Quin: Could you share a little bit about yourself?
Professor Euraque: I was born in Honduras, in 1959; migrated with my parents to New Orleans in 1967; learned English there, and completed secondary studies at Jesuit High School in 1978. I began at Trinity College in September 1990, having been selected after a national search for the History Department’s first-ever, permanent hire in Latin American History. I teach courses in the history of Latin America and the Caribbean, that stem from my research and professional commitments: History of Human Rights in Latin America & the Caribbean (H256); History of Central American Immigration to the U.S. (H204); Caribbean History (H238); Understanding Latin American & Caribbean History (236); History of Mexico (339); and Biography as History (H301). In the fall 2025 semester, I am scheduled to teach a FYSM on the History of Food in Latin America. I was tenured in 1996 and promoted to Full Professor in 2007; last year I was honored with appointment to the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professorship of History and International Studies at Trinity College. If you want to look at the details of the Kennan Professorships, see, http://kenancharitabletrust.org/professorships-endowments/
Quin: Tell us about your most recent publication: Historia Viva de Santiago Cicumba y Cerro Palenque (A Living History of Santiago Cicumba and Cerro Palenque)?
Professor Euraque: This book will explore an old banana exporting town in Caribbean Honduras whose past parallels the real town of Macondo in Gabriel García Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude.
Quin: I also learned that for this publication you undertook a research leave, would you mind sharing where you went and what you did while on leave?
Professor Euraque: I researched and wrote in many archives and places: Costa Rica; Mexico City; Miami; Washington D.C.; Boston; New Orleans; New Mexico; Chicago; New York and even Abeline, Kansas. In Kansas, I did research at the Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library located there because it houses a special collection of papers of one Floyd Odlum, who invested in the United Fruit Co., a U.S. banana cultivating and exporting company relevant to the Honduran economy until the late 1970s beginning in 1899. At any rate, in all those archives and writing spaces I completed writing and published Historia Viva.
Quin: Recently you have been having guest speakers in some of your courses. Could you tell us about these guests and how they add to your teaching of history?
Professor Euraque: I teach one of my favorite courses every fall semester: HIST 204 History of Central American Immigration to the U.S timed with Central American Independence commemorated on September 15th– Independence from Spain in 1821 In this course, this fall, as every fall since 2017, Central American immigrants to Connecticut speak to my students during the semester, a total of 5 speakers, from Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua. All are members of the Central America United of Connecticut (CAU of CT), a local organization to which I have belonged since 1998. All speakers share their personal migration stories and the steps that led to their success in the United States. The objective is for my students to meet real, living Central American immigrants in a historical context, and not the caricatures offered usually in the media and social media.
Quin: In today’s world, why do you believe studying history is important?
Professor Euraque: Because the serious historical dimension of current lives, travails, and successes, is utterly missing from assessments of our daily realities. Thinking and acting without historical consciousness leads to missteps, failure, and tragedy, in our private lives or the lives of nations. My History of Central American Immigration to the U.S. course (H204) originated with my realization that U.S. foreign policy on immigration towards Central America lacked a historical understanding of the region’s past. During my 30+ years at Trinity College, I have served as an expert consultant to many legal cases of Honduran immigrant refugees and asylum seekers desperately fleeing persecution. During the last five years, my historical expertise in Honduras made me an official consultant to the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to prosecute international cases in Federal Courts in Manhattan. This is history at work!
