Andrew Guzman was formerly the first Latine dean of the Gould School of Law.
Andrew Guzmán fue anteriormente el primer decano latino de Gould School of Law.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrew Guzman grew up between his Canadian and Dominican identities. Born and raised in Ottawa, Guzman often traveled to his father’s homeland, the Dominican Republic, to visit his family. During Latinx/e Heritage Month, the Daily Trojan sat down to talk to USC’s first Latine provost — and, formerly, the first Latine dean of the Gould School of Law — about what his Latino identity means to him and how his bicultural upbringing has shaped his career.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Daily Trojan: What does it mean for you to be Latino?
Andrew Guzman: I spent a lot of time in the Dominican Republic when I was very young. It became about my lived experience. It’s always been part of my existence.
My father came to Canada in the ’50s. As the only Latino kid in a very white private school, his strategy — which some immigrants adopt — was assimilation. I grew up in a household that, in terms of its Canadian cultural context, would have looked very typical. But then I would frequently go to the Dominican Republic where everything was obviously typically Dominican.
I lived in two different places, which seemed totally normal when I was a kid. But, in retrospect, it is not normal for everybody. When I was 14, I’d go down to the Dominican Republic, and the cousins that were my age used to drink beer. I’d drink beer with them sitting next to my parents. If I ever was caught drinking beer in Ottawa at 14, I would have gotten in trouble. It never struck me as odd that these were both true at the same time. For me, it has that sort of bicultural reality.
I’m open-minded because of that. I saw my Dominican relatives, I saw my English Canadian reality at home, and I had French Canadian school teachers. When you’re a kid, you don’t try to make these distinctions, and they all resonated with me in the same way.
DT: In the last interview you had with the Daily Trojan, you mentioned you were not ethnically typical. Can you explain what you mean by that and how it has impacted your experience as a Latino?
AG: I am white and I don’t want to be heard as if I’m oblivious to that reality. I didn’t experience a lot of racial issues that are typical in the United States and Canada because of that. I don’t want to be heard to be claiming that I’ve faced those sorts of issues.
The flip side of that is that when I go to the Dominican Republic, the first thing people do is react to my appearance because in the Dominican Republic, I do not look typical. In Argentina, nobody would say anything. Once I was an adult operating mostly in universities, I learned very fast that the Latino community does not care at all. Nobody’s ever said to me, ‘You can’t count as Latino because of [your skin] color.’
I recognize that for people who have a different coloring or different hair or, for that matter, a different first name, they encounter a reality that is different in some ways than the one I encountered.
DT: How has your work on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives been driven by your Latino identity?
AG: I’ve frequently been in places where I’m obviously from a different ethnic background. Whenever I’m in the Dominican Republic, even though my father’s from there, I don’t speak the language at a native level. I speak okay Spanish. In high school, I spent three months in Quebec where there’s very little English, and I spent a year in college in France. I’ve been in contexts where I feel that I’m not native to that community. I’ve learned about those spaces, but that’s what made me conscious of it.
Being Latino means that when I encounter folks who are Latino or Latino issues or Latino groups, there’s an affinity there. However, I’ve tried pretty hard — and I think I’ve succeeded — to not leave some form of bias of caring about DEI issues with respect to one group or another.
DT: What does it mean to you to be USC’s first Latino provost?
AG: It’s a sign of positive change. It’s a little bit alarming that I’m the first Latino provost, especially in our University in Los Angeles. But when senior positions get filled by a particular ethnic group or women, it is a positive sign because it means there’s been enough of a pool created. It suggests that the diversity of the faculty and the academic leadership is reasonably good.
Being the first Latino provost is great, but I don’t feel a lot of personal pride. I’m not sure I’ve achieved something there, but it’s a good sign that USC is at this place. In that sense, it’s a good thing and I do think it’s appropriate to note and celebrate the sort of milestones which are indicative of social progress.
DT: Can you expand on why you don’t feel personal pride?
AG: My role in this job has many components. Let’s pick DEI as one of those. The DEI component does not reflect the fact that I’m Latino. It reflects the fact that I’m provost. I come with a set of worldviews, commitments and beliefs that inform who I am. I think of the role as being the role that anybody in this position should pursue.
