Founding a Historically Latino/Caribbean-serving Institution: An Archival Research Study on Florida International University

Employing an archival research approach, this study explores the formation of Florida International University (FIU) in Miami, Florida. As one of the few institutions to open its doors with a specific mission to promote greater international understanding, this study explores diasporic migration and community formation in efforts to challenge the U.S. federally designated phrase of Hispanic-serving Institutions (HSIs) and acknowledge those HSIs who have historically served Latino and Caribbean populations. The author defined FIU as a Historically Latino/Caribbean-serving institution based on the transnational Latino and Caribbean cultural community formation in southeast Florida between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s. Specifically, this dissertation illustrated evidence in the FIU university archives pertaining to the influence of a Latino and Caribbean demographic increase during the1960s-1970s on the southeast region of Florida, Hispanic student headcount, and the founding of an international institution with geographic proximity to the Caribbean. This dissertation also expressed the importance of conducting historical research in higher education including archival research in efforts to provide a more holistic narrative regarding American higher education. Framing migration as an essential process to the economic and social development of a region (Castles, 2002), the intent was to understand how transnational Latino and Caribbean cultural community formation in southeast Florida shaped and influenced the initial years of the institution