NEWS RELEASE

Contact: David West (west@nsula.edu )
News Bureau
Northwestern State University
Natchitoches, LA 71497
(318) 357-6466

7/19/2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NATCHITOCHES-Northwestern State University faculty member Dr. Comfort Pratt will hold a book signing Thursday, July 22 from 4:30 p.m. until 6 p.m. at Campus Corner on University Parkway in Natchitoches. The public is invited to attend.

Pratt, an assistant professor of Spanish, will sign copies of her book, "El español del noroeste de Luisiana: Pervivencia de un dialecto amenazado (Spanish in Northwestern Louisiana: Survival of a Threatened Dialect)."

The book is about a small group of Spanish speakers in northwest Louisiana, mainly in Sabine and Natchitoches parishes. The book was published by Editorial Verbum, a leading publisher in Spain.

Pratt said the people she interviewed were descendants of those who came to the presidio of Los Adaes, which the Spanish built in 1721 and established as the capital of the province of Texas in 1729. Spain closed the fort in 1773 and the inhabitants moved to San Antonio, but many eventually moved back to the area.

Main Menu