Latinx Heritage Month 2025
As we look ahead to Latinx Heritage Month, we:
- Recognize our Chicanx and Latinx students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community partners.
- Honor the scholarship, creative expression, and collaborations that originate from and engage with Chicanx and Latinx studies.
- Invite all members of our community to learn about this important work by reading these stories, taking classes, attending events, and more.
Meet the Scholars
Learn about a few of the things CLA's Chicanx and Latinx students, alumni, and faculty are up to.
The Pew Charitable Trusts announced the 22 researchers joining the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, including our own Dr. Maria Nieves-Colón.
Read “Maria Nieves-Colón Joins the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences”
PhD candidate Linda Parranto Vital trades theory for practice, supporting domestic violence survivors and discovering her true calling in the process.
Read “Legal Lessons: A Political Scientist's Dive into Domestic Violence Advocacy”
Excellence in Teaching & Community Engagement
The medical Spanish minor equips future healthcare professionals to provide empathetic and culturally appropriate care to more members of our community.
She doesn’t just teach. She inspires. Meet Marisol Galicia Estevez, recipient of CLA’s 2025 Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award.
Read “Marisol Galicia Estevez Receives CLA’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award”
The Chicano Latino High School Leadership Program incorporated expression, identity, community, and leadership into one experience for a group of high school students.
Professor Jessica Lopez Lyman has been recognized for her outstanding commitment to community engagement.
Read "Jessica Lopez Lyman Wins 2024 Outstanding Community Service Award"
The Jesús Estrada-Peréz Memorial Fellowship
Estrada-Pérez was awarded his PhD posthumously in 2016. A fellowship in his name provides summer support for graduate students.
Celebrating the legacy of scholar and activist Jesús Estrada-Pérez, this fund provides fellowships for graduate students whose work engages some aspect of queer Latinx artistic production, cultural studies, social justice issues, and related interdisciplinary theories.
Learn with us
1000-level
- CHIC 1102: Latinos in the United States: Culture and Citizenship (and CHIC 1102H for honors)
- SPAN 1001 (and SPAN 1002): Beginning Spanish
- SPAN 1003 (and SPAN 1004): Intermediate Spanish
- SPAN 1034: Business Spanish
- SPAN 1044: Intermediate Medical Spanish
- PORT 1022: Intensive Beginning Portuguese
3000-level
- CHIC 3212: Chicana Feminism: La Chicana in Contemporary Society
- CHIC 3216W: The Power of Chicana/o/x Art: 1960s to the present (community engagement)
- CHIC 3221: Chicana/o Cultural Studies: Barrio Culture and the Aesthetics of Everyday Life
- CHIC 3375: Folklore of Greater Mexico
- CHIC 3425: History of Modern Mexico
- CHIC 3446: Chicana and Chicano History II: WWII, El Movimiento, and the New Millennium
- CHIC 3507W: Introduction to Chicana/o Literature
- SPAN 3015W: Spanish Composition and Communication
- SPAN 3044: Advanced Medical Spanish
- SPAN 3104W: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Literatures
- SPAN 3105V: Honors: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures
- SPAN 3105W: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures
- SPAN 3107W: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Linguistics
- SPAN 3221: Interpreting Colonial Latin America: Empire and Early Modernity
- SPAN 3301: Advanced Oral Proficiency Workshop
- SPAN 3401: Latino Immigration and Community Engagement
- SPAN 3404: Medical Spanish and Community Health Learning
- SPAN 3512: Modern Latin America
- SPAN 3701: Structure of Spanish: Phonology and Phonetics
- SPAN 3800: Film Studies in Spanish
- SPAN 3807: Medical Humanities and Latin American Film: Narratives of Health, Illness & Trauma
- ENGL 3507W: Introduction to Chicana/o Literature
- HIST 3401W: Early Latin America to 1825
- PORT 3001: Portuguese for Spanish Speakers
4000-level
- CHIC 4275: Theory in Action: Community Engagement in a Social Justice Framework
- PORT 4001: Portuguese for Spanish Speakers and Graduate Student Research
5000-level
Our classes are open to both degree-seeking and non-degree-seeking students.
1000-level
- CHLS 1102: Latinos in the United States: Culture and Citizenship
- CHLS 1112: Foundations in Chicana/o/x Studies
- SPAN 1001 (and SPAN 1002): Beginning Spanish
- SPAN 1003 (and SPAN 1004): Intermediate Spanish
- SPAN 1034: Business Spanish
- SPAN 1044: Intermediate Medical Spanish
- CHLS 1275: Engaged Learning in the Chicano/Latino Community
- PORT 1103: Intermediate Portuguese
3000-level
- CHIC 3771: Latino Social Power and Social Movements in the U.S.
