As the world celebrates Argentina’s win over France in the football World Cup, a Centre for Latin Studies (CLAS) was started at the University of Kerala from Monday. The CLAS programme was inaugurated by state Finance Minister K N Balagopal, who said the new course was commenced as part of the schemes announced in the last budget for encouraging studies on Latin America in view of its similarities with Kerala on various aspects, including the love for football.
In fact, one of the academic sessions which were included as part of the inaugural program was on the topic — ‘Football, the Passion that Connects: Towards New Cultural Formations with Special Reference to Latin America and Kerala’, Balagopal said in a social media post.
He said the idea behind CLAS was to utilise the mutual potential of Latin America and the southern state in various fields, including agriculture, tourism, literature and education. The minister also said that CLAS of the University of Kerala was functioning out of a building built at a cost of Rs 25 lakh from the MP fund allotted to him when he was a member of Rajya Sabha.
The academic sessions which would be held during the day are on ‘Comparative Agriculture’ and ‘Culture and Education’. The presentation on the topic of football is a part of the latter of the two sessions.
Why to study Latin America
Latin America in not only hving geographical diversity, but the cultural and racial diversity as well. Latin America has the largest diasporas of Italians, Lebanese Spaniards, Portuguese, Japanese and Africans. The region also has the huge population of German, Palestinian, French, Chinese and Jewish people.
Countries included in Latin America
Argentines
Bolivians
Brazilians
Californios
Chileans
Colombians
Costa Ricans
Cubans
Dekasegi
Dominicans
Ecuadorians
Filipinos
Guatemalans
Haitians
Hondurans
History of Latin America
Japanese Mexicans
Latin American culture
Latinos
Los Angeles, California
Mexicans
Miami
Neomexicanos
Nicaraguans
Nuyoricans
Panamanians
Paraguayans
Peruvians
Puerto Ricans
Québécois people
Salvadorans
Tejanos
Uruguayans
Venezuelans