I hope I’m doing something out of a sense of good judgment that is not driven principally by my ethnicity; it’s driven by that it’s a good outcome. I’m not pursuing an agenda that is uniquely Latino. To the extent we’re engaged in DEI, as one example, I want to make sure that’s DEI across all the population, including groups I don’t belong to.
DT: USC has been criticized in the past for being monolithic in its Latine representation. Do you have plans to work on that?
AG: We have a long history of both celebrating the Latino community but also recognizing it’s incredibly diverse. There are some areas where it makes sense to speak of something called the Latino community at USC, but there are other areas where that’s less true — for example, in citizenship and immigration status. We have students who have been U.S. citizens for many generations, first-generation U.S. citizens, folks who are here under some traditional style of visa and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival students.
It’s important for us to recognize those things without denying the existence of a Latino community, because there are instances where it makes sense to think as a group. It’s hard to identify exactly what makes one Latino, because it’s not a single set of cultural norms. It’s not skin coloring. It’s not a country of origin. It’s not a country of citizenship, certainly. I don’t get caught up in definitions because it becomes slippery.
El Rector y Vicepresidente Senior de Asuntos Académicos, Andrew Guzmán, creció entre identidades canadienses y dominicanas. Nacido y criado en Ottawa, Guzmán viajaba con frecuencia a la tierra natal de su padre, la República Dominicana, para visitar a su familia. Durante el Mes de la Herencia Latinx/e, el Daily Trojan se sentó a hablar con el primer rector latino de USC — y, anteriormente, el primer decano latino de Gould School of Law — sobre lo que su identidad latina significa para él y cómo su educación bicultural ha dado forma a su carrera.
Esta entrevista ha sido editada para mejorar aspectos de extensión y claridad.
Daily Trojan: ¿Qué significa para ti ser latino?
Andrew Guzmán: Pasé mucho tiempo en la República Dominicana cuando era muy joven. Se convirtió en mi experiencia vivida. Siempre ha sido parte de mi existencia.
Mi padre llegó a Canadá en los años 50. Como el único niño latino en una escuela privada muy blanca, su estrategia — que adoptan algunos inmigrantes — fue la asimilación. Crecí en un hogar que, en términos de su contexto cultural canadiense, habría parecido muy típico. Pero luego iba con frecuencia a la República Dominicana, donde obviamente todo era típicamente dominicano.
Vivía en dos lugares diferentes, lo cual me parecía totalmente normal cuando era niño. Pero, en retrospectiva, no es normal para todos. Cuando tenía 14 años iba a República Dominicana y los primos de mi edad tomaban cerveza. Bebía cerveza con ellos sentado al lado de mis padres. Si alguna vez me hubieran pillado bebiendo cerveza en Ottawa a los 14 años, me habría metido en problemas. Nunca me pareció extraño que ambas cosas fueran ciertas al mismo tiempo. Para mí, tiene ese tipo de realidad bicultural.
Tengo una mente abierta por eso. Vi a mis familiares dominicanos, vi mi realidad anglo-canadiense en casa y tuve profesores franco-canadienses. Cuando eres niño, no intentas hacer estas distinciones, y todas me resonaron de la misma manera.
DT: En la última entrevista que tuvo con el Daily Trojan, mencionó que no era étnicamente típico. ¿Puedes explicar qué quieres decir con eso y cómo ha impactado tu experiencia como latino?
AG: Soy blanco y no quiero sonar como si fuera ajeno a esa realidad. Por eso no experimenté muchos de los problemas raciales que son típicos en Estados Unidos y Canadá. No quiero dar la impresión de que he enfrentado ese tipo de problemas.
La otra cara de la moneda es que cuando voy a República Dominicana, lo primero que hace la gente es reaccionar ante mi apariencia porque allí no luzco típico. En Argentina nadie diría nada. Una vez empecé a trabajar, principalmente en universidades, aprendí muy rápido que a la comunidad latina no le importa en absoluto. Nadie me ha dicho nunca: ‘No puedes contar como latino por el color [de tu piel]’.
Reconozco que las personas que tienen un color diferente o un cabello diferente o, de hecho, un nombre diferente, se encuentran con una realidad que es diferente a la que yo encontré.
DT: ¿Cómo su identidad latina ha impulsado su trabajo en iniciativas de diversidad, equidad e inclusión?