- CHLS 3672: Chicana/o Experience in the Midwest
- CHLS 3852: Chicana/o Politics
- CHLS 3888: Immigration and the U.S. Latina/o Experience: Diaspora, Identity, and Community
- SPAN 3104W: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Literatures (and SPAN 3104V for Honors)
- SPAN 3105W: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Cultures
- SPAN 3107W: Introduction to the Study of Hispanic Linguistics
- SPAN 3222: Interpreting Modern and Contemporary Latin America
- SPAN 3403: Latino Immigration on US/Mexican Border
- SPAN 3505: Health and Environmental Humanities through Latin American Literature, Art, and Film
- SPAN 3506: Traditional ways of knowing & the environment
- SPAN 3512: Modern Latin America
- SPAN 3708: Spanish in the United States
- HIST 3402W: Modern Latin America 1825 to Present
- HIST 3423: Central American Revolutions
- LAS 3402W: Modern Latin America 1825 to Present
- ENGL 3507W: Introduction to Chicana/o Literature
- SPAN 3011W: Spanish Grammar and Composition Workshop
- SPAN 3015W: Spanish Composition and Communication
- SPAN 3019W: Composition and Communication for Spanish Speakers of the U.S
- SPAN 3034: Advanced Business Spanish
- SPAN 3044: Advanced Medical Spanish
- SPAN 3702: Structure of Spanish: Morphology and Syntax
- SPAN 3401: Latino Immigration and Community Engagement
- SPAN 3404: Medical Spanish and Community Health Learning (community engagement)
- PORT 3001: Portuguese for Spanish Speakers
4000-level
- CHIC 4232: Chicana/o - Latina/o Gender and Sexuality Studies
- PORT 4103: Intermediate Portuguese for Graduate Student Research
5000-level
Hispanic Issues
A refereed scholarly series devoted to the study of Hispanic and Lusophone cultures—including literary criticism and historiography, Hispanic cultural studies, human rights, Hispanic linguistics, and other areas of inquiry. Each publication stresses collaborative research, drawing on a network of scholars from the United States and abroad.
CLA Resources
Grounded in the legacy of the 1960s Chicano civil rights movement, the Department of Chicano & Latino Studies traces the intellectual contributions, cultural shifts, histories and political developments of people of Mexican and Latin American descent living in the United States.
Founded in the 1960s, the Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies investigates and teaches the cultures of the Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking worlds. By engaging the expressions of diverse communities, students gain linguistic, cultural, and analytical abilities that prepare them for many careers.
Approaching the study of US culture from a local, global, regional, and transnational perspective, the Department of American Studies' courses challenge students to examine issues from a variety of geographic scales and locations.
Learn about how the Center for Race, Indigeneity, Disability, Gender & Sexuality Studies brings together faculty and students to pursue lines of inquiry that challenge systems of power and inequality, assert human dignity, and imagine social transformation.
The MLK Program in the College of Liberal Arts serves all CLA undergraduate students and specializes in serving students who identify as Black, Indigenous, or students of color (BIPOC).
National Hispanic/Latine Heritage Month
Explore campus resources, scholarships, and events for hispanic and latine students, staff and faculty.
Save the Date
In-Person Event, September 24, 2025
5th Annual Ramona Arreguín de Rosales Lecture: Somewhere We Are Human
The Department of Chicano & Latino Studies' 5th annual Ramona Arreguín de Rosales Lecture is on September 24, 2025, presented by Reyna Grande and Sonia Guiñansaca.
September 9 – December 6, 2025
Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora
The Katherine E. Nash Gallery at the University of Minnesota, in association with Hidrante, San Juan, is proud to present Vaivén: 21st-Century Art of Puerto Rico and Its Diaspora, a multidisciplinary exhibition spanning twenty-five years of Puerto Rican artistic production from forty-three artists working in Puerto Rico and its US diaspora. Derived from Spanish for “back-and-forth movement,” vaivén is most associated with the supposed ease at which Puerto Ricans migrate between the United States and Puerto Rico. Beyond the comings and goings of travel, this word names decades of physical and cultural ebb and flow that have resulted in more persons of Puerto Rican descent living across the fifty United States than in Puerto Rico itself. In turn, to be Puerto Rican is to be inextricably linked to diaspora, Black and Caribbean epistemologies, and a constant reimagining of home and belonging.
