Photo Credit: City University of New York (Central Website)
Photo Credit: "Five Demands" The Student Protest and Takeover of 1969. City College of New York Digital Archives.
Introduction
What initially began as an institutional response to the student, community, and faculty protests for demanding courses on Puerto Rican and Black History, Bilingual education, open admissions, ended with the institutionalization of various “units” across the CUNY System for Puerto Rican and Black studies programs. The general ideas of this resource project will be centered in two major themes: provide a brief historical context of the struggle for representation and ethnic diversity in higher education, which resulted in the creation of Puerto Rican, and later more broadly, Latino Studies in the CUNY system; and second, to present a description of the changes, and evolution that these academic “units” (Departments, Programs, Centers, Institutes) have experienced in the last few decades. This resource project is aimed at centralizing the available information of Latino Studies programs at the CUNY system, while at the same time, including interviews (histories) of people who have lead the initiatives for the institutionalization of Latino Studies at CUNY, and current perspectives on the discipline.
Latinx Studies, an interdisciplinary field that encompasses the study of ethnic groups that migrated to the United States from the Caribbean and Latin America, became institutionalized around half a century ago. Initially, focusing on the experiences of migration, racial inequality, bilingualism, and political economy, Latino Studies has faced an array of transformations, both epistemological and institutional.
I also focus on the History of Latinxs Studies in the context of the City University of New York (CUNY). The creation of research centers (Centro at Hunter College), Departments (such as the actual Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies in Brooklyn College, and the Department of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College), are a few examples of the institutional structures that emerged after the student movements of the late 1960’s at CUNY.
My original proposal for this resource site was a historical timeline with a list of key figures that were key in the creation of these academic units, the transformation these units have experience along the years, and the emergence of various research centers/institutes that now exist across the CUNY system. Eventually, the project evolved to its current stage: an overview of the history of Puerto Rican (and more broadly, Latinx Studies at CUNY), along with oral histories of people that have played a key role in the discipline at CUNY. This resource project will serve as an opportunity to centralize in one space the web links of these academic and research units, which are mostly spread out across the different websites and catalogues of various campuses.
Origins and Histories of Latinx Studies at CUNY
Photo Credit: "Five Demands" The Student Protest and Takeover of 1969. City College of New York Digital Archives.
To understand the development of this discipline (what was initially Puerto Rican Studies), it needs to be brought to a historical context. Jorge Duany (2011) mentions that Puerto Ricans have been in constant movement from the Island towards New York City since the late 19th century. The “Second phase of Puerto Rican Migration,” as Duany calls it, emerges during the early 20th century with the rise of industrial megacities in the United States, such as New York City. Many Puerto Ricans migrated to New York in search of employment and “[…colonias developed alongside African American neighborhoods, such as in East Harlem, or Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn” (49) The Great Migration, the third phase of the Puerto Rican movement to New York City, accelerated between 1945 and 1964, where more than 650,000 people migrated from the Island to the US Mainland. This was also part of the industrialization plan of the Island Operation Bootstrap, through which migration was emphasized as a way to develop the economy of the Island. After this migratory experience, social inequalities between hegemonic groups, and African-Americans and Puerto Ricans, laid the foundation for the tensions that resulted in the CUNY Student protests of 1969.
This theoretical framework (Puerto Rican Studies) originated and developed after the City University of New York Student protests during the spring of 1969. Movement leaders “…were demanding the access to public institutions during the Civil Rights Era. During this period, Puerto Ricans allied with African Americans and progressive Whites in struggles to desegregate public schools and increase representation of their communities within public institutions.” (De Jesús, 2012: 1724). These social and political student movements proved a great impact in the emergence and later development of the creation of the field of Latino/a Studies in US Academia (Cabán, 2003).
