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Born and raised in Northfield, Leslie Rodriguez-Vazquez ’20 has always been passionate about supporting her community. When she decided to attend St. Olaf College in her hometown, she knew she wanted her education to prepare her for a career in assisting the immigrant population in Minnesota. By taking classes in the college’s Latin American Studies Program and eventually majoring in Latin American studies, Rodriguez-Vazquez saw how she could channel her passion for her community into a vocation.

“As I started taking Latin American studies classes, I began to think about a career in law,” Rodriguez-Vazquez says. “This later solidified for me after I took a seminar in political science called Immigration and Citizenship with Professor Katherine Tegtmeyer Pak, and I saw myself working in immigration law.”

Rodriguez-Vazquez majored in political science and Spanish in addition to Latin American studies at St. Olaf. She joined and eventually co-chaired ¡Presente!, the student organization dedicated to the education and understanding of Latinx cultures on campus; worked as a junior counselor in Kildahl Hall; and conducted summer research through the Collaborative Undergraduate Research and Inquiry (CURI) program with Associate Professor of Spanish Kristina Medina-Vilariño. As one of many students who has been involved with the Latin American Studies Program at St. Olaf, Rodriguez-Vazquez is part of the program’s legacy as it celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. 

The Latin American Studies Program is an interdisciplinary program. When its co-founders, León Narváez and historian Michael McBeth, proposed a Hispanic Studies Program at St. Olaf in 1974, they were looking to fill a gap in the college’s area studies programs. Programs such as Asian studies had already been established at St. Olaf, while Latin America and Spain were underrepresented in the curriculum. Narváez and McBeth envisioned an interdisciplinary program that focused on the Spanish-speaking world with an emphasis on Latin America. They developed a proposal that was presented to the faculty; it passed unanimously, launching an important addition to the college’s academic offerings. Throughout its five decades, the Latin American Studies Program has benefited from the involvement of faculty from different departments, including romance languages, history, music, biology, political science, sociology/anthropology, religion, economics, English, philosophy and environmental studies. 

For Narváez, a teacher of Spanish who has the unique experience of founding the program as well as directing it five decades later, the key question to consider when advocating for the program has always been: Why is Latin American studies important to St. Olaf?

He notes that Latin America is important to the United States and, therefore, to St. Olaf because of issues such as migration and the country’s relationship with Cuba. Also, Narváez believes the program is an excellent way to attract a more diverse student body to St. Olaf. The student organizations Somos and ¡Presente! reflect the increased number of St. Olaf students from Latin America and of Latinx background. When Narváez became the first advisor for Latinx students at St. Olaf, there was only one student. In the fall of 2024, there were more than 300 Hispanic students on campus. “St. Olaf wants to make sure that all students have opportunities to interact with people who represent different cultural experiences; we in the Latin American Studies Program facilitate that,” Narváez says.

Collaboration has been a hallmark of the program. Early in the program’s history, the faculty of the St. Olaf Latin American Studies Program teamed up with their counterparts across town at Carleton College. By joining forces, the programs were able to offer a joint lecture and music event series for many years.  At one point Carleton and St. Olaf had better outreach for Latin American Studies than most liberal arts colleges in the country, Narváez says. The partnership with Carleton allowed the program to bring to Northfield distinguished experts in the humanities, the social and natural sciences, and the arts who focused on Latin America.  

Nicole Novak ’08 valued the interdisciplinary nature of the program, majoring in Spanish, Latin American studies, and environmental studies, with a concentration in statistics in order to pursue her various interests. At St. Olaf, she was a fellow with the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, where she applied her statistical skills to various research projects, including one that focused on agricultural subsidies and food self-sufficiency in Costa Rica. She also mentored Northfield middle school students through the student outreach program Reaching Our Goals. Her academic success at St. Olaf helped her secure a Rhodes Scholarship, which allowed her to pursue a master’s degree at the University of Oxford. Now, Novak works at the University of Iowa College of Public Health as a research assistant professor, where she designs research studies, collects and analyzes data, and disseminates research findings related to rural health, Latinx health, and immigrant health.

