Jacqueline Rioja Velarde 

Jacqueline Rioja Velarde has been at Miami University for almost twenty years. She serves as the Associate Director for the Global Initiatives’ Center for American and World Cultures. She is in charge of intercultural and global programming and some of her contributions include the annual Latin American and Caribbean UniDiversity Festival, collaborating with the new international student center, supporting the expansion of opportunities and intercultural connections between international and domestic students, and serving as a committee member of The Robert E. Strippel Memorial Fund for Continuing Dialogue on Justice and Human Rights. Rioja Velarde works strategically creating partnership and promoting collaboration across functional areas on and off campus. 

 

Although Rioja Velarde has held many positions at Miami University her story is unique and distinctive. She first traveled to the United States from her native Peru as a graduate student at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University in 1997. She arrived in New York as a Global Affairs Institute’s Sardon-Glass fellow, a distinction awarded to international graduate students. After graduation, she returned to Peru in 2000 to rejoin the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru as a faculty member in the Humanities Department. There, she was appointed to the Applied Geography Center and the Environmental Studies Institute. 

 

However, between her time as a graduate student and her role as a faculty member at Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Rioja Velarde commuted for three years between Peru and the United States, which became very strenuous. Her husband happened to be working in the United States at that time. In 2003 she was hired by Miami University to become a part of the visiting faculty and she began teaching Geography. She taught  GEO 111 World Regional Geography with a Service Learning component; GEO 121: Earth's Natural Environment; and GEO 304: Latin American Development.  She joined the Latin American Studies Program in 2004, where she taught LAS 208: Introduction to Latin America, offering also a Service Learning component,  LAS 277. She was involved in several initiatives to support the program such as recruitment, mentorship, community outreach and being an active member of the planning committee for the creation of LAS Major.  

 

In 2006 she was hired by the Center for American and World Cultures as the assistant director, and it opened for her a big umbrella of opportunities. She led selected signature co-curricular programming, and managed the center’s communications and marketing plans, publications, and community outreach. She became the editor of the UniDiversity Curriculum Guide. She also taught IDS 153: Issues in Cultural Diversity, and  IDS 177: Independent Studies. Given her passion for global and intercultural education she designed and taught the first Re-Entry Study Abroad course: IDS 156; and developed the Re-entry World Cafe Forums for students returning from abroad reflecting on their international experiences. Being hired by the University enabled her to reunite her family, after years of commuting. 

 

Fighting Social Injustice in Peru’s Dictatorship

Rioja Velarde was born and raised in Lima, Peru. Her childhood experiences including enjoying family travels within her country, and the way she was raised influenced the person she is today. She was the first of 36 grandkids and the daughter of a local university president who was a social justice and human rights advocate/activist and who actively fought against the military regime, really pushed her to cultivate the core values she has for “social justice, equity, inclusion, and civic engagement…”. 

Rioja Velarde grew up at a time in which Peru was undergoing two periods of military regime between 1968, when General Juan Velasco Alvarado overthrew President Fernando Belaúnde Terry and from 1975 to 1980 under the Military Junta of General Francisco Morales Bermudez. Growing up during this period and witnessing her father be removed and incarcerated for his advocacy motivated her to fight for social justice and human rights. Her work during her undergraduate experience was dedicated to this. She majored in social science education and humanities with a specialization in geography studies focused on applied geography in planning and development. 

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In Peru, she worked on projects involving the improvement of quality of life of impoverished and marginalized communities. She was actively involved in advocating on issues relating to social, economic and environmental justice; crimes and human rights violations; democracy and civil rights. Her activism was influenced by the Liberation Theology movement: the preferential option for the poor. Fr. Gustavo Gutierrez led that movement and was a professor at her undergraduate institution. Her generation was impacted by severe natural disasters, two military regimes; terrorism; neoliberal reforms; political, social, and economic instability; poverty; inequalities; public corruption; dictatorships. Many of her peers left the country during the Lost Decade of the 1980s. Despite this, she was able to graduate and attend a graduate school in Syracuse, New York and become a faculty member of Miami University. 

 

Being Latin American in Oxford, OH

Rioja Velarde reminisced over her arrival to Oxford, Ohio. Her life dynamic and lifestyle was transformed due to the fact that she had to adjust quickly to U.S. midwestern culture. Coming from the largest city in Peru, her transition to Oxford was challenging. She quickly realized that Oxford was a small urban community in the middle of a predominantly rural agriculture environment–a local community with limited exposure to demographic and cultural diversity, domestic and/or international, at that time. 

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Regardless, Rioja Velarde worked diligently to create a community and family in Oxford. She connected with the Latinx and Hispanic community through her teaching and joining the Latin American and Caribbean Studies Program community. She found an amazing support system, collaborating in creating a sense of community and belonging through a variety of engaging initiatives and co-curricular programming, and connecting with others within Miami and the larger community in Ohio. 

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She is a former President of the Association of Latinx Faculty and Staff, ALFAS; and is passionate about mentoring Latinx students and advocating for/with them. Over time she was able to connect and engage with several Latinx local and national organizations and engage in professional, service and civic engagement  initiatives. She is a co-founder of Latinas en Ohio, an empowerment platform for Latinas in the Midwest founded in 2009. In 2016 she was awarded the Governor's Distinguished Ohioan Hispanic Latino Award issued by Ohio Hispanic Latino Affairs Commission and The Ohio State University's Office of Diversity & Inclusion; and recognized by the General Assembly of the State of Ohio, Ohio Senate. 

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Although Rioja Velarde resides in Oxford with her family, she is still connected with her home country, a country highly diverse environmentally, demographically, culturally and with rich historical heritage. She is so proud of her roots. Her relationship with Peru continues through family and both personal and professional networks. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she traveled to Peru twice a year, however, now her connection is heavily conducted through online platforms. Rioja Velarde has experienced the U.S. as a tourist, student, worker, and an immigrant, however, she has become an essential part of the Latinx community in Oxford, Ohio.

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Check out her favorite recipe here.

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