On any given day, walking into the Latino Cultural Center, you will bump into students from Colombia. Throughout the years, I’ve come to know more about Colombian culture through my interactions and relationships with the Colombian students at Purdue. The Colombian Student Association at Purdue may have been the first student organization to reach out to me when I began my tenure as the Director of the Latino Cultural Center seven years ago.
Thus, when Dr. Natasha Duncan reached out to me about partnering on a study abroad program to Colombia, I did not hesitate. My hopes were that the trip would pique the interest of the domestic Latino students who frequent the LCC, and interact with the Colombian students. While our heritage is Latin American, our cultures are very diverse and traveling is one way to grow and learn.
Colombia is one of the South American countries I had not traveled to and I was excited to venture to Medellín, Manizales and Barranquilla in the Spring of 2022 with Dr. Duncan. What I was not expecting were the various strong relationships that universities in Colombia had with Purdue. In each city, we met with Purdue alumni, or just missed Purdue faculty who were always visiting. We even saw a student wearing a Purdue sweater and she told us that her brother attended Purdue.
Moreover, the opportunities at each university seemed endless and certainly exciting. Over the span of nine days, three cities and about nine universities we experienced the exciting research and projects happening in Colombia ranging in topics like food insecurity, simulation, social justice, business, coffee production and indigenous communities, memory, theater, just to name a few. One of my favorite memories was when a group of faculty and students demonstrated a project they’ve been working that allowed for a digitized pamphlet or information sheet to pop up a person explaining a certain informative point to you. Trust me, my explanation does it no justice.
Overall, I am grateful to Juan Diego for establishing such a strong relationship across Colombia and for sharing his network with Dr. Duncan and me. The meetings with Purdue alumni were some of my favorite, learning about cacao and regional differences impacted me in such a great way. I’m happy to say that Dr. Duncan and I will be returning to Colombia in the Spring of 2024, and this time we are taking students with us!