Summary

The Latin American Studies Program operated from 1966 to 1981. It came to an end due to a merger between the Latin American Studies and Border Studies majors in the spring of 1981, as decided by the University Curriculum Council. The merger led to the creation of the Inter-American Studies major, which only lasted a handful of years. After that, the International Studies department offered a concentration in Inter-American studies for an additional two years. The reason for these changes is due to several reasons. The last faculty member with a strong interest in Latin American and Border studies, Dr. Linda B. Hall, left Trinity in 1986 to work at the University of New Mexico. Moreover, the Inter-American Studies major provided as a replacement would not become particularly popular and was eventually eliminated four years after its creation. At the same time, the Border Research Institute was also closed in 1981 due to a lack of funding and the inauguration of a new President.

However, these interdisciplinary majors provided many benefits for students. The LAS program hosted several events exposing the student body to experts on Latin America, provided many library resources, and helped with study abroad opportunities in Latin America. In addition, these majors provided students with unique courses and perspectives. On the other hand, the program did face challenges because of wavering institutional support and its overall popularity among the student body. 

Up until the creation of the Mexico, Americas, and Spain (MAS) program in the 2000s and the Global Latinx Studies major in 2019, there were not any majors that could provide the opportunity presented by the LAS program. Additionally, there was no longer an organization that would host lectures, performances, and conferences for a handful of decades. Forunately, the number of Hispanic students attending Trinity has increased as well as those students interested in Latinx Studies, which has helped provide a lot of support for the Global Latinx Studies major and the MAS program.