Photo Credit: "50th Anniversary of the Open Admissions Student Strike" Brooklyn College Puerto Rican Alliance/Facebook
Puerto Rican students and community activists embarked on political struggles for inclusion and representation in the university, not only on academic instances, but also on the claim for re-conceptualizing their positions as agents and not mere subjects of study (128). It was also thought as a discipline that would re-think methodological approaches when conducting social research grounded on challenging stereotypical notions of race/class (128). Puerto Rican students also wanted to expose the denial of admissions to the universities of students of color, among other inquiries (133). The academic administrators visualized these types of programs and Departments (Puerto Rican Studies) as “transitory” and as “symbolic” but never imagined that these would evolve and broaden to the study of Latino communities in the US. Cabán also mentions the reluctance of administrators or other people to contribute to the development of these fields by stating that they were a “threat to US society” (138). Another aspect that Puerto Rican (and in a broader extent, Latinx Studies) attested was the recognition of racist environments that existed in the University, particularly with the “...conditions that deny the very existence of the Black and Puerto Rican community” (259), and resulting in what Vázquez (1989:10), the purpose of ethnic studies: “…invest people with the power to act and change, power to assume direction for their own lives and alter the prevailing societal structure so we can all share what is justly ours.” (260). In other words, this movement that preceded the creation of Ethnic studies was politically grounded, and was highly critiqued by university administrators as not pertaining to “intellectually grounded” traditions of American Academia (260). Since its inception, Puerto Rican studies was “…a social movement of resistance and national affirmation that erupted during a movement of institutional uncertainty on how to react to a population thought incapable of affirming their rights” (Cabán, 2009: 27).
The students that participated in these protests mentioned that during their time at City College they experienced difficulties. Economic hardship, struggling between working and studying full time, participating in the SEEK program (an academic and social support program that provided them with tutoring, assistance in class enrollment, social activities and social support) along with organizing social activism, through PRISA (Puerto Ricans Involved in Student Action). The takeover of City College lasted for around three weeks, and the petitions of the students were the following: they wanted CUNY to adopt local high schools so they could support new incoming students to the University, they wanted teachers to be required to take Puerto Rican and Black History courses, along with a Spanish language requirement course, they wanted more participation in the SEEK program (hiring and terminating staff members), and the establishment of the Puerto Rican and Black Studies Schools in the City University of New York. The administration conceded the following remarks: they did not accept the proposal to adopt the local high schools, they accepted the requirements that teachers in preparation in CUNY would have to take Puerto Rican and Black History, Spanish was “encouraged” but not “required”, they conceded to hire a more diverse staff in the SEEK program and they conceded the establishment of the School of Urban Studies (City College of New York) under which they would assign the establishment of the Puerto Rican Studies Department and the Black Studies Department. By 1973, as De Jesús (2009) mentions, there were around 20 ethnic studies programs offering courses in Puerto Rican studies in CUNY, especially the notable programs in Brooklyn College and the City College of New York (1724).
Digital Document: "Five Demands" The Student Protest and Takeover of 1969. City College of New York Digital Archives.
Digital Document: “Five Demands,” (1969) CUNY Digital History Archive.
Digital Document: "Press Release from the Black and Puerto Rican Student Community," (1969) CUNY Digital History Archive.
Photo Credit: Black Studies Program, Division of the Humanities and the Arts, City College of New York
"Recalling 50 years since the CCNY strike" Clarion (PSC Union) Newspaper, May 2019 Edition
"Estudios Puertorriqueños y Latinoamericanos en el Bronx: 40 años de celebración" Author: Xavier F. Totti, Lecturer, Department of Latin American and Latino Studies, Lehman College
Interviews with leaders in the field: cuny institutes
As part of this resource project, I conducted four unstructured interviews with key leaders and scholars of Latinx Studies at CUNY. One of the approaches for this task was that I wanted to get an insight was on the different generational perspectives on the discipline at CUNY, while considering the initiatives and research focuses of Puerto Rican Studies (Lehman College and Brooklyn College), the Dominican Studies Institute (City College of New York) and the Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute (Lehman College). The participants I interviewed were the following: Prof. Xavier Totti (Lecturer, Department of Latin American and Latino Studies, Lehman College; Editor Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies) José Higuera López (Deputy Director, Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute, Lehman College) Dr. Virginia Sánchez-Korrol (Professor Emerita, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College) Dr. Ramona Hernández (Director, Dominican Studies Institute, City College of New York) Before I present brief excerpts from the interviews, I would like to share some of the questions I asked my participants: Draft Interview Schedule – Joseph A. Torres-González (Updated April 2019)
How did you begin your academic career in Latino/a/x Studies?
