On my first blog post last fall, I shared evidence of what I still think is the one of the earliest specifically-Mexican student clubs in the United States at Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate, Tennessee.
Today I found this information from 1906 suggesting that the Sociedad Hispano-Americana may have been the first Mexican student club — a fraternity, in fact — that was actually open to all students of “Spanish descent.”
The fact that this organization was founded at Louisiana State University makes sense given that many Mexican students from the Yucatán Peninsula, located in the Caribbean, attended college in the U.S. South, the easiest region for them to access.
But I am surprised that the second and third chapters were founded in Iowa.
I’ll report back when I find more information on this.
Rachel Grace Newman 