Ernesto Chévere Hernández
My name is Ernesto Chévere Hernández and I am from Santurce in San Juan, Puerto Rico. My motivations have always been to serve my community, and I have dedicated most of my adult life to community empowerment and organization in addition to education. I’m one of the founders and spokespeople for Solidaridad para Puerto Rico desde Europa, as well as director of the magazine Sin Norte, dedicated to migrant communities in Spain. I truly enjoy teaching, so I don’t really need an escape from it, but whenever I do, I work with music, specifically composing, and I also like theater, film and writing. My goals are to keep on learning every day and to continue empowering communities and students.
"Having goals is fundamental to being well centered individuals with a purpose, and nothing beats the satisfaction of knowing we are meant for something, and that something is for us to decide."
Chasing after goals with a sense of purpose
With a rich, multidisciplinary education and work history, and a variety of hobbies and side projects, Ernesto Chévere Hernández is about as well-rounded an individual as you’ll ever meet. In addition to teaching two core courses for the Bachelor in Behavioral and Social Sciences, Ernesto is also a student advisor and Capstone Project director at IE University. And he somehow finds plenty of time to work with other impactful initiatives, from community projects to music, film and theater.
Ernesto’s impressive track record in academia includes a bachelor’s degree in History Education from the University of Puerto Rico, a master’s degree in Public and Private International Law from the Complutense University of Madrid, a master’s degree in International Relations and Diplomacy and a Diploma in Advanced Studies in Applied Economics from CEU San Pablo, and a doctorate in Sociology from the University of Salamanca. He has worked professionally at Turabo University of Puerto Rico, the Inter American University of Puerto Rico, the University of Puerto Rico and IE University.
Ernesto is also one of the founders and spokespeople for Solidaridad para Puerto Rico desde Europa, a project dedicated to organizing the Puerto Rican community in order to create projects that may help not only to bring in resources to mitigate different situations in Puerto Rico, but also shed light on them abroad. This project, which creates visibility for the Puerto Rican community and island in Europe and helps Puerto Ricans, also works with other communities, creating strong migrant ties. For example, in Madrid’s Lavapiés neighborhood, the organization teaches free English classes for children and watercolor courses for women. They also host concerts and other activities to raise funds for different situations that arise, such as providing for war refugees from Ukraine, Palestine, Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq.
Ernesto is also director of Sin Norte, a magazine dedicated to migrant communities in Spain, as well as the musical director of Pleneros del Exilio, an Afro-Caribbean percussion group in Madrid that not only exports Caribbean culture, but educates about autochthonous Puerto Rican rhythms. From all of this, Ernesto says, he has learned and continues learning about the value of solidarity, and the importance of education as a tool that breaks chains. Working with Solidaridad para Puerto Rico and Sin Norte also helps Ernesto keep homesickness and nostalgia at bay, as these projects allow him to connect with his home country of Puerto Rico.
Ernesto came to IE University after completing his doctoral degree and having spent eight years teaching in Puerto Rico. Teaching has long been his passion, and nowadays he’s immersed in the academic and extracurricular aspects of the Bachelor in Behavior and Social Sciences and its students, and loving his job more and more every day. He says the profile of the program’s faculty and direction is impeccable, as is the quality of the students. “They actually make my job so much easier!” Ernesto says. “I rest every night with the satisfaction of giving great, humanistic and conscious professionals to the world, contributing to make it a better place for us all.”
In the program, Ernesto teaches two core courses, “Power and Inequality” and “Welfare and Policy Design.” He says that each course’s title alone shows that they are of vital importance, not just for the program, but for students’ personal development. “People who are going to work in the behavioral science arena need to understand social and political aspects that are intrinsically connected to the discipline,” he says.
In addition to his teaching experience, he has also worked in music and theater, and produced short films and documentaries. He has won acting awards, has two documentaries pre-selected for the Goya Awards, and a new series “180 Grados” that will debut on Netflix in April. If that’s not enough, he has also published three non-fiction books, and is also currently working on a novel, though he isn’t saying anything about it yet—it’s still cooking!
Finally, aside from teaching, music, theater, film, writing and solidarity work, one of the things Ernesto loves most is to travel. He believes that traveling and discovering new things is the only thing that can truly reconnect us with our inner child, because every time we travel and see something new, it’s a discovery, just like when everything was new to us as children. We regain, even if only momentarily, what Ernesto calls “that beautiful innocence.”
Ernesto believes that one key for achieving success is having short-, medium- and long-term goals—focusing all of our energy on achieving them, enjoying when we make it, but also embracing the experience we gain when we don’t. Having goals is fundamental to being well-centered individuals with a purpose, he believes. He claims nothing beats the satisfaction of knowing we’re meant for something, and that something is for us to decide. Always be ambitious with yourself, he advises, but always understand your limitations. There will be rough times, but Ernesto believes that will only make the outcome so much more satisfactory.
Check out in detail Ernesto Chévere Hernández's academic and corporate experience