Do you see any differences between how the field started in the late 1960’s and today?
What were the major topics of research when you began in the field? What do you think are the current topics of research?
In your experience as a faculty member at CUNY, what are the perceptions that students have of the field of Latino/a/x studies?
What do you foresee for Latino/a/x studies in the CUNY system?
The interviews were recorded, and excerpts were transcribed for this project. All the participants provided verbal consent for the interview process, and for the recordings.
Dr. Virginia Sánchez-Korrol (Photo Credit: Author Website)
Prof. Xavier Totti - Lecturer, Department of Latin American and Latino Studies, Lehman College; Editor Centro: Journal of the Center for Puerto Rican Studies April 9th, 2019
Origins of the Department/Political Climate at the Campus "The idea of what was then the Department of Puerto Rican Studies, began with the student movement of the 60’s. Lehman was not the center of the struggle, neither was Brooklyn College, nor Hunter College, the center was City College. That’s where all hell broke loose. At Lehman, the Puerto Ricans, which at the time were the majority of the Latino students at the time, accounted for around 5% of the total student population. It was a very minute part, and that is true for all the system at the time. The movement really began as a fight for courses in the education department, courses that dealt with Black and Puerto Rican realities, the whole idea was that if you are going to teach in the public school system of New York, by that time, these were the largest minority groups. The push began there, and they found sympathetic professors in the Education Department at Lehman. There was also a lot of opposition at the moment. What the students wanted was that the courses be made required for anyone who is going to be a NYC school teacher, they would have to take courses in: African American History, Puerto Rican History, Puerto Ricans in NYC, and the Puerto Rican Child in the School system. That encountered various problems with professors in the Education Department. The solution was a Department or unit that would teach these courses. The students were aware of what was happening in California, were there were similar movements, at San Francisco State, Berkeley... what would become Chicano, Mexican American, and Black Studies. They were aware of what was happening there in political groups.”
External Influences "I think what also helped these students and their militancy was that they were connected to larger political organizations. In the case of Lehman, many were in the Young Lords, many were in El Comité, the Puerto Rican Student Union (Brooke Avenue), people that were tied to outside political organizations that helped."
Expansion and integration of Latino Studies "It begins slowly, first by trying to incorporate Latin America. At that time Latino studies wasn’t conceived as a discipline, it begins with Felix Padilla’s book. In the mid 1980’s, the Professor Laird Berghad creates the Latino Studies program. It allows the Department to expand and to offer more comparative courses. The Latino part begins in the late 1980’s when the first faculty taught “Introduction to Latino Studies” in 1986. We begin with that, and then by 1988, the students demanded the Dominican studies. By 1991, the Department becomes the Department of Latin American and Puerto Rican Studies. We begin to develop more courses in Latino studies during the late 80’s and early 90’s, then we became the Department of Latin American, Puerto Rican, and Latino Studies, which was a huge name. Then we sat down and realized that the name was too long, and we organized and called ourselves “Latin American and Latino Studies.”
Futures of Latinx Studies "There is always this clash with the concept of Latino and the difference of nationalities. I don’t think that is a problem that won’t ever be solved. That is the conflict that is still there. If we want to think about the next generation of Latino studies, we have to be there. The departments are not going to do it, and when the students fought for departments, they were right, because departments hire. There is an opportunity to create coalitions, and we have different realities."
