“One of the major cultural, social and demographic trends of our time is the explosion of the Latin American origin population in the U.S.,” Coatsworth said, citing Census 2000 data. “By 2050, one quarter of the population will be of Latin American origin.”

In a statement to The Crimson Friday, senior members of the Afro-American studies department expressed their support for the creation of a Center for Latino Studies.

The statement was signed by Carswell Professor of Afro-American Studies K. Anthony Appiah, DuBois Professor of the Humanities Henry Louis Gates Jr., Climenko Professor of Law, Fletcher University Professor Cornel R. West ’74 and Geyser University Professor William Julius Wilson.

“Four of us are senior members of that department and all of us are in support of that proposal,” the statement reads.

The statement also notes that the Afro-American Studies department and the Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies are currently preparing a proposal for getting “external” funding for a joint fellowship program.

“Of course everyone in Afro-American Studies believes it’s important to do work on all forms of ethnicity in the United States and around the world,” Appiah said in an interview with The Crimson. “Speaking for myself I don’t think we do enough of it in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.”

Appiah said there are advantages to placing a Latino Studies program within the Rockefeller Center, located on Kirkland Street, but said that location was not the key factor.

“The important thing is that the teaching and the research get done,” he said.

—Juliet J. Chung contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Kate L. Rakoczy can be reached at rakoczy@fas.harvard.edu.