Elizabeth Barrios
associate Professor, interviewed 2025
Elizabeth Barrios is currently Associate Professor of Spanish at Albion College. Barrios grew up in Mérida, Venezuela, but emigrated with her family to the Aurora, Illinois area at age 12, just as Hugo Chavez was elected president of Venezuela for the first time. In this interview, Barrios describes with brilliant complexity the challenges of being part of an early wave of Venezuelan migration to the US, and how it shaped her worldview, career, and scholarship. She shares her deep insight into the roots and reality of the recent out-migration of millions of people from Venezuela to places such as Illinois. This interview is part of a Mellon Foundation-funded series of oral history interviews that will examine the history and present of the Venezuelan migration to Chicagolandia.