José Higuera López - Deputy Director, Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute, Lehman College April 17th, 2019
Main Purpose of the Institute – Transformation across time “It is my understanding that the Institute was founded in 2012, but before that, it had almost a decade of work from different faculty, and staff/administrators, and also students, that really wanted an institute housed at CUNY that promoted Mexican studies. Back then they also saw that at CUNY there wasn’t really many Mexican or Mexican-American students coming into college. There were different theories, one of them was that there wasn’t enough information on how to access higher education. The main goal when the institute was founded, and it still is, was to boost enrollment of the Mexican and Mexican-American students in CUNY. Fostering research of the Mexican diaspora here in NY, Mexicans in the states, and also in Mexico. And also the other focus is to collaborate with community-based organizations to empower the Mexican community through education in New York City. At the beginning it was an advocacy center, and then it shifted to education, and supporting the organizations so they can built capacity to serve the communities.”
Relationship with Latino Studies and the Mexican Studies Institute “When I came in, I made an effort to connect with the other institutes, especially after the new administration coming in, and the administration targeting Mexicans…well they are targeting Latinos, but the word that was being used was Mexican. For us at the Institute, we decided to create an informal coalition with the Center for Puerto Rican Studies and the Dominican Studies Institute to present the needs of the Latino community in New York City, so we established the SOL (the Summit on Latinos) where we the frame is more of a search conference in which we all convene with the different stake holders, which can be, researchers, faculty members, policy-makers, and students, to have a space where we could encourage dialogue, and listen to what were the specific issues that the Latino community was facing in New York. We are planning right now our third conference, we did it in collaboration with the Hispanic Federation, with the City Council, and so they were at the same table. They were listening directly from the people. It also helps us have this relationship with the other Latino Institutes, for best practices, to learn about how to navigate CUNY, and for other collaborative opportunities."
Major topics of research in the field "When I started, I really saw an interest in migration studies. Most of the professors were doing research about that, when they came to us, they wanted help to access our network of organizations. Another interest was translocal and transnational relationships of these communities, second and third generation Mexicans in the United States that had access to travel to their hometown; the relationships that are created within those two communities. Another topic of interest is indigenous languages. In Mexico we have 69 languages, 1 of them is Spanish, and the other 68 are indigenous. We saw there was a need there. We also have a consortium with NYU and Columbia University to promote the teaching of indigenous languages. We are also trying to demystify what it means to speak an indigenous language in New York. In Lehman we are teaching Mixteco, Zapoteco, and this upcoming semester we will be teaching Nahuatl. By presenting students that these courses can fulfill the language requirement, we are calling them what they are, languages. Students see that it has the same importance and level as other languages, such as French, and Italian."
DACA "Another topic of interest is DACA students and their access to higher education. We started the Mexican Studies Scholarship fund since the institute began in 2012. We have a lot of students whom are undocumented or are on DACA, professors at CUNY are reaching out to us to do research about access, mental health within this community. Also we are working on topics of health on the Mexican Migrant community, the way their diet changed when they migrated (Professor Gálvez). It really varies. We also signed alliances with 8 other Mexican Public Universities for conducting any research with Mexican diaspora, migration, culture, and language."
Education Opportunities Initiative "We help the community itself navigate the educational system. It’s not only for Mexicans, we are housed in five different communities that have a predominant Mexican population: one of them is Sunset Park, South Bronx, Washington Heights, Jackson Heights, and the Mexican Consulate. We are opening another one this year in Staten Island. What we are trying to do is that, by being there, we are providing information that education is open for everybody, and we are helping them to navigate the system. What we try to do is to have our scholarship recipients help the community navigate the system itself. Either from how to fill a FAFSA form, ESL classes, vocational school, anything that has to do with school, this helps us to be in contact with the community and to promote our activities."
"People thought it was a “Lehman institute” that worked like a Department, but we promote that we are a CUNY-wide Institute. We also have scholarship recipients that are on different campuses. We also worked to tell the communities that the students, regardless of their status, they can study at CUNY. Another task that we do at the Mexican Studies Institute is coordinate fundraising efforts for the scholarships for students that are not eligible for US government aid. We are not only providing financial support, but we also provide them with mentors, and the administrative structure to help them navigate CUNY. The students that receive the scholarships are not only Mexicans, but from 13 other countries (undocumented students), and they give back to the Mexican community."
