The Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) has implemented the new Area of Hispanic American Studies, under the Miguel Hernández Chair directed by Professor Francisco Esteve, the result of a specific collaboration agreement between the UMH vice rectorates of International Relations and Institutional Relations and the Academic Language Institute. Its main objective is to project the Miguel Hernández Chair and the Miguel Hernández University within the United States, establishing a framework for action by relations with North American academic institutions that promote a forum between Hispanic American (Chicano) and Spanish (Mediterranean) literature.

Furthermore, the collaboration commitment contemplates disseminating in the United States the first official UMH study abroad program, Mediterranean Cultural Studies, in addition to other similar activities directed at students and faculty from North American universities.

Armando Miguélez (ALI Abroad), Vicente Micol (International Relations), and Mª Teresa Pérez (Institutional Relations) signing the collaboration agreement between the UMH and ALI.

The collaboration agreement between the UMH and the Academic Language Institute was finalized by UMH Vice Rector for Institutional Relations, María Teresa Pérez Vázquez; UMH Vice Rector for International Relations, Vicente Micol; and the director of the Academic Language Institute, academic Armando Miguélez.

Deputy Vice Rector for International Relations, Associate Professor José Luis González, will present the new UMH Area of Hispanic American Studies and the Mediterranean Cultural Studies program at the 10th International Conference on Chicano Literature and Latino Studies being held at the Complutense University of Madrid, a meeting in which a hundred North American and European academics are taking part.