Born and raised in New York, Dr. Barrientos comes to Donovan with years of experience teaching Spanish grammar, culture, literature, and linguistics at the collegiate level. She holds a Ph.D. in Spanish and Portuguese Literatures from the University of Notre Dame, and a BA/MA in Spanish and Latin American & Caribbean Studies, summa cum laude, from the University at Albany. She currently teaches Spanish I, II, III Honors, AP Spanish, and Latin American Cultural Studies at Monsignor Donovan Catholic High School.

Dr. Barrientos’s areas of expertise include indigenous Latin American human rights movements, women’s and minorities’ narratives, post-emancipation to contemporary poetry in Spanish, and Caribbean musicality. Dr. Barrientos is most thrilled to fuse her personal passion for classical music from around the world with her classes, where she exposes young learners to the rhythms and songs of Latin America. When she is not teaching, Dr. Barrientos can be found singing, playing the piano, drawing, or writing poetry and fiction.

Favorite verse: “Hold fast to instruction; do not let her go. Guard her, for she is your life.” (Proverbs 4:13)