AG: Frecuentemente, he estado en lugares y posiciones donde obviamente soy de un origen étnico diferente. Siempre que estoy en República Dominicana, aunque mi padre es de allí, no hablo el idioma a nivel nativo. Hablo un español pasable. En la escuela secundaria, pasé tres meses en Quebec, donde se habla muy poco inglés, y pasé un año en la universidad en Francia. He estado en contextos en donde no soy nativo de esa comunidad. He aprendido sobre esos espacios y eso es lo que me hizo consciente de ello.
Ser latino significa que cuando me encuentro con personas que son latinas o con problemas latinos o grupos latinos, hay una afinidad allí. Sin embargo, me he esforzado bastante — y creo que lo he conseguido — para no tener ningún tipo de parcialidad por las cuestiones de DEI con respecto a un grupo u otro.
DT: ¿Qué significa para usted ser el primer rector latino de USC?
AG: Es una señal de cambio positivo. Es un poco alarmante que sea el primer rector latino, especialmente en nuestra Universidad de Los Ángeles. Pero cuando los puestos de alto nivel son ocupados por un grupo étnico o mujeres en particular, es una señal positiva porque significa que hay suficientes personas de ese grupo calificadas. Sugiere que la diversidad del cuerpo docente y del liderazgo académico es razonablemente buena.
Ser el primer rector latino es genial, pero no siento mucho orgullo personal. No estoy seguro de haber logrado algo, pero es una buena señal que USC esté en este lugar. En ese sentido, es algo bueno y creo que es apropiado señalar y celebrar el tipo de hitos que son indicativos del progreso social.
DT: ¿Puedes explicar por qué no sientes orgullo personal?
AG: Mi papel en este trabajo tiene muchos componentes. Escojamos DEI como uno de ellos. El componente DEI no refleja el hecho de que soy latino. Refleja el hecho de que soy rector. Vengo con un conjunto de visiones del mundo, compromisos y creencias que informan quien soy. Pienso que este rol es el que cualquiera en esta posición debería desempeñar.
Espero estar haciendo algo por un sentido de buen juicio que no esté impulsado principalmente por mi origen étnico; está impulsado porque es un buen resultado. No estoy siguiendo una agenda que sea exclusivamente latina. En la medida en que participamos en DEI, por ejemplo, quiero asegurarme de que sea DEI para toda la población, incluidos los grupos a los que no pertenezco.
DT: USC ha sido criticada en el pasado por ser monolítica en su representación latina. ¿Tienes planes de trabajar en eso?
AG: Tenemos una larga historia de celebrar a la comunidad latina pero también de reconocer que es increíblemente diversa. Hay algunas áreas en las que tiene sentido hablar de algo llamado comunidad latina en USC, pero hay otras áreas en las que eso es menos cierto: por ejemplo, en ciudadanía y estatus migratorio. Tenemos estudiantes que han sido ciudadanos estadounidenses durante muchas generaciones, ciudadanos estadounidenses de primera generación, personas que están aquí bajo algún tipo de visa tradicional y estudiantes de Acción Diferida para los Llegados en la Infancia.
Es importante para nosotros reconocer esas cosas sin negar la existencia de una comunidad latina, porque hay casos en los que tiene sentido pensar como grupo. Es difícil identificar exactamente qué hace que uno sea latino, porque no es un conjunto único de normas culturales. No es la coloración de la piel. No es un país de origen. Ciertamente no es un país de ciudadanía. No me dejo atrapar por las definiciones porque se vuelve resbaladizo.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs Andrew Guzman grew up between his Canadian and Dominican identities. Born and raised in Ottawa, Guzman often traveled to his father’s homeland, the Dominican Republic, to visit his family. During Latinx/e Heritage Month, the Daily Trojan sat down to talk to USC’s first Latine provost — and, formerly, the first Latine dean of the Gould School of Law — about what his Latino identity means to him and how his bicultural upbringing has shaped his career.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Daily Trojan: What does it mean for you to be Latino?
Andrew Guzman: I spent a lot of time in the Dominican Republic when I was very young. It became about my lived experience. It’s always been part of my existence.
My father came to Canada in the ’50s. As the only Latino kid in a very white private school, his strategy — which some immigrants adopt — was assimilation. I grew up in a household that, in terms of its Canadian cultural context, would have looked very typical. But then I would frequently go to the Dominican Republic where everything was obviously typically Dominican.
