Vicente Prieto

MALAS
History; Political Science

Vicente Prieto comes to the MALAS program after having earned a BA in International Relations from Bucknell University in 2015.

He was drawn to pursue a degree in Latin American Studies in part because of personal connections to the region. He is Puerto Rican, and still has many family members living on the island. He chose specifically to come to UNM because, while searching for a graduate program, its LAS degree repeatedly surfaced as one of the better programs in the country. His interest in Latin American history and political science is paralleled by research and study abroad experiences he had in Cambodia in 2015, when he studied the history of the conflict that led to genocide in that country. He spent many days visiting death camps and meeting with survivors. The study was compact, but informative, and has influenced his academic work since.

Currently, Vicente is excited about his courses: HIST 500 (Human Rights in Latin America); POL 541 (Civil Wars and Peacekeeping); POLS 520 (Comparative Politics). He feels this is a great combination of topics, all dealing with his favorite subjects. 

While at UNM Vicente has worked as a Teaching Assistant in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. Upon graduation, he hopes to work with at-risk youth from Latin America and to use his life experiences and education to help them find a path forward.