NYC in the 50s & 60s: A Conversation with Joseph Ramos

The Columbia Alumni Association of Chile hosted a chat with Joseph Ramos, a graduate of Columbia College (1959), the School of Engineering and Applied Science (1960), an international fellow at the School of International and Public Affairs (1964 - 1965) and Ph.D. in Economics (1968).

Born in Philadelphia, Pa. to Puerto Rican parents, Ramos moved to Queens at age seven, after an early childhood in Havana, Cuba. He lived on-and off-campus during his studies, between 1956 and 1960 and between 1963 and 1968. Ramos speaks about life in New York City and how it differs from today, life on campus and shares the observations of a New Yorker whose years at Columbia University spanned some of the most contentious moments in U.S. contemporary history.

In 1968 Ramos moved to Santiago, Chile, where he worked for 27 years in UN agencies advising Latin American governments on public policy. He also worked part-time and, since 1999, full-time as a professor at Universidad de Chile’s Faculty of Economics and Business Administration. He served as faculty dean between 2002 and 2006. In 2002 the Chilean Congress granted him honorary citizenship, an award given to few foreign nationals. Ramos is the inaugural recipient of the Outstanding Alumnus Award of the Columbia Alumni Association of Chile.

Alumnus Tomás Dinges ’08JRN leads the conversation with Joe.