Challenges for the field and the Institute "One of the biggest challenges is that sometimes, either students or the administrators, don’t really see the importance of ethnic studies. It’s hard to promote minors or majors in Latino studies. I think that is the biggest challenge, for a specific student, who is studying another field, what would a minor in Mexican studies add to their resumé. For us trying to explain that a major or minor is an added value, and trying to understand a specific community, at Lehman college we promote a lot the minor. I think that is the biggest challenge."
Dr. Virginia Sánchez-Korrol - Professor Emerita, Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College April 23rd, 2019
Training in History to study Diasporas “Since we didn’t have the scholars with the expertise, I wanted to study the Diaspora in New York City, I studies a degree in Latin American History to do this. You had two ways in which you could reach out to study communities like Puerto Ricans, Mexicans, or others: one way was through Latin American studies, and the other was through American Studies. My background is in Latin American Studies, and that is how I came into Puerto Rican Studies.”
“Our field, Puerto Rican Studies, transcends those two areas of study. It bridges them. It was difficult looking for Departments or Programs in Puerto Rican Studies at the time, they were just beginning at the City University of New York.”
The creation of Puerto Rican Studies “The Department of Puerto Rican studies at Brooklyn College began as the Institute of Puerto Rican Studies in 1968-1969. It didn’t become a Department until 1972. I was a graduate student at Stony Brooke at this time. This was a period of trying to establish the Department and establish its legitimacy as an academic discipline. I missed all that since I was at Stony Brooke, when I joined the Department the chairperson was María Sánchez. She was the second woman to head the Department, she was with the Department for about 30 years. She had come from the public school system. She [María Sánchez] helped us do community organizing. You can see the evolution of the Department from a small unit, to a state level, to a national level.”
“I came on to the Department in 1978. It is interesting because the field itself was in its infancy. We didn’t have any scholarship on the diaspora that was written by Puerto Rican scholars, there weren’t any at the time. We did have a lot of material that we were importing from Puerto Rico. The problem was that we were teaching in an English language environment, and all the material was in Spanish. Our students had very little access to it, it became a teaching by trial and error upon time, by the type of courses that we want to teach. When you look at the Department today, you can see the level of sophistication it has.”
“The interesting case of the CUNY system is that the senior colleges created Departments, which contrasts with the California State System and the Southwestern universities create Programs. Many programs didn’t survive, because of the structure of a program, in comparison with a Department that can elect a Chairperson, and it doesn’t depend on another structure. The four major departments that were founded at that time were in CUNY still remain to this day. The Departments at Rutgers and SUNY started around the same time.”
Differences between the beginning and now “The level of sophistication and research that faculty are engaging with…when you look at the 50 years, one of the major things you are looking at is a period of instability. They became the vehicles for attracting Puerto Rican and Latino students, these faculty began to represent an increase to the faculty. They had to be involved in enrollment, recruitment, advisement, they had to be involved in other programs like SEEK, and to an extent that faculty in other departments were not. That was not recognized; many faculty that came without their PhD’s at hand, they never got them. Many of them became adjuncts. They found themselves without the time of completing their work. Those first 20 years were a struggle to achieve legitimacy in the academy.”
“In the last 25 years, let’s say, it has been very different, but still, small Departments suffer budget cuts, and are not given the opportunity to hire lines. You’ve got to grow. How were we going to grow? One of the ways was when I was chairperson, the Department became “Puerto Rican and Latino Studies” since that was the way the discipline was already shaping up. We would have been “Latin American studies” but there was a department that also had that name. We shared the Caribbean Studies programs with Africana Studies. You were also giving courses in other areas, and began to increase the type of course offering you can attend to.”
Alliances with other programs “We would offer courses, we would attend each other’s functions, the three small Departments (Judaic Studies, Africana Studies, and Women and Gender’s Studies). As a small department, we had to support each other, we couldn’t be against one another, and we would create these alliances. The Bilingual Education is basically a Puerto Rican Studies program, because they need to have the preparation in what we teach."
