Latin American Students Association Image 2

Curator Information

Daniela Gamez Salgado, University of KentuckyFollow

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Description

The earliest recorded Latino-student-serving organization at the University of Kentucky was the Latin American Students Association (LASA), whose existence at UK is recorded to be as early as 1969. The president of LASA during this time was Enrique Hoyos (from Colombia) and the vice president of LASA was Roberto Nogales (from Bolivia). It was initially presumed that the creation of LASA was inspired by President Lyndon Johnson signing of a bill to create Hispanic Heritage Week on September 17th, 1968, however there is no direct evidence to correlate these two events.

LASA found support through a faculty-led UK Latin American Council that would work closely in efforts of celebrating Latin American cultures. Cultural awareness programming ranged from free screening of films from Latin America to a meet and greet with an ambassador from Ecuador. LASA was active until the early 1970s and was the last known Latino student-serving organization on campus until the founding of Latin Students Association in 1994/1995.

Curation Date

9-2019

Photo Source

University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center