Students whose families come from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and other Central American countries will delve into the history and culture of their heritage through what is considered the first Central American undergraduate program in California, which will begin in spring 2023 at East Los Angeles College.
ELAC is the only school in the network in California that offers decided courses in Central American studies. Now, it’s about to be the first to allow students to earn an associate’s degree in the field.
“We are pioneers in this program,” said Alberto Román, president of ELAC, which since 2015 has taught courses in Central American studies. “We hope that we will be the first among many others, that others will be encouraged and stand by our steps. “
With the implementation of the program, which was announced on August 19, ELAC will increase its number of Central American exam categories from 3 to 5 (these courses will be “Introduction to Central American Studies,” “The Central American Experience,” “Central American Literature,” “Central American Cinema,” and “Central American Art. “)
Students will earn an AA and then move on to a four-year school or college to complete two more years and earn a bachelor’s degree.
Los Angeles County is home to the largest concentration of Central Americans in the United States, totaling at least 800,000 more people, adding Salvadorans (421,573), Guatemalans (265,916), Hondurans (50,853), Nicaraguans (36,917) and Costa Ricans. (9. 844). About 5. 3 million other people of Central American descent live in the United States.
Approximately 35,000 scholars attend ELAC annually, 75% of whom are Latino; 20% of Latino scholars are of Central American descent.
“This program is a wonderful opportunity. This opens many doors for academics of Central American descent who need to learn more about their culture,” said Lana Leos, the daughter of a Guatemalan father and Salvadoran mother who studies nursing at ELAC.
The new ELAC initiative builds on the precedent set through Cal State Northridge when it introduced the first Central American university program in the United States in 2000. In 2015, CSUN established its Department of Central American and Cross-Border Studies and lately offers more than 25 courses in disciplines such as sociology, anthropology, history, art, migration and political science, among others.
Jocelyn Duarte, who earned a bachelor’s degree in Central American Studies at CSUN, started as a coach at ELAC in 2016 and, with her experience, helped identify ELAC’s new curriculum and expand its curriculum.
“We need academics to enroll in the courses, but the concept is to look beyond,” said Duarte, who is of Salvadoran descent. “By creating the program and having a full-time [professor] position, you put resources in position and make sure it’s going to be institutionalized. “
Nancy Ramirez, an English instructor at ELAC, is pleased that ELAC is taking this step because academics will perceive the sacrifices many of their immigrant parents made in coming to the United States. The vast majority of those immigrants were fleeing economic hardship, herbal disasters, or the violence and trauma of war.
“The importance of being informed from our history is that it will rise to our identity as Central Americans,” said Ramirez, who stressed that it will “inform students from the stories of war, but also from our beautiful culture and art. “
The parents of another MEMBER OF THE ELAC school, Nora Zepeda, arrived from El Salvador in 1963, long before the civil war that ravaged the country. Zepeda, a Spanish teacher, said that when she began reading her parents’ language with non-Latino instructors, her categories lacked the rich context needed to learn more about her inherited culture.
“My schoolchildren will have the opportunity to take the exam in another setting. They will identify with the teachers, the culture, the Spanish and they will have reports that I have not had,” he said.
Kelly Velasquez, a political science professor at ELAC, said the new program could also inform non-Latin American communities about the history of Central American nations, adding the role that U. S. monetary interventions play in the history of Central American nations. The U. S. military’s adventurism have played a role in driving migration to the United States.
“People from other cultures are going to be able to learn more about our history and why we’re here,” said Velasquez, whose parents left El Salvador in the 1980s. “The influence of the United States, Central America has been very great, and migration is the result of all this. “
Many young immigrants are unaware of this environment. Jesenia Yánez, daughter of a Mexican mother and Guatemalan father, this week completed her third semester at ELAC. Her purpose is to move to UC Berkeley, where she needs to earn a bachelor’s degree in media studies.
The 18-year-old said her father, who is of Mayan origin and speaks K’iche,’ has been very discreet about her culture and history. First under Spanish colonial rule, then under the dictatorship of the army, the Mayan population endured centuries of discrimination. , economic oppression and genocidal war: a brutal legacy that was masked through concern and silence. However, Mayan society has retained its unique artistic vitality.
Now Yánez knows that he can this history and culture as a component of his school’s expanded Central American offerings.
“This is a wonderful opportunity. Regardless, I can explore that component of my culture that has never been addressed at home,” he said.
The program also excites Edwin Sandoval, 19, who left his in Santa Ana, El Salvador, in 2010 and is taking on categories that will allow him to continue his electrical engineering studies.
Sandoval understands that his network is suffering from negative stigma. He thinks most of the time we communicate about Central Americans in reference to wars, migration, and violence. With systems like elAC, he thinks, those perceptions can change.
“We finally have representation here,” he said. Now that we have the Central American curriculum, they will inform us more about the culture and history. And others will learn more about us.
Administrators hope the elac program will be a style for the other 8 establishments that make up the Los Angeles Community College District and then be implemented at the state level.
“We are here to magnify this program in our district of nine schools in the network,” said Francisco Rodriguez, rector of the university district, who said that of the 200,000 district fellows enrolled for the next semester, 62 percent are Latino and 24 percent are Central American. . .
Being in a progressive state with the country’s largest Latin American population makes ELAC the best position to “initiate university systems to magnify the importance of Central American culture, history and diaspora,” Rodriguez said.
“We believe we can launch a style for the rest of California and the country. Why not?”
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A native of El Salvador, Soudi Jiménez graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism from UES. Before joining the Los Angeles Times en Español he worked at Megavisión (Canal 21) in Los Angeles, The Salvadoran capital, Radio World International and Hoy Los Angeles.
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