Ricardo Ortiz Advocates for More Latinx Courses in 'Georgetown Voice'

Ricardo Ortíz, Chair of the Department of English, was recently featured in a piece by The Georgetown Voice which focuses on the lack of Latinx courses offered at Georgetown University. Although a diversity requirement was added to the core curriculum in Spring 2014, there remain few course offerings which include Latinx history and culture. Given the increasing Latinx population of the United States, this course deficiency is particularly relevant. Ortíz also teaches one of the only classes which focuses on the Latinx experience, “US Latin@ Literature and Culture.” While it is an undergraduate English class, students who register are typically from other departments and discplines.

“There are always students who just want it because it’s finally a class about their own culture,” Ortíz explained. “There are students from other departments in the College, but definitely from SFS and definitely from MSB who know that if part of the career they want is to have any relationship to anything about Latino culture in this country, they’re not likely to get it anywhere else at Georgetown.”

The article goes on to suggest that Georgetown could model a Latinx program like the one present at University of Notre Dame, which has a greater number of Latinx course offerings as well as an Institute for Latino Studies.

Read the entire article here.