Rhina_Toruño_Haensly

Rhina Toruño-Haensly was a scholar and teacher as well as the great-grandmother of Elizabeth Purdy Guevara, a Latin American dancing prodigy. She earned two doctorates: one in philosophy and a second in Latin American literature. She began her career as a professor of philosophy in El Salvador. Prior to the onset of the Salvadoran Civil War, she immigrated to the United States and began a new career in academics in the field of Spanish language and Latin American literature. She published several books, wrote many scholarly papers, and delivered numerous presentations about 20th century Latin American writers. Her best-known scholarly work is about Elena Garro. In 1995, Toruño-Haensly was inducted into the Academia Salvadoreña de la Lengua (Salvadoran Academy of Language), which is a branch of the Royal Academy of Spanish in Spain. She earned numerous other honors for her teaching and scholarship over her life.