M.A. Students
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James Bennett was born and raised in the Los Angeles area. During high school, he participated in a research expedition to the Galapagos Islands, where he investigated the effect of urbanization on the Sally Lightfoot crab. While an undergraduate at Stanford, he studied at the Bing Overseas Program center in Santiago, Chile, where he became a research assistant for the Woods Institute’s Environmental Venture Project, “Social and Environmental Transformation in Chile’s Aquaculture Industry”. His involvement in the project lasted until June 2011, when he graduated with a B.A. in International Relations. He spent the following summer in Manaus, the capital of the Brazilian Amazon, helping to found an online ticketing company. After the LAS program, James plans to attain TESOL certification and return to Brazil, where he will teach English, continue working, and promote responsible ecotourism. He loves to play soccer, play in the ocean, play with dogs, play instruments, and play the game.
Oana was born in Romania, where she was first introduced to Latin American culture and society by watching Spanish-language telenovelas. Growing up in Los Angeles since the age of nine, Oana began to learn more about Latin America from her friends and neighbors. She is currently in her senior year double majoring in Biology and Iberian and Latin American Cultures. She spent a quarter of her junior year studying abroad in Madrid and two summers volunteering for non-profit organizations in Argentina and Peru. By studying Latin America in more detail, Oana hopes to better understand the circumstances prompting immigration to the US as well as the various obstacles faced by these immigrants once they arrive. After completing her masters in LAS, she plans to attend medical school. As a physician, Oana hopes to use her knowledge of LAS in order to more effectively serve the Latino immigrant population in the US as well as disadvantaged communities in Latin America. In her free time, she still enjoys watching telenovelas. Oana also loves travelling, hiking, baking and spending time exploring her beautiful Los Angeles!
Daniel Cruz, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, is an international student who majored in International Relations as an undergraduate at Stanford. He considers the BOHO his second home. His interests range from international politics, development and economics to more recently, social entrepreneurship and technology. At Stanford, in the heart of the Silicon Valley, he has discovered a fascinating world of creativity and entrepreneurship and would like to explore more how to design technologies that would help bring innovative and improved solutions to socioeconomic problems in Latin America. Daniel is bilingual in Spanish and English and has studied French, Portuguese and German. Apart from living in his home country and in the US, he has also lived in Costa Rica, and for brief periods in Germany, France and Guatemala. Despite his international perspective he is a Latin American at heart, he always enjoys and feels passionate about sharing his identity, people and cultures. At Stanford, he was active at the Central American Student Association as President, the Stanford Political Union and several other student groups. He has also been a research assistant for a project about land reform in Latin America. In 2009, he led a Stanford Rotaract group to execute a development project in Guatemala that saw the successful installation of one hundred energy efficient stoves in poor indigenous communities around Lake Atitlán among other accomplishments. In his spare time he likes watching and playing football (the real one), hanging out with friends, movies, music and just having fun.
Although originally from El Paso, Texas, Humberto was brought up in Venezuela. He received his bachelor’s degree in Political science with a minor in Latin American and Border studies from the University of Texas at El Paso. As an undergraduate, he was a member of organizations like LULAC, Amnesty International, and other national honor’s societies while working as the Venezuelan International Representative for the university. Humberto was also a delegate for the Model Organization of American States (MOAS) in 2011 and a voting delegate at the National Latino Congreso in 2010 and 2011. He also volunteered with many organizations like Junior Achievement (teaching children basic economic concepts), Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center (translating documents from Spanish to English) and the Annunciation House (serving as a House servant once a week). Among the many topics he has researched and expect to keep exploring while at Stanford are the emergence of a new radical left in Latin America, Brazil as part of the BRIC, the war on drugs in Mexico and Central America, Haiti as a failed state, democratization in the region and the efficiency of the OAS. Humberto also aspires to improve his Portuguese.
Mariana de Heredia was born in Mexico City in 1986 alongside her twin sister. She graduated from Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in 2011 with a B.A. in International Relations. Her inspiration for the study of Latin America stems from her work at Instituto de Investigaciones Históricas Dr. José María Luis Mora in Mexico City where she researched human rights and political asylum during the Uruguayan dictatorship. This work was fully funded through a scholarship she received from CONACYT. Her academic interests reside in human rights, immigration, regional integration and international law, specifically regarding Latin America. Mariana has a profound love for literature and has practiced Ashtanga yoga with devotion for more than 5 years.
