Vice President of Casa Guanajuato and Augustana professor Esteban Loustaunau is moving to Massachusetts to be closer to his family. His wife’s family is from New England and with small children they wanted to be closer to family. There are a lot of things Loustaunau said he is going to miss about the Quad Cities.
“Wow, I think working with the Latino community is one of the things I’m going to miss the most. I worked as a volunteer with Casa Guanajuato for several years, and that really gave me a sense of place and community here,” he said. “I’m obviously going to miss, working at the college, working at Augustana for ten years, working with good colleagues and very good students. That’s something else I’m really going to miss too.”
As vice president of Casa Guanajuato, Loustaunau was part of the executive board, helping make decisions on how to best help the Latino community in the Quad Cities. He was also a volunteer educational committee through student work at Augustana, provided services and tutors at for Ericsson school. “I’m still involved in the planning for this fall’s Day of the Dead event, even though I won’t be here,” he said. Elections for vice president to replace Loustaunau should be coming up soon.
Another thing Loustaunau was involved in was Latinos Unidos at Augustana, a student group at the college for Latinos and those interested in the Latino community. “In a way, I’ll still be involved with students at Assumption but obviously I had good memories working with Latinos Unidos over the years and it’s something I’m going to miss very much,” he said.
Loustaunau will be an Associate professor of Spanish, similar to the position, he held at Augustana College, teaching courses in Spanish language and Latin American Literature and Culture at Assumption College in Worcester, Mass. Worcester has a large Latino community and that was one of the things that attracted him there. “They have a Centro Las Americas, a cultural center that provides activities for Latinos in the area and there’s a large migrant Mexican community in Rutland, Massachusetts and I’m looking forward to being involved with the community there,” he said.
Though Loustaunau is leaving, he hopes to come back someday. “A goal of mine is to come back and visit the Quad Cities see the work that Casa Guanajuato will continue to do. There’s going to be a lot of changes at Augustana. A lot of stuff I was involved in was at its initial stages and I want to come back and see how that develops. The Quad Cities is a great place to live, a diverse community and I am definitely going to miss it very much,” he said.
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