Review from a student who took SPN 325L
It goes without saying that Professor Porto has an interesting perspective on things in the literature discussed in his class or anything that relates to it. I took both SPN 325L and SPN 364 with him, and I found myself learning with a new intensity that I lacked before. His style of professing goes beyond the boundaries of the mundane auditory lecture: he almost acts out the point he is trying to get across to his student. In addition, I found him to be so well-versed on everything related to the subject (i.e. philosophy, religion, knowledge of other cultures, etc.) that there wasn't a question that came up for which he didn't have a reasonable answer. Truly one of my best professors to date - and I mean it!

Review from a student who took SPN 322k
Prof. Porto was very enthusiastic in teaching this material, which made the class go by quickly. With that being said, there are aspects in the class which I did not like: I have had classes that have given a better account of span-american civ., without previous knowledge I probably would have been lost in the class. Porto also has a very abstract method of teaching, he did not really go over important events, rather we seemed to talk about philosophy more often than history, art,politics, and overall civilization of spanish america. He also relied heavily on the literature of the time to teach his class; there were a handful of times that I was learning the same thing in my literature class. Also, he had trouble relating the information, like I said he is very enthusiastic but his thoughts seem to be processing fasher than he can talk so note taking can be difficult at times. As for the final, it is a bit time consuming it consists of 10 ID's and 4 - 400 word essays, a bit much!!!

Review from a student who took SPN 327
Take any class this guy teaches. He's nice, very intelligent and easy going. He cares about every individual student's progress and is very helpful with anything you need.