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On behalf of the NACCS Tejas Foco 2017 planning committee, I would like to welcome you to Texas A&M University and the Bryan/College Station area. Our committee has been hard at work to make sure everything is in place for a conference that will open spaces for critical reflection, storytelling, laughter, and strategic planning as we imagine a better future together. All this good work will take place in the newly renovated Memorial Student Center (MSC), which is centrally located across Kyle Field (football stadium) and home to the campus bookstore, multiple meeting spaces, and restaurants.

Texas A&M University is a proud institution with an important legacy steeped in its military tradition, commitment to service, and academic excellence. But as you may have noticed, Texas A&M and the surrounding Bryan/College Station area has also experienced tremendous growth and change. We are a campus of 60,438 students (51,246 of which are undergraduate students) with a Latina/o student population that hovers around 19 percent. In the Bryan/College Station area the combined population is just over 190,000 and the Latina/o community makes up 25 percent of that total population. Demographic changes have fueled the growth that has led to renovation projects on campus, new buildings across town, and a vibrant political environment that two years ago gave rise to a new Minor in Latina/o and Mexican American Studies (LMAS), a first for Texas A&M. The movement to establish LMAS on campus began with informal conversations among the students that resulted in an online petition that garnered close to 2,000 signatures from undergraduate and graduate students. The students presented those signatures to the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts where they received an enthusiastic thumbs up. From there a small group of faculty from across the College of Liberal Arts organized a list of courses that today make up the LMAS minor. As we strive to grow LMAS at Texas A&M, our students continue to inspire us as they engage in struggles so common to institutions of higher learning: increasing diversity, fostering respect for all people, and promoting and creating a learning environment that embraces all voices. The hard work that the students are engaged in is supported by a strong group of staff and faculty that together believes another University is indeed possible. Thank you for your support and we look forward to welcoming you to our campus and to what will no doubt be a transformative NACCS Tejas Foco in 2017!

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Saludos,

Felipe Hinojosa

Associate Professor, History Department

NACCS Tejas Foco 2017 Co-Chair