“Taking a multidisciplinary approach was foundational to the Hispanic Studies Program, and I continue to take a multidisciplinary perspective today. The core methods in my Ph.D. program (epidemiology) are quantitative, but having a foundation that included history and the humanities has made me very cautious of reducing people or communities to data points,” Novak says. “This also led me to be wary of my own biases and assumptions as a scientist, and I now do most of my research in partnership with Latino and immigrant leaders who identify what topics, methods, and dissemination strategies will be most meaningful, valid, and actionable.”

“The diversity of perspectives and disciplines we explored in the Latin American Studies Program humbled me and reminded me of the limits of my own perspective. However, it also helped me build the confidence to reach out and connect with others across disciplines and life experiences. I trace much of my current work, which is deeply interdisciplinary and collaborative, to the foundations laid on campus so many years ago.”

— Nicole Novak ’08

Novak also enjoyed learning more about Latin American cultures in her literature courses offered in Spanish at St. Olaf.

“I loved my Spanish literature courses and still have many of the books and short stories that stuck with me,” she says. “Years later, as a Ph.D. student taking historical demography courses and analyzing U.S. Census data about the Latino population throughout the 20th century, I found myself thinking about the short stories we read by Puerto Rican American, Cuban American, and Mexican American authors in Spanish 273.”

In what Novak describes as a full-circle moment, she now works closely with Nick Salazar, past president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) of Iowa and a community organizer who grew up in Muscatine, the community she wrote about for her Latin American studies distinction project. Their research, the Iowa Vital Voices Project (also conducted with Julianna Pacheco, a political scientist at the University of Iowa) partners with the LULAC of Iowa to conduct research related to civic engagement, political voice, and health in Iowa. 

“As part of this we are recording oral histories that will be stored in the Iowa Women’s Archives, the same archival collection I drew on for my Hispanic Studies distinction project almost 20 years ago,” she says. 

Like Novak, Rodriguez-Vazquez took courses across a variety of departments and enjoyed having interdisciplinary opportunities through the Latin American Studies Program. 

“I am grateful that the Latin American Studies Program offered elective courses that overlapped with a lot of my interests,” she says. “I remember taking the Major Chicano/a Authors course, and learning about Latino/x history in the United States, including historical events that have shaped policies to this day.”

In addition to courses on campus, Rodriguez-Vazquez took advantage of study-abroad programs, traveling to Cuba during a January Term with Professor Emerita of History Jeane DeLaney as well as participating in the Global Semester with Professor of Political Science Kristina Thalhammer. 

“My favorite memory was getting the opportunity to go to Cuba,” says Rodriguez-Vazquez. “Not only were we able to be immersed in the culture, but we also dove into the history of Cuba’s relationships with other countries. I often think about this time as it helped me understand a new perspective of life and how we have many things in common with Cubans despite the distance and the relationship of our countries.”

Laura Guzmán-Corrales ’10 majored in political science and Latin American Studies and participated in a variety of organizations on campus to complement her academic experience.  

“I enjoyed being in an interdisciplinary major that allowed me to learn about Latin America from a more comprehensive perspective. I got the chance to take history, sociology, political science, and language classes that were very enriching,” Guzmán-Corrales says. “It also gave me an opportunity to connect my own Latina identity.”

Guzmán-Corrales was very involved with ¡Presente! and the Diversity Celebrations Committee during her time at St. Olaf. She also participated in a study-abroad program through Earlham College called the Border Studies Program, where she spent a semester on the U.S.- Mexico border learning about the history and politics of the border and volunteering at a nonprofit organization. 

Since graduating, Guzmán-Corrales’s career has taken her from a nonprofit in Washington, D.C., to the state government of Minnesota, where she now works in the Long-Range Planning Division. Her experience in the Latin American Studies Program was key in preparing her for a career in public health and government planning.

“I have used my language and cultural skills in a number of job settings. My first job out of college was working at a community health center serving primarily Latine families who were more recent immigrants as well as longtime residents of the U.S.,” she says. “My understanding of the history and politics of Latin America gave me the grounding to understand what their personal and collective trajectories had been and some of the factors that were influencing their health and lives.”

