hart ...

(1932–1967), serving as chair of the Department of Foreign Languages for eighteen years (1946–1964). Constructed in 1959 and dedicated in 1968, the Jaime Homero Arjona Building in Storrs was named in his honor. The Arjona Building houses faculty offices and classrooms in the humanities and prior to 1968 was known as the Humanities Building. Born in Ponce,

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

, in 1906, Arjona received his bachelor's degree from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

and his master's and doctoral degrees from

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

. He taught at Brown University before joining UConn in 1932. He also taught Spanish at

Hartford College for Women The Hartford College for Women (or HCW) was a two-year private college for women located in Hartford, Connecticut. It was opened in 1933, became a constituent college of the University of Hartford (UHart) in 1991, and closed in 2003. History 1 ...

, and his photograph appears with other faculty in the college's 1944 yearbook. During his long tenure as the University of Connecticut's Foreign Languages Department chair, Arjona was instrumental in growing the department from six full-time instructors in 1946 to thirty full-time faculty at the Storrs campus alone by 1964. Under his leadership, the department launched doctoral programs in French, German, and Spanish. Arjona was an expert on Spanish playwright and poet

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio ( , ; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist. He was one of the key figures in the Spanish Golden Age of Baroque literature. His reputation in the world of Spanish literature ...

and identified several new works by de Vega using a statistical text analysis method that Arjona devised. He authored or coauthored several Spanish translations, textbooks, and other publications. He was also a member of

Phi Kappa Phi The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...

, the

Modern Language Association The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "st ...

, the American Association of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese, and the

Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences The Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences is a learned society founded in 1799 in New Haven, Connecticut "to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest and happiness of a free and virtuous people." Its purpose is the ...

. Arjona stepped down as department chair following a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which may tr ...

in 1964. He died of a second heart attack in 1967 and was interred at Storrs Cemetery, in

Storrs, Connecticut Storrs is a village and census-designated place (CDP) in the New England town, town of Mansfield, Connecticut, Mansfield in eastern Tolland County, Connecticut, Tolland County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 15,344 at the 2010 Unite ...

on a hill overlooking the campus. He was survived by his wife, Olga Marie Rodalviez Arjona, formerly of

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

, and their two children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arjona, Jaime Homero Puerto Rican academics Linguists from the United States Brown University alumni University of Connecticut faculty Educators from Ponce, Puerto Rico 1906 births 1967 deaths 20th-century linguists Members of Phi Kappa Phi