Benita was born and raised in Santander, Spain, where she earned a degree in History at the University of Cantabria in 2005. She was born in a Franco-Spanish family and has lived in a bicultural and bilingual environment since she was a child. Benita is fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian and English, which has sparked her interest in cultural exchange and languages. Thanks to the Socrates-Erasmus program, Benita had the opportunity to study for a year at the Erasmus Universiteit in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. She fell in love with Latin America at the age of 12, when she spent a summer in Peru with her family. After touring the country, she was imbibed in the Andean culture and became aware of the magnificence of the Inca Empire. After graduation in 2005, Benita pursued courses in social and cultural anthropology at the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia and began a Ph.D. in Early Modern History at the University of Cantabria, being awarded a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. As a Ph.D. student, she has conducted research on the cultural diversity and intercultural exchange in Latin American societies from a historical perspective, focusing on the social dynamics developed between natives and colonists in the western part of the Gran Chaco region (Argentina) during the 18th Century. Benita has lived in Lisbon and Buenos Aires, where she searched for primary historical sources about interactions between natives of the Gran Chaco and Portuguese and Spanish conquistadores. While still pursuing her Ph.D., Benita was awarded a Fullbright grant to complete the M.A. in Latin American Studies, which will allow her to emphasize the interdisciplinary approach as a historian.
Nathan Keegan graduated from Boston College in 2009, and taught high school in Micronesia and Spain before coming to Stanford. At Stanford, Nate’s research seeks to synthesize his background in sociolinguistics and his interest in the US Latino community. His previous research has included examinations of the Spanish language in Major League Baseball and Spanish dialectology on social networks. A former music teacher, Nathan tries to stay involved in the musical community, whether as a guitarist in a local band or as an amateur producer.
Nica Langinger was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, California. Granddaughter of Chicano railroad workers and recent Açorean immigrants, the themes of miscegenation, language, and diaspora have always played a pivotal role in her intellectual formation. This year, concurrent with the LAS M.A. program, she will be completing a B.A. in International Relations with dual minors in Spanish and Portuguese. As a Stanford undergrad, Nica has been offered many invaluable opportunities to explore and deepen her interest in Latin America. Through studying abroad in Chile, volunteering in Argentina, participating in a Portuguese immersion program at Middlebury College, and taking numerous LAS and ILAC courses, she has developed an undeniably strong connection to the region.
Veriene was born and raised in the Baixada Fluminense in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She grew up dreaming to one day travel the world and learn new languages. At the age of 19 she moved to Denver, CO to start a new life. Veriene is passionate about different cultures, places, and languages. She is especially interested in Latin America and wants to dedicate her life to work towards social and economic development in the region. She graduated cum laude from the University of Colorado Denver in 2010 with a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish. While in college, Veriene used her language skills to get bilingual jobs. She was a subcontractor coordinator for a contracting company and worked in an International organization alongside people from all over Latin America; those experiences gave her the chance to improve her Spanish and immerse herself into the Latin culture in the United States. Veriene has studied abroad in Spain and France and has visited several European countries as well as North Africa. She is fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish and proficient in French, a language she has been learning for almost two years now. In her spare time Veriene likes to read, watch movies, play the guitar, go cycling, go out with friends and spend time with her family.
Ellen Moore, from Juneau, Wisconsin, graduated from St. Catherine University in 2005 with a dual degree in Spanish and Justice and Peace Studies. As an undergraduate Ellen studied abroad in Guatemala and Ecuador, returning to Guatemala after graduating to serve as a human rights accompanier in rural communities with the Network in Solidarity with the People of Guatemala. For the past three years, Ellen has lived and worked in Guatemala City most recently as the executive director of Sister Parish, a solidarity organization that links faith communities in the U.S., Guatemala and El Salvador. Ellen is looking forward to strengthening her analysis of the larger economic and political contexts that affect Latin American policy and sustainable development.