The Latin American Studies Program will be hosting several events throughout this academic year and next to celebrate its 50th anniversary. In October 2024, the program hosted Benjamin Narváez, an associate professor of history at the University of Minnesota-Morris, who gave a talk in Viking Theater titled Race, Nation, and U.S. Imperialism: Understanding the History of Chinese Immigration and Exclusion in Latin America, 1890s-1940s. A Latin Americanist, Benjamin Narváez specializes in the topic of Chinese immigration to Latin America. 

In April 2025, the program brought back to campus retired St. Olaf historian Jeane DeLaney. Now executive director of Field to Future, DeLaney pioneered the St. Olaf study-abroad program to Cuba that Rodriguez-Vazquez took. In a talk titled Reflections of a Latin Americanist in Tumultuous Times, DeLaney spoke about what it means to her to be a Latin Americanist, both in her academic career and her current role. 

The celebration of the 50th anniversary will culminate this fall when the Latin American Studies Program hosts the annual meeting of the North Central Council of Latin Americanists on campus September 26–27. The North Central Council of Latin Americanists represents Latin Americanists in the upper Midwest of the United States. St. Olaf has been host to the North Central Council’s annual meeting several times, often coinciding with the program’s own significant anniversaries. 

Georgetown University professor John Tutino, one of the world’s leading experts on Mexican history, will deliver the keynote address at this year’s meeting. His talk, titled Mexico in the World: Making Capital, Seeking Sustainable Lives, Facing Exclusions and Migrations will begin at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 26, in Viking Theater in Buntrock Commons. All are welcome.

Reflecting on the past 50 years of the program, Narváez is proud of how consistent the program has been. 

“There’s been a consistency from the beginning, combining what we offer in class with out-of-class learning experiences on and off campus,” he says. “Excellent classes on the Hill, on-campus activities and events, outreach to the community, and study-abroad opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries have been of value to St. Olaf students for over 50 years.” 

Narváez is also quick to note that a number of professors have played important roles in sustaining and developing the program, including: Jim Dunlop, Frank Odd, Gastón Fernández, John Tutino, Nancy Paddleford, Bruce Nordstrom, Gwen Barnes-Karol, Jeane DeLaney, David Schodt, Kathy Shea, Chris Chiappari, Kris Thalhammer, Ariel Strichartz, Jonathan O’Conner, Kris Cropsey, Kristina Medina-Vilariño, and Maggie Broner.

“Excellent classes on the Hill, on-campus activities and events, outreach to the community, and study-abroad opportunities in Spanish-speaking countries have been of value to St. Olaf students for over 50 years.”

— Professor of Spanish León Narváez

The program’s impact extends far beyond the Hill in the pursuits of students and alumni.

Novak looks back fondly on the communal aspect of the program. “I remember the warm community of the Spanish and Latin American Studies programs, including the Spanish conversation table in Trollhaugen where I could practice the language with students who were equally passionate about practicing Spanish — and would forgive and correct my mistakes!” she says. 

Above all, the Latin American Studies Program instilled in her the skills needed to pursue her current career in cross-disciplinary research. 

“The diversity of perspectives and disciplines we explored in the Latin American Studies Program humbled me and reminded me of the limits of my own perspective. However, it also helped me build the confidence to reach out and connect with others across disciplines and life experiences,” Novak says. “I trace much of my current work, which is deeply interdisciplinary and collaborative, to the foundations laid on campus so many years ago.”

For Rodriguez-Vazquez, Latin American studies helped lay the groundwork for a law career rooted in advocacy.  

“As a Spanish and Portuguese speaker, I am able to advocate for our clients daily,” she says of her current role as an immigration paralegal at a private firm in St. Paul. “I am also able to connect with clients through the cultural knowledge from my own background and my college education.” As she looks toward the future, Rodriguez-Vazquez is excited to expand her legal education and career, fortified by the experiences and knowledge she gained as part of St. Olaf’s Latin American Studies Program.