Cannot compile moderncv class document when using tinytex in RStudio - r

Question

I am unable to compile an Rmd file using tinytex via RStudio. I can compile the same file without issues on another computer that has a full LaTeX installation.
I have written my CV using the moderncv class in RMarkdown. I have a full LaTeX distribution installed on one of my computers and I can compile the CV without any problems. On my new computer I have installed TinyTex via the r package tinytex and use it to compile Rmd files to pdf via RStudio. For some reason I cannot compile the same document on my new computer when using tinytex. I have tried manually installing all of the packages I load in my preamble without luck. My preliminary searches have not uncovered in problems similar to this one. I am using the kjh-vita template provided by Kieran Healy, though it has been modified to work with Rmd.
I've noticed that if I set the keep_tex YAML argument to yes that the .tex file that is produced is escaping out all of the curly braces (see image). The green portion is how it should look (i.e., how it looks in my .Rmd file) and the red portion is what is produced in the .tex file after knitting the document.
I believe the solution to my problem involves getting tinytex to stop escaping all of the curly braces in the file. I have no idea why this is happening or how to get it to stop.
update: add minimal working example
% Basic preamble
\documentclass[11pt,letterpaper]{moderncv}
% Pull from header includes
% moderncv themes
\moderncvtheme[black]{classic} % optional argument are 'blue' (default),
% 'orange', 'green', 'red', 'purple',
% 'grey' and 'roman' (for roman fonts,
% instead of sans serif fonts)
%\usepackage{assets/tex/moderncvthemeclassic}
%\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc} %character encoding
%\usepackage{hyperref}
\usepackage{url,fancyhdr}
% needed for xelatex to work
\usepackage{fontspec}
\usepackage{xunicode}
\usepackage{xcolor}
% my additions:
% include ipa and bib formatting
\let\sups\relax
\usepackage{tipa}
\usepackage{multicol}
\usepackage[spanish, english]{babel}
\usepackage{natbib}
\usepackage{bibentry}
\newcommand{\bibverse}[1]{\begin{verse} \bibentry{#1}. \end{verse}}
\usepackage{hanging}
\usepackage{fontawesome5}
\usepackage{academicons}
% adjust the page margins
\usepackage[scale=0.8]{geometry}
%\setlength{\hintscolumnwidth}{3cm} % if you want to change the
% width of the column with the
% dates
%\setlength{\maketitlenamewidth}{10cm}} % only for the classic theme,
% if you want to change the
% width of your name placeholder
% (to leave more space for your
% address details
% Personal data
\firstname{Person}
\familyname{Name}
\title{Assistant Professor}
\address{Some University \\
Department of Stuff}{City, State 08401}
% \mobile{}
\phone{[phone]}
%\fax{[phone]}
\email{anemail#mail.edu}
\homepage{www.page.com}
% \extrainfo{}
\def\mytitle{Professor}
\def\myphone{[phone]}
\def\myskype{myskype}
\def\myemail{jmymail#mail.edu}
\def\myweb{www.page.com}
\def\facweb{https://www.page.com}
\def\school{Some University}
\def\schoolweb{http://www.page.edu}
%\nopagenumbers{} % uncomment to suppress automatic page numbering for CVs
% longer than one page
\begin{document}
\bigskip
\vspace{.1in}
\noindent{\huge {\textsc{My Name}, Ph.D.}}
\reversemarginpar
\noindent
\rule{492pt}{1.5pt}
\vspace{-0.1in}
\begin{minipage}[t]{2.4in}
\flushleft
\href{\schoolweb}{\school} \\
My buildin \\
15 Street place \\
Street, \textsc{State} 08305
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{1.7in}
\flushleft
\faUniversity \phantom{-}\href{\facweb}{Faculty page} \\
\faPhone \phantom{-}\myphone \\
\faPaperPlane \phantom{-}\href{\myemail}{\texttt{\myemail}} \\
\faHome \phantom{-}\href{https://www.page.com}{\texttt{\myweb}} \\
\end{minipage}
\hfill
\begin{minipage}[t]{1.7in}
\flushright
Google scholar: \href{http://www.page.com}{\aiGoogleScholar} \\
ResearchGate: \href{http://www.page.com}{\aiResearchGate} \\
#jvcasillas \href{https://www.github.com/}{\faGithub} \\
#jvcasill \href{https://www.twitter.com/}{\faTwitter}
\end{minipage}
\vspace{0.1in}
\section{Appointments}
\cventry{2016 -- Present}
{\mytitle}
{Some University, Place}
{}
{}
{Name of program,
Department of stuff}
\end{document}

Answer 1

After pandoc version 2.5 the \cventry{} lines are not correctly parsed into latex. Specifically, this was what was causing the problems:
\cventry{2016 -- Present}
{\mytitle}
{Some University, Place}
{}
{}
{Name of program,
Department of stuff}
I can knit the document that contains the above code with pandoc 2.5. Any version above 2.5 must be written as follows:
\cventry{2016 -- Present}{\mytitle}{Some University, Place}{}{}{Name of program, Department of stuff}
Pandoc inserts an escape character \{\} whenever there is blank space (as seen in the image above).