I lived in two different places, which seemed totally normal when I was a kid. But, in retrospect, it is not normal for everybody. When I was 14, I’d go down to the Dominican Republic, and the cousins that were my age used to drink beer. I’d drink beer with them sitting next to my parents. If I ever was caught drinking beer in Ottawa at 14, I would have gotten in trouble. It never struck me as odd that these were both true at the same time. For me, it has that sort of bicultural reality.
I’m open-minded because of that. I saw my Dominican relatives, I saw my English Canadian reality at home, and I had French Canadian school teachers. When you’re a kid, you don’t try to make these distinctions, and they all resonated with me in the same way.
DT: In the last interview you had with the Daily Trojan, you mentioned you were not ethnically typical. Can you explain what you mean by that and how it has impacted your experience as a Latino?
AG: I am white and I don’t want to be heard as if I’m oblivious to that reality. I didn’t experience a lot of racial issues that are typical in the United States and Canada because of that. I don’t want to be heard to be claiming that I’ve faced those sorts of issues.
The flip side of that is that when I go to the Dominican Republic, the first thing people do is react to my appearance because in the Dominican Republic, I do not look typical. In Argentina, nobody would say anything. Once I was an adult operating mostly in universities, I learned very fast that the Latino community does not care at all. Nobody’s ever said to me, ‘You can’t count as Latino because of [your skin] color.’
I recognize that for people who have a different coloring or different hair or, for that matter, a different first name, they encounter a reality that is different in some ways than the one I encountered.
DT: How has your work on diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives been driven by your Latino identity?
AG: I’ve frequently been in places where I’m obviously from a different ethnic background. Whenever I’m in the Dominican Republic, even though my father’s from there, I don’t speak the language at a native level. I speak okay Spanish. In high school, I spent three months in Quebec where there’s very little English, and I spent a year in college in France. I’ve been in contexts where I feel that I’m not native to that community. I’ve learned about those spaces, but that’s what made me conscious of it.
Being Latino means that when I encounter folks who are Latino or Latino issues or Latino groups, there’s an affinity there. However, I’ve tried pretty hard — and I think I’ve succeeded — to not leave some form of bias of caring about DEI issues with respect to one group or another.
DT: What does it mean to you to be USC’s first Latino provost?
AG: It’s a sign of positive change. It’s a little bit alarming that I’m the first Latino provost, especially in our University in Los Angeles. But when senior positions get filled by a particular ethnic group or women, it is a positive sign because it means there’s been enough of a pool created. It suggests that the diversity of the faculty and the academic leadership is reasonably good.
Being the first Latino provost is great, but I don’t feel a lot of personal pride. I’m not sure I’ve achieved something there, but it’s a good sign that USC is at this place. In that sense, it’s a good thing and I do think it’s appropriate to note and celebrate the sort of milestones which are indicative of social progress.
DT: Can you expand on why you don’t feel personal pride?
AG: My role in this job has many components. Let’s pick DEI as one of those. The DEI component does not reflect the fact that I’m Latino. It reflects the fact that I’m provost. I come with a set of worldviews, commitments and beliefs that inform who I am. I think of the role as being the role that anybody in this position should pursue.
I hope I’m doing something out of a sense of good judgment that is not driven principally by my ethnicity; it’s driven by that it’s a good outcome. I’m not pursuing an agenda that is uniquely Latino. To the extent we’re engaged in DEI, as one example, I want to make sure that’s DEI across all the population, including groups I don’t belong to.
DT: USC has been criticized in the past for being monolithic in its Latine representation. Do you have plans to work on that?
AG: We have a long history of both celebrating the Latino community but also recognizing it’s incredibly diverse. There are some areas where it makes sense to speak of something called the Latino community at USC, but there are other areas where that’s less true — for example, in citizenship and immigration status. We have students who have been U.S. citizens for many generations, first-generation U.S. citizens, folks who are here under some traditional style of visa and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival students.
It’s important for us to recognize those things without denying the existence of a Latino community, because there are instances where it makes sense to think as a group. It’s hard to identify exactly what makes one Latino, because it’s not a single set of cultural norms. It’s not skin coloring. It’s not a country of origin. It’s not a country of citizenship, certainly. I don’t get caught up in definitions because it becomes slippery.
