Have you heard? It is Hispanic Heritage Month!
By Annette Medina-Plaza, Lombardo Welcome Center Secretary
I celebrate being part of the Latinx community every day, as I am a proud Puertorriqueña, however this year it was a bit different. Want to know why? It is different because I am working at Millersville and in my short time here, I’ve learned that Millersville likes to celebrate our differences which is pretty cool in my book. By the way, being on campus reminds me a bit of Puerto Rico where everything is an excuse to celebrate! I get to speak Spanish with current students and prospective students and their families, and it is not frowned upon but welcomed! Oh, but I digress! Let us get back to the matter at hand. When I saw the flyer from the Intercultural center, I got to thinking that it would be nice to know the name of the first Hispanic/Latin student to graduate from Millersville. Little did I know that asking this question of my supervisor would take me on a bit on of an adventure!
As you may have guessed, the answer to the question of who was the first Latin/Hispanic student to graduate from Millersville was “I really don’t know”. My quest to find the answer first took me to the Institutional Research Department; Kay was happy to forward my inquiry to the appropriate person. Unfortunately, Kyle was not able to give me an answer but did provide the interesting fact that “according to Banner graduation records and student self-identified race/ethnicity, 1286 students that fit the research have been awarded a Bachelor’s degree from 1990 to current”. Note to self: Does that number not strike you as low? Will have to go back to that later. On to the next department, the Registrar’s Office.
At the Registrar’s office, Barb was also very nice and she referred me to Alumni, since their office does not have records going back that might help answer my question. As luck would have it, Gabrielle at the Alumni office and I had our New Employee Orientation at the same time. Gabrielle understood that this was a very exciting adventure and suggested that the Archives and Special Collections may have some information. Gabrielle also had some very interesting facts, for example, Emmanuel Epps was the first African American student to graduate from Millersville at the age of 18 in 1887. She also had two names for me J. Carlos Lopes and Louisa Lillo, both graduated 1915 and 1918 respectively. I was determined to find out if there was anyone earlier than 1915. I went on to research at the Library with Marilyn Parish. Marilyn also seemed to share my enthusiasm and was able to provide two links, one for an article and the other for yearbooks as far back as 1899! I love history, so this was all very exciting!
On to my findings!
Who was the first student from Latin America to attend Millersville? G.W. DeLeon from Kingston, Jamaica from 1865 to 1866. First Latin/Hispanic student to graduate from Millersville? Jose A. Villalon from Puerto Plata, Santo Domingo in 1907. Mr. Villalon went on to school at Bucknell and remained in the US working as an engineer. He married a young woman from York, PA and settled in Philadelphia. While at Millersville, Mr. Villalon played forward on the basketball team. He had two brothers who also attended Millersville, although there is no record of them graduating.
Prior to 1880, most of the international students were from Europe. After 1880, students came from Central and South America. Between 1880 and 1920 there were students from: Nicaragua, Cuba, Venezuela, Brazil, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Santo Domingo, Costa Rica, Trinidad, Honduras, Columbia, Ecuador, Great Britain, Japan, South Africa, Switzerland, Spain and Ontario. Millersville has record of 164 international students attending between 1856 and 1920. Many attended only for a year and did not graduate. Back then, after one year of schooling, individuals could get jobs teaching and rarely returned to earn their degrees.
The first international student to graduate? Hannah J. Davies from ‘Nathe Glanmorganshire, South Wales, Great Britain in 1885. First Latin/Hispanic female to graduate? Louisa Lillo from Santiago, Chile in 1918. Louisa was hired by Millersville in 1917 to teach Spanish, which she did while working on her degree. After graduation, she went on to complete her B.S. at the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 1919. She then returned to Chile and taught in Santiago. She married and we know her married name was DeJara. Although we do not have a marriage date. Louisa died in 1960.
Among the International Students attending in 1901-1902 were two Puerto Ricans, Mario S. Belaval from Ponce and Alfonso Fernandez from San Juan. Among the 1902-1903 International students, we see the first Puertorriqueña, Providencia Octavi from San Juan.
I could go on, and on, and on, with so many interesting facts! However, I will just stop here. Although, I will encourage you to go find the answers to your own questions. For my own entertainment, I will continue to research and see where this takes me. Thank you for coming along on my adventure! Have a great day and go enjoy some Latin cuisine, learn a phrase or two, maybe take up some Salsa dancing lessons!
-Annette
Sources:
https://blogs.millersville.edu/archivesandspecialcollections/files/2012/01/FriendsFoliofall2005_2.pdf (see page 3).