Vivian Harvey has led educational tours to Mexico and Latin America for over 20 years. She has planned and led educational travel seminars for such diverse groups as Interhostel, college and high school students, museum groups, the Audubon Society, groups of artists and teachers, and Cooperative Extension groups. This is the fourth year that Vivian has planned our Iowa trip toLatin America.

Seventeen years ago, she started an embroidery cooperative in a small village in the Department of Solola in Guatemala. As time went by, she met Sue Patterson, a former Peace Corps volunteer and US State Department employee, and she now supports the work of a reproductive health program (WINGS) she started in Antigua, Guatemala. Vivian also has a close relationship with, Asociación Maya, a group of Mayan women who weave beautiful chenille scarves in Solola. Anyone who has gone to Guatemala with Vivian has been impressed with this cooperative of over 200 Kaqchikel-speaking indigenous Mayan women, where the women dye the thread at their cooperative, and then they weave the scarves on backstrap looms in their homes.

Prior to moving to Mexico, Vivian was the Assistant Dean in the College of Human Ecology at The Ohio State University for ten years, where she taught child development and adolescent psychology. She is the Educational Programs Coordinator at the Cemanahuac Educational Community, located in Cuernavaca, Mexico, and works with college faculty members and school systems across the United States and Canada to establish cooperative academic programs with Cemanahuac for graduate and undergraduate credit. She particularly enjoys working with professional adults to design programs of study that meet their specific needs. She now lives in the United States, but frequently returns to Mexico to work at Cemanahuac.

In her travel programs, there is no “middle man,” since she plans itineraries, handles travel logistics, computes fees, develops bibliographies, and checks out all other details. She is especially interested in women’s issues, and we will visit many homes to talk personally with residents of villages and towns through which we travel. We also talk with social service program leaders who are helping women improve their families' economic and social positions.

Vivian Harvey's education includes a bachelors degree from the University of Michigan and two graduate degrees from The Ohio State University. As a former college professor, she treats the travel seminars as college courses, with definite plans and expected outcomes and goals, readings, a syllabus (itinerary), and the usual items that preparation of a college course entail. But there are no pop quizzes and no term papers are required!!!

Barbara Anderson is a Families Nutrition Field Specialist with Iowa State University Extension. She has organized and led several educational trips to Mexico and Guatemala. Her interests are family life and the arts. She is a world traveler and works hard to make our travel seminars the best possible.

Himar Hernandez is the Community and Economic Development Specialist with Iowa State University Extension housed in Wapello County, Ottumwa.  Himar has statewide responsibilities to work with Latino businesses.  As part of his extension work he teaches citizenship classes to Latinos and Spanish to middle management at an area meat packing facility.  He also provides interpreter and translation training.  Previously he was director of the New Iowan Center in Ottumwa, Iowa.  He worked with new immigrants to help them find employment, housing, and temporary services.

Himar is a native Spanish-speaker.  He was born and raised in the city of Las Palmas in the Canary Islands of Spain.  He was an exchange student in Ottumwa High School in 1994.  Himar returned to Ottumwa to study at Indian Hills Community College.  He has lived in Iowa for eight years.

Tom Quinn recently retired as a Community Development Specialist at Iowa State University. He currently is a community leadership consultant and teaches at Indian Hills Community College and Buena Vista University. Tom has traveled extensively in Mexico. He and Barbara Anderson have organized several trips to Mexico and Guatemala. Tom's interests are Latin American culture and history.