Dr. Ramona Hernández - Director, Dominican Studies Institute April 29th, 2019
Beginnings and Trajectory at the DSI: Modeled by Centro “I focused on doing, acting, and moving forward. I focus not much on the time, but on the goals we have accomplished. We can always do more, but we are ok. The Dominican Studies Institute began in 1992 and the director at that time was Silvio Torres-Saillant. I remember that I was a student, and I was one of the people fighting for this. We secured a meeting with the Chancellor, the meeting was secured by the legendary Frank Bonilla, who had a lot to do with the creation of this institute. So when we went and the Chancellor asked the students and the members of the communities what we wanted, and I remembered that I said: El Centro. So the model we had in mind was the Center for Puerto Rican Studies. It was Centro. That was the goal. I was a student of Frank Bonilla. He encouraged me to go to a conference at the University of Sagrado Corazón, and he mentioned “Yes, it’s time for the Dominicans to speak for themselves.”
“What is interesting is that Frank was one of the people that participated in these conversations, and he said: “We have to let them speak, it’s their time.” Centro was the model for a research center, and in addition that it was connected to its people. This is how we emerged.”
“Puerto Ricans knew how to do these things, and we wanted to learn from them so we could do them as well. We were at that stage that we wanted to share, and made sure whom we are, éramos dominicanos, and we wanted people to know that.”
DSI and the conversation of Latino Studies “Ann Reynolds at CUNY Central was the one who gave us the money to start this. The idea that many Puerto Ricans have opened the door to many Latinos, en el caso de los dominicanos es real, the evidence is there. It is extremely important that this history is not forgotten. That is why when you come inside the Dominican Studies Institute and you see two cuadros, one is Frank Bonilla, there is a reason why he is there, and the other is Juan Pablo Duarte. Son fundadores de espacios. We continue to work collaboratively with other institutes, with the SOL conference. Our research projects come out as solid, we have been trained by the best, and we have been guided by the understanding that what we say about our people, it has to be as accurate as possible, since it represents this institution. This is a public institution supported by the people.”
“We have different struggles, the case of the Mexican people, and Dominican people, it is an issue also for Puerto Ricans, even when they are citizens. Tenemos causas en comunes. There is a vision that unites us, a vision that we make sure that our people move forward.”
Beginnings and Evolution of the DSI and Dominican Studies “The overwhelming majority of studies done about Dominican people in the US, we are talking about the very first that were produced in the 1970’s, Glenn Hendrix The Dominican diaspora: from the Dominican Republic to New York City- villagers in transition. The field was in hand of Caucasian thinkers, completely. They created the narrative, they created the field, they didn’t call it Dominican Studies, it was the institute that came and called it “Dominican Studies.”
“¿Qué es eso?” they asked me at UMass Boston during my tenure revue. I defined it, and I wanted people to know that I was defining the study of the Dominican people through a Sociological lens.
“We begin to do studies about us, and the periódicos empiezan a hablar de lo que estamos hacienda. One of the first studies we did using quantitative data, in collaboration with Francisco Rivera-Batiz, an Economist at Columbia University, and we produced the first study using census data. I was always making a lot of noise, and we found each other, and began collaboration. We did this study and se armó el lío, and it went to channel 4, the New York Times, CNN, the study went everywhere. We found out that the Dominicans were poor, and Giuliani was in power, and how dare you say that. I remember Francisco said “Ramona, now what?” I said “I am sorry Professor, you are not used to this, se formó el lío.” When the news outlets interviewed Silvio, whom was the Director at the time, he said “Well, my researchers found that.”
“The field has now become more diverse, including the voices of the Dominican people and other marginalized communities” City College and the DSI “Dominican Studies is housed at City, we also grew here. We have a good memory, we don’t forget the people who helps us, and anybody that gives us a penny. Everyone who steps a foot in this institute knows the history of those people.
“Many of the books there are from scholars who have given us materials and contributions. Now we go back to Puerto Rico, the archives came when I became the director. Centro had an archivist, who is one of the first Latino archivists, Idilio Gracia Peña. When I came on board, he came to me, and mentioned what we needed to do in order to create our archive. The two of us put a proposal together.”
