Department of History records

Northeastern University offers an undergraduate minor in Latino, Latin American and Caribbean Studies, an interdisciplinary program in history, music, political science, language, and sociology/anthropology. In addition to taking classes, students participate in co-operative education opportunities, community-based internships, and study-abroad programs. History 1537, "Latin American and the Caribbean in Boston," one of five undergraduate history courses offered in the program, is described in the 1998 Undergraduate Catalog: "Explores the experiences of Latin American and Caribbean origin groups - particularly Brazilians, Central Americans, Dominicans, Haitians, Puerto Ricans and West Indians - in twentieth century Boston. Studies the historical, economic, political and cultural forces affecting immigration from each country. " In 1998, the class was taught by Assistant Professor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez.

Felix V. Matos Rodriguez (1962- ) grew up in San Juan and has lived in the northeastern United States since 1980. He graduated cum laude from Yale University in Latin American Studies, and earned two master's degrees and a Ph.D. in history at Columbia University. Rodriguez was assistant professor of history at NU from 1994 to 1999 and interim director of Northeastern University's Latino/a Student Cultural Center, founded in 1997. He left Northeastern in 1999 for Hunter College, City University of New York, where he became director of The Center for Puerto Ricans Studies, as well as tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Africana and Puerto Rican/Latino Studies. He has authored several publications on the role of women in Puerto Rican social history and on the history of Puerto Rican communities in the United States.

In 2003 the course History 1537 was changed to HST U 432 during the semester conversion process.