The Mauricio Gastón Institute for Latino Community Development and Public Policy was established in 1989 at the University of Massachusetts Boston by the Massachusetts State Legislature at the behest of Latino community leaders and scholars in response to a need for improved understanding of the Latino experience in the Commonwealth.

The mission of the Gastón Institute is to inform policy makers about issues vital to the state’s growing Latino community and to provide this community with the information and analysis necessary for effective participation in public policy development.

The Institute honors the memory of Mauricio Gastón, a Cuban native and a long-time community activist in Boston who taught in the Community Planning Center at UMass Boston’s College of Public and Community Service from 1980 to the time of his death in 1986.