“Why City College? Why not Hunter? Why not John Jay? For two reasons: City College is the oldest campus of the City University of New York, and the Dominican Republic is the oldest colony of the New World, we felt that the DSI needed to be in a place like that. It would remind Dominicans of their desgracia o privilegio. You can take this from any angle. City College was also the right place because it is 137st, and Washington Heights (depending on who you talk) begins on 150th or 157th, it is only a few blocks away from City College. This is the College that is closest to the most traditional, well known Dominican community that had become part of the imagination of the people in the US. There are also two other ingredients that are important to us, it is not only Washington Heights, but also El Barrio and Harlem. The Black, the Puerto Rican and then us. So you could have not chosen a better place than this one. The Blackness is here, it’s us, we are in the midst of it, you look to the East, and there is the Barrio de Puertorriqueños, and in the North, Washington Heights. It was the most appropriate, idea, site for the institute.”
Links FOR CUny websites on latinx studies (Programs, Departments, and research centers and institutes)
Photo Credit: CUNY Libraries Map, CUNY Central Website
Departments: Department of Puerto Rican and Latino Studies, Brooklyn College, CUNY (Link) Department of Latin American, and Latino Studies- Lehman College, CUNY (Link) Department of Africana, and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies- Hunter College, CUNY (Link) Department of Black and Latino Studies- Baruch College, CUNY (Link) Department of Latin American and Latina/o Studies – John Jay College, CUNY (Link)
Programs: Latin American and Latino Studies Program – Queens College, CUNY (Link) Latin American and Latino Studies Program- City College of New York, CUNY (Link) Latin American and Caribbean Program – Hostos Community College, CUNY (Link) Latin American Studies Program, LaGuardia Community College, CUNY (Link)
Research Centers and Institutes: Center for Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino Studies – Graduate Center, CUNY (Link) Dominican Studies Institute, City College of New York, CUNY (Link) Center for Puerto Rican Studies, Hunter College, CUNY (Link) Jaime Lucero Mexican Studies Institute, Lehman College, CUNY (Link) Center for Ethnic Studies, Borough of Manhattan Community College (Link)
Majors and Minors at CUNY (Degree programs)
Baruch College, CUNY Link- Minor in Black and Latino Studies Link- Minor in Latin American and Caribbean Studies Brooklyn College, CUNY Link– Major in Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Link– Major in Puerto Rican and Latino Studies (Bilingual Education) Link – Major in Caribbean Studies Link – Minor in Caribbean Studies Link– Minor in Latin American Studies Link –Minor in Puerto Rican and Latino Studies City College of New York, CUNY Link - Major and Minor in Latin American and Latino Studies Link - Dominican Studies (CUNY Baccalaureate Program) College of Staten Island, CUNY Link -Minor in Latin American, Caribbean, and Latina/o Studies Hunter College, CUNY Link -Major/Minor in Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies Link –Major in Latin American and Caribbean Studies John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY Link - Major in Latin American and Latina/o Studies Link - Minor in Latin American and Latina/o Studies Lehman College, CUNY Link - Major in Latin American and Caribbean Studies Link - Major in Latino Studies Link - Minor in Latin American Studies Link - Minor Mexican and Mexican-American Studies Link - Minor in Latino Studies Queens College, CUNY Link - Major and Minor in Latin American and Latino Studies York College, CUNY Link - Minor in Latin American Studies Link - Minor in Puerto Rican Studies Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY Link - Associate in Arts degree in Ethnic Studies LaGuardia Community College, CUNY Link - Associate in Arts degree in Latin American Studies
References Cited
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Escobar, Natalie. “How 50 Years of Latino Studies Shaped History Education” The Atlantic, September 17, 2018. Accessed on March 2nd, 2019.
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Jiménez, Lillian. 2009. “Puerto Ricans and Educational Civil Rights: A History of the 1969 City College Takeover (An Interview with Five Participants).” Centro Journal, XXI: 1, 176-197.
Luhrs, Joyce. 1996. “Puerto Rican Studies Focus of CUNY Center” The Hispanic Outlook in Higher Education, 6(22): 11.
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